As we wave off 2021 (we can't quite believe it - think some of us are still processing 2020!) we thought we would take a look back at some of the highlights from 2021. It may have begun with a lot of uncertainty but we found reasons to celebrate, and the return of weddings made our year. Seeing newlyweds showered in confetti, and our supplier friends thriving again has really been fantastic!
Here's just a little snippet of our 2021!
Awards
We got crowned a Hitched 2020 Couples' Champion this year. Hitched received hundreds of entries from couples and wedding businesses so we're absolutely over the moon when Shropshire Petals got selected alongside 19 other fabulous companies. The award was to highlight the amazing acts of kindness that we all carried out when we went into a lockdown in 2020 - there are some pretty amazing people out there!
Our fantastic customer service was also recognised by Feefo and we got presented the Feefo Platinum Trusted Service Award 2021 as voted by you! This incredible award isn't just any old award, Feefo gives Platinum Trusted Service awards to businesses that have achieved the Feefo Gold standard for three consecutive years or more.
The team is constantly listening to your feedback and improving our service and developing our products to make sure they are the best they can be.
In September we were delighted to receive news from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that we had been put forward for the Best Confetti Award in their 2021 Vegan Wedding Awards (a celebration of animal-friendly weddings) and won! This saw us featured in an exclusive story in Bride Magazine.
Featured In
We've had some wonderful exposure this year, from 'Where to buy Dried Flowers' in Country Living Magazine, 'The most beautiful flowers to buy online' in Good House Keeping to a feature of our Letterbox Bouquet in Glamour UK. We even made it across the pond to America with a beautiful styled shoot with Sarah Cooper Photography featured in Wedding Chicks.
In July we had a lovely visit from BBC Midlands, they interviewed Ashley for a lunchtime news special in the flower field where they discussed the extreme heatwave, our pretty flowers, and business since the return of weddings. We had lots of fun and Ashley did a smashing job on telly.
I wonder where you will spot us in 2022?!
Dried Flower Craze Continued
The love for dried flowers is still strong and we couldn't be happier as we can't get enough of our gorgeous dried blooms. We saw thousands of our dried flower letterbox bouquets, posies and wreaths delivered all over the UK. To say the run up to Mother's Day in the Petal Shed was busy making our handmade arrangements would be an understatement. But as always, our wonderful team delivered and its so worth it to see all the lovely images of our dried flowers in our customers' homes throughout the year.
The popularity of dried flowers for weddings has also grown, with a lot more demand for our Bouquets, Posies, Buttonholes, and Bunches. We totally get why, the dried flower arrangements can be made long in advance of the big day, there's no need to water them and there will be no drooping by the end of the day too. They're also great if you're a hay fever sufferer too, as there's no pollen to cause issues on your special day.
Best of all you can keep them as a memento long after the big day or give them to a loved one to cherish.
A Wonderful Harvest
For us, a big highlight from this year has been our wonderful flower harvest. With nice weather and a fabulous team, we managed to harvest a record-breaking number of dried flower bunches and we couldn't be prouder of what our hard-working team achieved.
Image: The Team Harvesting Cherry Blossom Delphiniums
By harvesting the petals ourselves, we are able to monitor quality during the entire process. It's also great to produce from within the UK wherever possible, as it reduces air miles, our carbon footprint and promotes our eco-friendly ethos.
Not only is our flower field pretty to look at it acts as a haven for local wildlife during the summertime. It's always so great to see how much bees love our flowers, they couldn't get enough of our Statice this year!
The SP Team Expanded
We welcomed our little dried flower mastermind, Hannah, to the petal shed in March and Alannah joined the marketing team in April. In the last few months, we have had Stephanie and Jemma join the dispatch team. All of these lovely new faces have fitted in wonderfully on the farm! We really couldn't ask for a more talented, fun and, all-around lovely bunch of people that we have on the Shropshire Petals team.
The great news is the team is growing once again and we couldn't be more excited about it. If you fancy a new challenge in 2022, go and peruse our Careers page, we'd love to hear from you.
Image: Some of the Shropshire Petal team in the 2021 flower field
Weddings Made a Comeback!
The day we all had been waiting for, finally came. We defiantly celebrated with a shower of our real flower confetti!
After a long hiatus, July saw weddings back in full swing, which meant a very busy summer in the Petal Shed. From beautiful bespoke mixes created by our lovely customers to personalised items, we have had some pretty amazing confetti orders leave the shed this year. It was so lovely to see.
We even got to attend a few weddings ourselves this year and it was the best feeling. Let's face it there is no better boogie than on the dance floor of a wedding.
Brands and Suppliers we worked with
We're so lucky to work with many talented photographers (too many to name) and gorgeous weddings venues every year and have built some wonderful friendships with these very incredible individuals (you know who you are). Some of the styled shoots we got involved in this year have seen us featured in Rock My Wedding, Bridal Musing Magazine, Boho Weddings, Unique Rebels Union and more!
We've also had the chance to collaborate with lots of influential brands in 2021. We may have got a tad excited about our collaboration with the wonderful Sophie Allport, we have been a fan of this gorgeous company for a very long time and when we got a chance to select some charming pieces from Sophie's autumn/winter 2021 home collection for a competition we were delighted. We loved that the designs were a collaboration with The National Trust and celebrated Woodlands and Parks. They were perfect alongside our Woodland Dried Flower range and it made for the most beautiful giveaway inspired by the natural world. We had so much fun photographing everything together!
It was also amazing to be part of celebrity blogger, Scarlett London's, magical day back in August. Scarlett had her own bespoke mix in personalised sachets and also selected our confetti cannons for that extra wow factor.
Back British Farming Day
We were proud to support the NFU's Back British Farming Day in September. As a symbol to British farming hundreds of our Shropshire grown wheat buttonholes were wrapped in British wool and sent out to MP's to wear in the Houses of Parliament to show their support too.
Lots of our lovely customers got in touch to say they spotted them on the MP's which was lovely to hear.
Image: Featuring our lovely Amanda
Sweet Sixteen
We turned sweet sixteen on the 15th October and celebrated this wonderful milestone with a journey down memory lane, listening to lots of wonderful stories from the past and eating lots of our epic birthday cake made by our very own Helena and Jess.
Not sure if you have noticed from our Instagram but we have quite a few Mary Berry's in the Shropshire Petals team (Great British Bake off - watch this space!).
Wedding Shows Returned
October saw us back at our first National Wedding Show after two years and to say we were excited was an understatement. It was so lovely spreading our love for biodegradable petal confetti, discussing wedding trends, gorgeous colours schemes and helping couples create bespoke confetti mixes! Some couples told us of how they were on their third wedding date due to COVID, as much as it was sad to hear everyone was still so upbeat and excited for the future. They weren't letting anything stop their big day - it really was good to be back!
We look forward to traveling across the UK in 2022 to meet all you nearlyweds, keep an eye out for updates regarding where we will be.
See you in 2022
2022 brings with it lots of exciting things; we have some pretty epic news about our flower field, fabulous new collaborations and great new products. But until then, we're keeping our lips well and truly sealed.
The team can't wait to see more special confetti moments and what you lovely lot get up to with our dried flowers (we just love to see your creations).
We can't thank you enough for your support over the year - we couldn't do any of this without you.
Wishing you all a very Happy New Year, see you in 2022!
Love from us all at SP xX
