We were honoured to be featured with an interview in the Creative Brides 'Supplier Spotlight' - Creative Brides provides a wonderful directory of alternative  wedding suppliers, and has an award winning blog... head on over and take a look! creativebrides.co.uk 

Where did your interest in vintage and crafting begin?  I’ve always loved making and re-using things, ever since I was a little girl. Chic’n’Cheerful is my dream come true, having the chance to make and share things with people on their special day.

What route did you take to get to where you are now?  One day, I just felt completely inspired to give it a go – we already had our wonderful Split-screen VW campervan, Rusty,  and I’ve always loved feeding people, so we came up with a way to join it all together

Describe your style: Colourful and cheery!

What is your work most influenced by?  I’m always influenced by nature, whether I’m inspired by incredible colours and shapes, or thinking about how to make something as environmentally friendly as we can…that’s important to us.

Who are you inspired by? Beatrix Potter: she was an extremely talented and creative person, and a passionate conservationist – she left an amazing legacy

What is the best part of your work? Seeing and hearing people’s reactions – they really do love our things.  Smiling faces are the biggest compliment.

What do you think you would be doing if you weren’t doing Chic’n’Cheerful?  I really enjoy teaching people how to make things in our Crafternoon Teas, so perhaps being a Home Economics or Textiles teacher would be fun.

Top tip for Brides and Grooms? Try to stay true to yourselves.  It’s nice to keep everyone happy, but it is your special day, so make sure it’s the one you want.

Who’s wedding would you most like to be approached for? I’m not really up on famous couples... when I was at the last Creative Brides wedding fair at Bluewater, I saw an awesome couple who were clearly rocking their own style, and I remembered thinking “I’d love to do their wedding!”

Tell us about your home studio or workplace: I work from home, often on the dining room table, because my office is heaving with cake stands, crockery, bunting and picnic baskets!  I love looking out the window while I work, and I’m often kept company by Ernie, our gorgeous cat, who likes to lay on whatever I’m working on: he often quality controls my sewing.

Where’s your favourite creative space: Honestly? Everywhere! My brain rarely switches off, and I’ll always have ideas pop into my head – thank goodness for my iPhone, so I can take pictures or google something as soon as I think of it.

What’s next on your to do list: I had a meeting today with Shooting Suzie Photography about an exciting photo shoot we are doing in July, so I’m about to start a new board on Pinterest to upload my ideas and inspirations.

How do you prepare for a wedding? I’m naturally a very organised person, and I do love a good list – I have a notebook for each event, so I can jot down ideas as I go, then pull it all together into the ultimate ‘to-do’ list.

What are your favourite ways to relax and wind down after a wedding? I like to get everything unpacked as quickly as I can, then I sit down and enjoy looking at the photos I’ve taken – it makes me happy to take a step back and see how we’ve helped to make someone’s day perfect.

Tell us about a wedding that stood out for you? It’s cheesy, but our own wedding!  We got married in a windmill, had a tower of French Fancies for our wedding cake, and jam jars with homegrown herbs on the table – it was everything we wanted it to be

What themes or colours do you think will be big in the next year? I’m looking at super bright colours for next year. I’ve just trimmed the seats in our 1968 Citroen Ami, with Mexican Blankets and the colours are amazing! I’m about to make my first piñata…

Contact Details: Chic’n’Cheerful 07740 866976 // www.chicncheerful.co.uk // contactus@chicncheerful.co.uk 

Visit Chic’n’Cheerful at our Vintage & Unique Wedding Fair (Scotney Castle on 27th & 28th September 2014) and our Vintage Wedding Village (Bluewater on 17th-19th October 2014)

Rusty does get a lot of attention, and thats a real honour.  He's got a good collection of trophies, and has featured in a 5 page article, in Volksworld's Camper and Bus magazine!

Have you ever wondered what happens behind the scenes at a photo shoot?  It's a lot of fun - really exciting to work with a bunch of creative people, and quite a challenge trying to bring all the elements together to create images that capture everything you do.

Here's our photo shoot from October - the weather was glorious (thank goodness) and I was so lucky to have such talented people to work with.

"I was in desperate need of a selection of beautiful vintage plates, teacups and saucers, teapots and bunting so I contacted Chic ‘n’ Cheerful after a recommendation. I needed these for a very special garden tea party I was holding for a friend and 10 guests and wanted it to be absolutely perfect in every way. The detail was great, the bunting is pretty and made a great setting. The cake stands were the icing on the cake (excuse the pun) and made the tables look amazing.

Without using Chic ‘n’ Cheerful’s beautiful selection of china and bunting the decoration and party would have been very different. All my guests simply loved how " fancy" everything was and how Dianne had even provided us with dainty cake forks and teaspoons.

If anyone was looking to hire for a tea party,  wedding or in fact any kind of event I would most certainly recommend hiring from Chic ‘n’ Cheerful. You can really see how much care has gone into building such a wonderful collection of china and bits. There was nothing missing at all… Dianne provided everything I would possibly need on the day.

Thank you very much Dianne for being so very helpful and accommodating."  Lisa Bryant