This blog is a little different than our usual, it begins with a meeting simply by chance....

It all starts last year, with a market in Milford on Sea, we met so many amazing people whilst we were there, but a small while later after the market we got a message from an extraordinary couple, Chris & Catherine, who wanted to gift their friends with a gift of a lifetime.

After there enquiry, we arranged a time for a meeting, and a few days later, the lovely couple sat in front of us.

We spoke for a long time about their friend's, Nick & Judith's story and what Chris and Catherine wanted to gift the wedded couple. 

We packed up our flower preservation boxes and sent them off to the wedding of Nick & Judith, happening in only 2 days time.

The bride & groom were overwhelmed by love on the most special day of their life, with a stunning unique reading that left not a dry eye in the room read by the bride's son. 

Little did they know that their love story was to be captured forever in a piece of artwork from us.

Now, it is important to note, that although the original plan was for ourselves to preserve the wedding flowers, unfortunately the bride's son had similar ideas and we had to adapt and overcome.

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise....

Once Chris & Catherine had returned from the wedding we arranged another meeting to consider what we should do now the wedding flowers were not a viable option. 

It was during this time that the married couples love story kept resurfacing... 

Anglesey...

The place were the married couple had their first encounters, a memorable moment indeed.

Our wonderful couple, Chris and Catherine decided it was time for a road trip, and off they went to discover Anglesey and the place were Nick & Judith had fallen in love. An amazing idea was brought back with them, a wedding gift better than all in time.

Chris and Catherine decided to capture the very place were Nick & Judith fell in love, a present to always remind the recently married that love was always waiting unexpectedly around the corner. 

We held another meeting to discuss the idea and find exactly what they wanted from their art. We went over the beautiful beach finds and it was decided that this amazing couple needed to make a second trip back to Anglesey to collect more suitable finds for us to build Anglesey bay.

(Chris and Catherine's idea of course.)

Once they arrived home from their second trip, we couldn't wait to see the amazing beach finds that they had brought home with them. 

Each piece was beautiful and there were so many beautiful rocks, shells, glasses and more to choose from, it was such a hard decision to decide exactly what we were going to put in.

One of the things that we had discussed with Chris and Catherine in our last meeting, was the amazing love story between the recently wedded couple, and how there was a beautiful reading at the ceremony that summed up perfectly every love story. Although it is not something we usually offer, we all felt that this needed to be included in their summary of love that we would be making.

It took a few weeks of going back and forth with examples of what we could engrave the board with and then, Chris and Catherine found the perfect lines.

We had the board engraved and at that point the piece started to come alive, whispering a thousand love stories from across time, the same beginning for every love story.

It was at this time we could really get to work and Chris and Catherine were happy to pass the design reins over to us and we spent a lot of time on google and google earth looking at Anglesey and the sandy dunes, to help with our artistic decisions with layout.

It was then time to box up our engraved wood and start the excitement.

Our first pour was simple, a beautiful blue that would colour the ocean on the sunniest day.

A second pour consisted of clear resin and our carefully selected beach components and sand & shingle to recreate those sandy dunes.

Our third pour consisted of more clear resin, as well as more beach components and sand & shingle. As well as foamy sea lapping up onto the shore.

A forth pour was of more clear and foamy sea.

We then topped the remaining 4 layers with clear resin to give a stunning birds eye view down onto the beach.

Lastly, we back-filled the engraving with a stunning pearlescent white resin to offset the golden tones of the olive wood.

Once the board was fully cured it was time to start our usual messy process of finishing the board, which entailed sanding from 60grit sandpaper all the way up to 2000 grit sandpaper, afterwards it got a wash and dry before using a special cutting compound to get all the microfine scratches from the board, before another wash and dry.

Lastly it was soaked in oil, and then dried.

Once the board was finished we had our usual mini photoshoot with the stunning Anglesey board, and then it was time to let our clients, Chris & Catherine know that it was ready for collection.

They were so excited to see it, that as soon as I messaged them to let them know it was ready, a phone call was fired right back to ask if they could pick it up right now? Of course was my reply.

 I also couldn't wait for their reaction after months of agonising over every detail to make sure it was right!

Their reaction didn't disappoint to say the least. They were blown away, their were tears, laughter and lots of hugs. They absolutely loved it!

(and their shell from Anglesey, that we had made for them as a reminder of the beautiful journey they made for their friends)

I was overjoyed that they loved it, a piece that i had grown to love and spent many hours with but,

It would be a few weeks until the married couple, Nick & Judith would see their gift from their friends, and we waited with anticipation to find out from Chris & Catherine what their friends thought of this unexpected gift.

It was a Friday evening, after work hours when the call came through. It was an elated Catherine, you could hear the smile down the phone and she told me all about the afternoon they had with their friends, Nick & Judith. 

They had an amazing afternoon with their friends, and then they were presented with the gift we had lovingly made for them. 

They were blown away, the couple cried at how thoughtful their friends were and overjoyed that they could have their own piece of Anglesey, the place where all the magic started and two fated souls met.

The piece will take pride of place in their living room to forever remind them of the ordinary day, that turned into the most extraordinary day, the day they met and two hearts became one.