It is really great when we get to know more about the stationery companies that are apart of Ice the Cake. It gives us great pleasure to let you get to know more about 'BellyButtonBoo'.
Where did the company name come from?
Ha ha, this is probably our most asked question! To be honest we’re not quite sure how it came about. The story sort of goes; Claire used to make toy bunnies for her friends when they had a baby and they had a button for a bellybutton and they came to be known as bellybuttonboos. When we started to think about the name for what we do, it just came up; we thought it was memorable and intriguing, so we went with it!
What makes you unique?
The fact that everything we do is absolutely bespoke makes us pretty unique. When a couple comes to us, we don’t just show them some stationery samples and ask what colour or font they want to change, we start from a blank page – every design is different.
Our goal is to give our couples exactly what they want; it’s that simple, and we think we’ve done that for each couple we have worked with. Even if they think they don’t know what they want, we aim to get to know them a little more (who they are, what makes them tick, what they like and don’t like, and how they want their wedding day to look and feel) – then we design stationery and decoration from scratch that reflects that perfectly.
Along the way, we also try to make it fun and help take some of the stress away from the big day. We see ourselves as more than ‘just a stationery supplier’ and hope that our creativity and support helps our couples enjoy things much more.
How do you come up with your designs/ what influences you?
Our designs are completely inspired by our couples – we have an initial consultation with them and ask them loads of questions about how they met, what they like to do, how their friends would describe them (always an interesting one!) and then we ask about their vision and plans for their wedding day. Some people know exactly what they want and others come to us with none, or too many ideas and they all leave the consultation feeling really excited about their wedding and confident that they will be getting something they will love.
Once we have got all the information together, we go away and sit in a darkened room and brainstorm some crazy ideas – then try and work out how we will make them work!! We develop around 3 designs for each couple bringing elements of their personalities, likes and wedding vision and try to make things a bit different too. Then we work with them to combine and tweak the designs until we come up with ‘the one’! It’s loads of fun and we try and push ourselves a little further each time to design something really creative.
What would you call your ‘style’?
Our style would probably be best described as ‘eclectic handcrafted’. As the main style comes from our customers it can change from design to design, and we try to bring in different textures and materials to make things a bit different. We’ve produced designs from really graphic single card invitations to boxed scrolls with hand-sewn lace bands and flowers, so we’re really flexible.
Who inspires you?
Our customers are our main source of inspiration – their ideas and stories bring so much to our work and take us in directions we never thought we’d go in!
If you could design stationery for any event in the world what would it be and what would you create?
Elton John has been throwing a number of parties for David Furnish’s 50th birthday recently – to design the invitations for one of these lavish bashes would be fab! Going by their usual, extravagant approach we could go to town, coming up with something unassuming on the outside but inside it could go completely over the top with loads of detail and embellishment. Something like a book, bound in a simple white leather cover, with a fairy tale style illustration of the two of them. Then when you open it up a series of sparkly pop up pages tell the story of David’s life, and the happily ever after page has the invitation hidden within it, so you have to open an envelope or door to find it….or something like that!!
What is your greatest achievement?
Very simply it’s that about half of our weddings this year have come through recommendations from our past couples. We really appreciate that people we have worked with are happy to recommend their friends and family to us.
Do you have a current special offer for Ice the Cake readers?
We’d like to offer 10% off invitation orders for consultations booked before the end of January 2013!
A Message from bellybuttonboo...
We love it when people come to us and say “I’m not sure if this is possible…” or “We’re not sure how this could work…”, we love a challenge so bring it on!
Location: Reading, Berkshire
Telephone: 07763 764574
Email: claire@bellybuttonboo.co.uk
Website: www.bellybuttonboo.co.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bellybuttonboo
Twitter: twitter.com/bellybuttonboo
What would you call your ‘style’?
Our style would probably be best described as ‘eclectic handcrafted’. As the main style comes from our customers it can change from design to design, and we try to bring in different textures and materials to make things a bit different. We’ve produced designs from really graphic single card invitations to boxed scrolls with hand-sewn lace bands and flowers, so we’re really flexible.
Who inspires you?
Our customers are our main source of inspiration – their ideas and stories bring so much to our work and take us in directions we never thought we’d go in!
If you could design stationery for any event in the world what would it be and what would you create?
Elton John has been throwing a number of parties for David Furnish’s 50th birthday recently – to design the invitations for one of these lavish bashes would be fab! Going by their usual, extravagant approach we could go to town, coming up with something unassuming on the outside but inside it could go completely over the top with loads of detail and embellishment. Something like a book, bound in a simple white leather cover, with a fairy tale style illustration of the two of them. Then when you open it up a series of sparkly pop up pages tell the story of David’s life, and the happily ever after page has the invitation hidden within it, so you have to open an envelope or door to find it….or something like that!!
What is your greatest achievement?
Very simply it’s that about half of our weddings this year have come through recommendations from our past couples. We really appreciate that people we have worked with are happy to recommend their friends and family to us.
Do you have a current special offer for Ice the Cake readers?
We’d like to offer 10% off invitation orders for consultations booked before the end of January 2013!
A Message from bellybuttonboo...
We love it when people come to us and say “I’m not sure if this is possible…” or “We’re not sure how this could work…”, we love a challenge so bring it on!
Location: Reading, Berkshire
Telephone: 07763 764574
Email: claire@bellybuttonboo.co.uk
Website: www.bellybuttonboo.co.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bellybuttonboo
Twitter: twitter.com/bellybuttonboo
