And there endeth the lesson...

Our final big lesson is definitely one we’re still learning: embrace the ‘competition’. We are working really hard to understand the album market, because we think we can work alongside some traditional offerings. We’re also building a network of partner photographers – we want to sit alongside their album packages rather than be an ‘instead of’ and therefore a threat. We’re lucky, there isn't really anyone else doing what we’re doing, but when we were referred a client by the lovely Emma Woodhouse (@cloggins – I will be honest, I had butterflies when we met, you’re so twitterly famous!) who writes gorgeous wedding reports, we were so delighted at her generosity that we are determined to spread the love too.

So, those were our lessons. We’re still very new, and we’re still learning about this fascinating industry that we’re part of, everyday. And we’re not saying that these are lessons for everyone, just things we’ve observed as we’ve made our way to where we are now. We’d so love to hear other companies’ experiences, tips and hints that got them started or kept them going. Do share!

And just for fun, we thought we'd finish with a few personal ‘learning points’ we've gathered in the eighteen months Illustries has existed (most of it on paper!);

1. We are mutually the only people outside our families that we could share a room with. Not least a room with stained mattresses and a dubious bathroom. And still laugh about it in the morning.

2. Among all the lovely brides and grooms, strange people come to wedding shows. It is not fair to watch your business partner deal with one of these people while audibly choking back giggles and doing Roger Moore eyebrows.

3. Tempers will be frayed. There is no escaping that. We’re lucky that only one of us has ever unravelled at any one time. The other sits quietly until said rage has evaporated. And then takes the mick. Mercilessly…

4. Tequila is an excellent planning tool. It is good to embrace it...

An unruffled surface...

...often hides a whirlwind if activity underneath! And that brings us to Lesson Four: it’s important to make like a swan. We are so proud of the stand set that we take to all our wedding fairs – it looks a little bit ‘different’ and we love that. But, our lovely blackboard style table is obviously made of some kind of dark matter because it weighs a ton, our bookshelves need putting together in a flat pack nightmare and every time we load the Illustriesmobile we curse the lamp, the chest, the vase and most particularly the chair (we hate that chair). We get red and sweaty, dusty and dishevelled lugging it all up steps, round too-tight corners and through tiny doors – our knuckles are permanently scarred! When it is all up, it looks great – and the hard work hides beneath a polished veneer. It’s like the ‘choice’ hotels we stay in when we’re at shows far from home – we’re a small business and we have to keep costs down, so Luxury Wedding Show, big tick, we’re there looking the part on the day of the show. Who needs to know we didn’t get to bed in a really bad Travelodge until 11.30?

The table. Bloody heavy...

We also exhibited at the Designer Vintage Bridal Fair last year, and were mighty star-struck that no less than five (count ‘em) of our favourite bloggers were there. We’ll be honest and say that we had to take a deep breath before going to talk to them, and how silly were we?! Kelly of Boho Wedding, Kat of RockN'RollBride, Amma of Beyond Beyond, Annabel of Love My Dress and Alexis of OMG I'm Getting Married were all lovely and totally mystified at how anyone could be intimidated by them. And you know what, even if they hadn’t been, we reckon you still shouldn’t be afraid to go up and talk to ‘high-profile’ people – they’re running a business or building a brand too, networking is everything. And that was Lesson Five.

Lee Cottey, come on down!

A huge thank you to anyone who completed our survey a few weeks ago. We promised that someone would win a £25 M&S voucher, and indeed they have - Lee Cottey, who we met at the Millennium Centre Wedding Fair in January was our lucky winner.

Thanks again to all of you who replied, we really appreciate your time and feedback.

Keeping the dream alive...

And so to lesson three in our little series on setting up Illustries, one we're sure that many new business ideas go through. Something that has surprised us in getting Illustries off the ground is that time is even more elastic than we thought. We did things properly, brainstormed and business-planned, made sales forecasts and plotted growth curves – and if we’d stuck to the prescribed timetable, we’d have given up the day jobs and be running Illustries from the Bahamas by now. The reality? When you’re trying to keep the wolf from the door, sometimes the dream has to take a back seat, and that’s frustrating.  

Lesson Three: everything takes longer than you think (but the good stuff – for us, stuff like seeing our name on the wall of the Saatchi Gallery for the Luxury Wedding Show – is worth waiting for!).

A new BFF

Part two in the Illustries sharing series! Today, working together...

One of the best things about forming Illustries has been working together. We both run our own companies, so striking out alone wasn’t as scary as it could have been, but this was our first time as ‘partners’. It could have gone either way, we suppose, we didn’t know each other well before ‘getting into bed’ (ah, such a familiar tale) but we knew we liked what we saw. We’ve been lucky because we have forged a really solid friendship out of working together, and perhaps some of that comes from not being able to second guess the other person, so you don’t assume you know what they think – you get everything out on the table and talk about it. 

Today, we are loving what we do, and dream of the time we get to have an office together – for now, we make do with meetings, Skype and wedding fairs, usually accompanied by too much beer to celebrate. As we came to launch Illustries we learned so much about each other, not least that Sam is a little cautious and Emma is a lot gung ho. 

Lesson Two most definitely was: not everyone has the same style and that’s fine, you can find a happy medium (ours is that we take risks, but not all of them). 

We're in a sharing mood...

We’re six months on from our official launch at the Luxury Wedding Show (have you read our post on that one?!) and we thought we’d share our humble experience of launching into the big, wide wedding industry, not because we like talking about ourselves (well we kind of do, but that’s not why) but because we really wondered how everyone else got started and whether our experience so far is par for the course. You know how it is, you have a few drinks, slam a few tequilas and before you know it you’ve formed a business. Or, is that just us (we’re sure it’s not)?

So, we learned a few lessons along the way. First up, Lesson one...

We guess every business starts with a good idea – well, we hope ours did. Emma got married, had some beautiful photographs and one of those great big old albums, but wanted something a bit more ‘her’. She’s a writer by trade (we’re sure you know this by now, she bangs on about it all the time), so wanted to include some of her pesky words with those gorgeous images. Try as she might, the photobook options were too inflexible (ever tried adding words to those things?!) and impersonal – she’s a princess, so when she says I want ‘teal’, she want teal, not light blue. Sam is a graphic designer (when she wants teal she wants Pantone 3155), and we had worked together a couple of times. We chatted a bit in a conversation that shall henceforth be known as Albumgate, had those few drinks, slammed those tequilas and Illustries was born. Today we’re creating beautiful, bespoke memory books that reflect each very individual couple, combining a written love story with some creative design in a true one-off.

Now that’s enough about our books, we’re not here to sell them to you. We just wondered if all you creative people out there went through the same kind of agonies in birthing your own ‘babies’, the same highs and lows, the squealing with excitement moments and the times you despair that it will ever work out? In our day jobs, we’ve both worked on some huge brands. But when it’s your own? Different story. One of the things that gobsmacked us was how hard it was to come up with a name. Illustries was up there pretty early on (it’s short for Illustrated Histories) but we went round the houses for DAYS, trying out loads of other options (some were truly awful, ‘Dreams of Your Past’ anyone?) before ending up back where we started. Illustries it was – the thing that swung it for us was mocking up a logo and seeing how it looked as a real brand. Actually that’s a lie, because we had two possibles and in the end we all but tossed a coin and went with one. 

Our first lesson: it’s amazing that sometimes it isn’t the decision you make that is important, you just need to make a decision. 

A Right Royal Life Map!

We love a little Royalty here at Illustries – we had such a great time celebrating the Royal Wedding last year and we’re already prepared for the Jubilee! And we’ve been working on our Illustries Life Map recently – it’s so popular at the moment – that in a second of madness we decided to combine the two in a 1st anniversary tribute to William and Kate.

Now the Life Map is a ‘flow chart’ of a relationship, a tongue in cheek way of charting the journey from childhood to Happy Ever After. Each map is hand drawn in style, and we add some funny and enlightening notes to bring the whole thing to life. It’s designed to be the perfect celebration of love, with more than a little bit of a twist.

So to celebrate this very special first anniversary – it is traditionally ‘paper,’ after all – we’ve charted one of the world’s most well-known relationships: Prince William and the former Catherine Middleton. Starting with their childhoods, the Map takes you through the university days of St Andrews and on to the hopes of the nation, even including the hiccup that had us all worried for a while. Moments like ‘that’ fashion show, William carrying his mother’s engagement ring in his rucksack, and a spin on the waiting that Kate was alleged to have endured all make an appearance, naturally offset with our trademark cheeky comments.

Now we’re sure that the Royal couple would want a few tweaks, but the Right Royal Life Map is winging it’s way to Clarence House this morning – we think it will make the perfect gift if Prince Harry has forgotten the occasion!

We originally created the Life Map as just one page in our Avant Garde Illustry (and it’s still there!), but it has quite literally taken on a life of it’s own in the past few weeks – we’ve crafted some gorgeous examples for Vicki & Pietro and Rhys & Michelle, among others. Both couples put their Life Maps on display at their reception, telling us that guests were engrossed – well, the maps certainly got them talking! And what better lasting memory of your big day?

Take a look at the details right here:

Your very own unique Illustries Life Map is waiting, available exclusively from us at £275 – order now by calling 0845 468 1610 or email us at hello@illustries.com

Sprucing up...

Well, our much-neglected blog has at last had a little revamp! There’ll be lots more to come in the next few weeks, including a series of posts on the fab wedding services provided by our lovely partners and associates, some business tips and ideas we’ve gathered in our first six months of real trading and of course, lots of new Illustries for you to devour and some special projects too. Please keep checking back for the latest Illustries news, and we’d love to hear what you think too!

Who's who?

Ooh, pretty PR pics. Can you guess which one is Sam and which is Emma? No prizes, we're just curious...


PS If you know us, that's not fair.

We love our clients!

We've had some wonderful feedback from our brides and grooms recently. To be honest, we have such a great time working with them that sometimes we forget it is actually work! Vicki and Pietro will be featuring on the blog really soon - we created a Life Map as a gift from Vicki to her groom, and we had a ball doing it! Posts coming soon...


"Thank you so much for creating our Life Map. Pietro's face when he opened it was priceless and it is something we will treasure forever..."