Simple a Franchise in Focus! We interview our Newcastle office....

Ladies, please introduce yourself, name, age, which region/ venues you cover...

We are Heather Taylor, Leanne Clark and Nicola Nelson. We Cover the Newcastle and Gateshead Area. Some of our Venues are: The Baltic, Dissington Hall, Horton Grange, The Marriott to name just a few.

What is your background?
We are all from the Hotel Industry. A Front of House Manager, an Events Manager and a wedding Coordinator! We therefore all have the experience needed to dress events and weddings with an eye for detail and strive for perfection.

 
Why did you take a franchise with Simply Bows and Chair Covers?
Simply Bows and Chair Covers was a company we had all worked with in our hotels, it was and still is, renowned as an industry leader and is an extremely professional  company who provide quality products. We did not hesitate in taking the opportunity to join and established and respected company when the opportunity arose.

 
Why do you love working for yourself?
It is great to be able to organise your day to fit in with personal circumstances, and also benefit from the hard work you put in rather than someone else.

Why do you love being a Simply Bows and Chair Covers franchisee?
We love being franchisee’s, as in the Words of Tina Turner, Its Simply the Best, better than all the rest !

 
Where do you see you, and your franchise in 1 years time and also 3 years time?

We are in this for the long term and hope to increase business year on year and establish ourselves as a highly recommendable company and continue to knock the socks off the competitors constantly keeping ahead of the competition with our fabulous new designs and ideas and offering a seamless service to customers and venues alike. We also want to keep up to date with current trends and designs and continue to be a market leader in supplying brides with our more unique offerings that can rarely be seen outside of London.

Simply pleased to meet you! The new Newcastle team get off to a flying start!

Our Newcastle and Gateshead office recently became available and quick to join our ever growing team were Nicola Nelson (40), Leanne Clark (37) and Heather Taylor (52). We invited them to tell you all a little more about themselves....

 

 

What is your background?

 All three of us have all worked in the hotel industry  for many years, 38 between us to be precise! That sounds like forever! We loved every minute of it though and this new role for us is a fabulous extension of that but this time we get to be the ones coming in and making the weddings look beautiful rather than just managing them :) 

 

Why did you take a franchise with Simply Bows?

We have known the brand for a number years and always thought that it was a fabulous product so when this opportunity came about we jumped at the chance!

 

Why do you love working for yourself?

It's still early days for us yet as its just been a few weeks but already we can see how rewarding it is and the more you put in the more you get out of it both financially and emotionally!

 

Why do you love being a Simply Bows franchisee? 

 You can work your business around your family life as it allows for a great work-life balance.

 

Which "look" that you can create is your favourite and why?

There are so many amazing looks we can create for brides however watch out for Simply Bows and Chair Covers' new range launching soon! Its fabulous!

 

 If you could dress a celebrity wedding - whose would you choose and why?

Peter Andre! He is such a genuine person who would get so excited about all the little details we could offer to make it so memorable so I think it would be a lovely event to dress

 

Any really memorable weddings that you have dressed?

Our first wedding we dressed when we joined the team, just because it was our first and we were so excited!

 

How would your friends describe you in three words?

Dedicated, Hard working, Friendly

 

Are you married? Whether married or not, how would you dress your own wedding?

Yes.  I would dress my wedding with cream table linen, gold waterfall, gold charger plates, cream napkins, gold slip cloths, tealights and an elegant floral centre piece.

 

How can Simply Bows blog readers get in touch with you?

newcastle@simplybowsandchaircovers.co.uk

07460064215 or why not follow us on twitter @simplybowsnewcastle

Simply Reality: Reality TV Star Kim Kardashian weds Kris Humphries

Kim Kardashian has said 'I do' to her basketballer fiancé Kris Humphries in a beautiful sunset ceremony attended by her A-list friends.

The couple tied the knot at 6.30pm in a 30-minute service watched by their families, and celebrity guests including Ryan Seacrest, Lindsay Lohan, Eva Longoria, Venus and Serena Williams, Avril Lavigne and Demi Lovato.

The legendary Vera Wang

It has been revelaed that Kim wore  a bridal gown by Vera Wang (as previously revealed to you by Simply Bows and Chair Covers on our recent blog post). It was an ivory cutom-made strapless dress with a full tulle skirt, basque waist and a hand-pieced Chantilly lace applique on the bodice and finished with an exceptionaly long train!

Mother of the bride Kris Jenner was spotted just before the wedding ceremony in a strapless Vera Wang gown with a large bow on the chest! Sneak peek below....

Mother of the Bride wears Vera Wang too

Insiders at the celebrity bash reveal that the bride also wore Guiseppe Zanotti shoes, and the weddings rings exchanged were designed by her good friend Lorraine Schwartz, who also designed her stunning engagement ring.

Following the ceremony, the action moved to a separate tent with the bride changing into a second Vera Wang mermaid gown with more Chantilly lace on the bodice and hand-cut organza petals on the skirt.

As the Kardiashians have sold exclusive photos of the day to a celebrity magazine a large tented walkway was erected to ensure privacy to the bridal party and exclusivity to the magazine.

Tented walkway

The wedding theme was black and white. Not only did every guest have to adhere to a black and white dress code but the whole marquee was decked out in black and white drapes and the couple had a ten tier balck and white chocolate and vanilla wedding cake!

 



Black and White Marquee and 10 tier black and white cake!



 

 

What did Twitter tell us?

Minutes before the 6.30pm sunset ceremony, Kris Humphries wrote on his Twitter page: 'This is it!'

The bride and groom have enjoyed spectacular weather for their big day, with the sun setting over a cloudless sky as they said their 'I Do's'.

Following the ceremony, bridal designer Vera Wang Tweeted: 'Wow! @KimKardashian What a joyous, beautiful, magical night! Wishing you and Kris all the blessings in the world xx Vera.'

 

Why not follow Simply Bows and Chair covers on twitter? @Simply Bows

 

 

Simply Pleased to Meet You, Charlotte Harris, Franchisee

Hello!

My name is Charlotte and I run the Newcastle office of Simply Bows and Chair Covers from my flat on the River Tyne.  My Mum, Jo Harris, also has a franchise being North Northumberland and we run both of these offices together as part of the family business.

I cover the Newcastle & North Tyneside area of the North East working with all the top venues from As You Like it, Jesmond Dene House and Newcastle Racecourse to name but a few.

I graduated from Loughborough University in 2006 having studied there for three years for my degree in Multi Media Textile Design.  After graduating I moved back to the North East working for Audi and then The Prince’s Trust as Event Manager.

My mum & I had used Simply Bows and Chair Covers for events that we had separately organized in our previous roles. The opportunity came up to buy the North Northumberland franchise and shortly after so did the Newcastle franchise. So we grabbed the opportunity to do something different incorporating our experience in the events industry as well as my design experience.

Loving it...

Being self-employed is fantastic and I have never looked back. It gives you the freedom to set your own goals & challenges and also the flexibility to choose your working pattern.

I also love how I can experiment with new fabrics and designs choosing what I think will sell to my clients. Simply Bows and Chair Covers has allowed me to go back to my creative side, which I love deeply but didn’t seem to have time to explore before. 

With the nature of our clients being predominately brides, I only ever get to deal with happy excited people who are a pleasure to work with.  Each client has a different idea and it is an honour to put all of these ideas together for them creating what a lot of brides have been dreaming about since they were a little girl!

Being part of a franchise means each Area Director has a support network around them and we all use each other’s strengths to build our businesses into a success.

My favourite!

I really love the flock-patterned fabric at the moment, I knew as soon as Mum & I saw the fabric in a warehouse, full of amazing designs that this was going to be popular. We have just increased our flock range so that we now have 5 different styles to choose from.

My favourite is the duck egg blue & antique gold flock runners, teamed up with a gold pin tuck taffeta runner underneath and the buttermilk linen. The textures work really well and give such an opulent look to any room.

 I wish...

This is going back many years but I would have loved to style the wedding reception of the marriage of Grace Kelly to Prince Rainer of Monaco. They met when she was the same age as me, but with the slight difference that she was and a movie star.  Their wedding took place on two ceremonies one on the 18^th April 1956 & the other more religious ceremony-taking place the day after, as is tradition in Monaco.  Her wedding dress was a gift from the MGM Studio designed by Helen Rose. The chef hair stylist at MGM Studios, Sydney Guilaroff, also styled her hair for her wedding.  St Nicholas Cathedral was decorated in white lilacs, hydrangeas, lilies and snapdragons and was called the wedding of the century. The wedding literally sounds like a fairy tale from a movie, which in some respects it was! With vintage being a key trend at the moment it would be fabulous to go back in time and work with the look that we now class as ‘vintage’, when it wasn’t so ‘vintage’! I wonder if she ever thought about chair covers?!

Memories...

All weddings are memorable in their own way, but often when you have had a lot to do with the look you feel very proud of how the bride’s ideas have become a reality and make already fabulous venues breath taking. 

One wedding that will stay in my memory was last summer and not long after I started with Simply Bows and Chair Covers. It was at the Grand Hotel in Tynemouth and the theme was orange which looked stunning.  When the bride stepped back into the  room she burst into tears over how amazing the room looked and because she didn’t realize it was going to be so perfect.  Moments like that really make you proud and show the hard work and attention to details really does pay off.

Party time!

We have dressed many charity balls such as the Evening Chronicle Sunshine Fund’s Sunflower Ball, and well established NE events such as Newcastle Racecourse’s Ladies Day & Northumberland Plate Day.  These are always fun and different to weddings. Often the clients want to theme the event around their corporate colours, which we have great fun in doing, making sure it matches just right and fits in with the company.

Simply the Best!

Simply Bows and Chair Covers provide a high quality service & products at affordable prices. We all dedicate our time and knowledge to ensure our clients always have the best & different products to choose from. We design and manufacture all of our linen in house so the client gets the best quality we can offer.

Although we are a franchise company, each area is lovingly run & owned by like-minded individuals, meaning you get the personal service as expected from a small business but the vast amount of choice expected from a large company.

Get in touch...

I am always contactable by either email charlotte@simplybowsandchaircovers.co.uk or phone 07595034990.

If you are getting married, organizing a party or corporate event in the Newcastle area & would like to make an appointment please do get in touch.