Sarah - Founder, owner, balloon artist, florist & head venue stylist.
After studing music and French A levels, Sarah pursued a degree in Music performance. Unable to find a career path in this field that she wanted to follow, she began working as an accounts assistant, then as a credit controller as she studied for AAT qualifications in accountancy. Sat bored in an office one day in 2004, she decided to hand in her notice to help her dad build up his cleaning business. After several years taking the business from strength to strength, and with her Dad now wanting to ease towards retirement, she looked for a new challenge. Always enjoying arranging social events (which started with her school prom!), in 2008 Sarah began working from home as a balloon artist after completing Nabas Levels 1 & 2 in Balloon Artistry. In 2011, when the business had expended considerably and the house had become uncomfortably full of boxes, Sarah made the decision to move into business premises. After using a local florist to provide flowers to our customers for quite some time, Sarah decided to train in this area herself so that everything was again done in house. She took the business to the National Wedding Show at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham and continues to build it up year on year. This is where her heart and passion lies and at 32 years old, she thinks that she may have finally grown up! Although she claims that you’re never too old for Disney, having a bowl full of every single flavour of ice cream, sauce, syrup and sprinkle that you can get your hands on; and to ask your mum to iron something for you!
Janice - Mum to Sarah, frequently on the receiving end of Sarah’s famous ‘to do lists’ as well as being one of our florists, balloon artists & venue stylists.
Janice has been there every step of the way despite working part time in a school and part time in the cleaning business. In April 2015, after 25 years working at a school, Janice retired due to the ever increasing wedding bookings, and she’s never been so busy!! From time to time she googles the word ‘retirement’ and is convinced they have the definition incorrect! We don’t know what we’d do without her!
Steve – Dad to Sarah. Also frequently has a ‘to do list’ and is usually found loading and unloading the vans, stressing about the safe transportation of stunning wedding flowers, and putting on chair covers. We don’t let him tie the sashes though! There aren’t enough hours in the day to show him again! He too has been there every step of the way and he also works full time in his own business.
Amy – Our newest recruit. A brainbox. A lucky find for the business and she’s taken to it like a duck to water! Amy is currently studying for a Masters in Psychology but has experience in the hotel, events, hospitality and wedding industry. She really is an all-rounder! She has experience of wedding co-ordination and set up for a popular hotel and wedding venue in Solihull. She started with us on the basis of a few hours here and there, but within a week we’d started to train her in floristry and she picked it up so quickly that she made several bridesmaids bouquets, buttonholes and centre pieces for some weddings after only a few hours training! And all of the feedback on her work has been excellent! As you can see, we don’t do things by halves. Amy’s second week with us saw her helping with the set-up of our largest wedding to date – for 500 guests! If that hasn’t scared her off, then nothing will, hopefully! We’re looking forward to many years with her on our team and we’re loving watching her and helping her progress so quickly!
Darren – One of our photographers. Darren has worked with us for about 3 years, but he’s finally come on board as a fully-fledged member of VIP Functions & Flowers. Darren and Sarah have been friends for years and we’re sure that it goes towards a fantastic working relationship. We all share a passion for people, getting things not just right, but absolutely perfect first time. Darren’s photography is often featured in wedding magazines and articles and his style and unobtrusiveness in highly sought after. We frequently here comments from couples saying, “We didn’t even know he was there” and “How did he capture that so perfectly?”. His style of contemporary, romantic wedding photography really stands out. Darren is also a lifestyle photographer, so you really do get the best of both worlds with him! We also have a number of photographers that often pair up with Darren, as some couples require photographic coverage of both the Brides and Grooms preparations on the morning of the wedding. It’s also great to have photographers at different angles taking the same shots, to ensure that those crucial moments aren’t missed.
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Hair & Make Up by Marsia Salon
