I thought I start my first blog with how Bunting By Jen came to be.
So firstly this is me, the Jen part of Bunting by Jen. I often refer to myself when meeting people with the nickname I have inherited from wedding shows 'Hi, I'm Jen, The bunting lady'
Normally found with a glass of something in my hand, on this occasion a gin. I am 37 years old and by day I work in Facilities Management looking after offices. A job I love as I get to be creative by designing office space and adding splashes of pink as I go (totally allowed, its on the branding colour pallet).
By night as well as running a business I also study. I have just spent the last six year completing my degree in Business Studies with Environmental Management, (and after all that studying I wasn't able to go to a proper graduation because of the global pandemic - thank you Covid)
I decided I loved the torture of studying so much I've signed up for a Masters in Sustainability. But it is a subject I am really passionate about and I love discovering new things about the environment and also how the little changes can make a difference. I put a lot of effort in to making sure the business is as sustainable as possible and also helping other companies be more sustainable too.
On to the bunting ....
Bunting by Jen was started after making 150 metres of bunting for my sisters wedding in August 2014. I love making it, hadn't really done it before and It took me months and months to makes (I’m much quicker at making it now). I dragged my whole family along the journey with me via the power of Facebook - there was a lot of posts about how much bunting had been made each week. It looked amazing in the marquee and I felt really proud to have contributed this to their wedding day. But after I had no idea what to do with it all. Do I sell it? Stick it in a box in the attic for the next big family event?
After chatting with people I found out that many just threw it in the bin after their wedding as they just didn't know what to do with it, or it hadn't been made very well and so fell to pieces after the big day. Being aware of sustainability and hearing these stories I came up with the idea to start a business hiring bunting, where the bunting could be used again and again and so removed a waste stream from weddings (and I got to do lots of sewing which I love) and so Bunting By Jen was created.
Having worked in the hospitality industry for nearly 20 years I had been involved with weddings on lots of different budget, From large weddings costing upwards of £150K (and that was 16 years ago) to parties of just the couple and very little budget. I wanted to offer this bunting hire service to everyone who was planning a wedding no matter what their budget or where they lived. So I came up with the system called 'Bunting In a Box' a DIY hire system that lets you borrow the bunting and set it up yourselves and then return it after the big day - all through the post - But more to come on that in future blogs.
Since then I have made over 2500 metres of bunting that I offer out for hire and have helped couples cross the UK create the wedding of their dreams. The first set of Red, White and Blue bunting I made for my sisters wedding 8 years ago is still going strong and is still regularly hired out and looks as good as new.
(Photo from the Unconventional Wedding Festival in 2019. Photographer TBC)
As well as bunting hire I've added lots of new bunting options to the mix and over the last year I have started regularly doing markets in the local community selling lots of fabric crafts which will be coming to the Website shop very soon.
That's just a little about me and where my obsession with bunting came from and how Bunting By Jen came to be.
Jen x