Category Archives: General news

One thing I love about my work at Tickled Pink is the variety.
No two days are ever the same. Tom and I drive to work together, after a workout at the pool for me then dash back home for a quick coffee and chat to the kids before they head out to school. Tom’s morning I gather consists of reminding kid1 to get out of bed whilst kid2 argues about the merits of having TV instead of breakfast. We drive into the City. Park. Walk 15 mins to our studio overlooking the High Street (is it sad that we both have an app for ‘steps walked’ and calories burned and compare them??!)
We always have in mind a list of what has to be done. Rarely does it work in the planned order. Is everyones life like that?
Today I had planned to edit all the photos of our new wedding stationery range. A new range is never a quick job. To start I researched my intended theme ‘Baroque’ suggested by lovely Helen at www.helenalborncakes.co.uk as well as the photos she sent me that she had seen, and then I doodled and sketched.

After fitting to templates and choosing colours and test printing and moving to make them work and fold correctly (most of last week in between meetings and on-going orders!) Then I printed them all out, Tom made all of the new stationery formats and that brought me back to scanning and editing today. Finally they were real photos to be edited. Then a set needed to be edited for PR on white backgrounds and for lovely www.weddingideasmag.com  Then another set for our website design range page, gallery photos, header photo and more …

Then time spent on PR & planning to do for Leicester Wedding Network .
Next a photo uploaded to our Pinterest Boards…
Then back to editing….
Then there’s been Twitter. This month’s Wedding Ideas Mag came out today so as well as a quick glance through it there have been many Tweets too and stationery to share 🙂
Then there’s our eBay shop to fill with the new Baroque stationery range.
Then a bit more tweeting.
Then back to lovely couple, Jonathan and Greg and creating their reception stationery for their wedding.
Oh and I still have to prep for a lecture I am now giving on Monday at de Montfort Uni, I was second fiddle, but illness has bumped me up the rota and I need to gen up on the Power Point Slides…
Meanwhile Tom has been singing along in his studio to BBC6 Music (loves a bit of RadMac!) and making Christmas wedding Invitations.

Snowflake stationery for Laura & Craig and Winter Wonderland for Rachel & Darren. He might even get to do some parceling-up. Maybe.
So now I have distracted myself from uploading the new range by writing a blog instead I guess I had better get back to creating a new gallery for our Baroque  stationery range…..
And it’s only mid-afternoon, so plenty more to surprise me with!

Hi, I’m Tom. I’ve been working here full time at Tickled Pink Towers for nearly five years now and loving it.

Before, I sat for years at a desk performing repetitive and boring tasks. Now as I sit at a desk performing sometimes repetitive tasks (you try cutting one hundred pocketfold invites by hand!) It is never boring.

My day is made up mainly of making all the stationery from Nikki’s lovely designs. Cutting, folding and sticking, then adding sparkly jewels, tags or bows.

In between, I manage the accounts, stock control, wrapping all the invitations with pink tissue paper,

despatching,  coffee making and listening to 6music. Leaving Nikki free to design more stunning artwork.

My favourite designs are our Bunting in sage and pink on our hammered cream card,

and Great Gatsby collections,

but I’m also loving the new ‘Just Add Confetti’ range.

The best part of my job though, is seeing the faces of brides or grooms collecting their stationery or the wonderful messages of thanks we get from our happy couples. In my previous job, thank yous were few and far between. It makes it all worthwhile.

It’s about to be that time of year when one of us works most Sundays.
I, personally LOVE Wedding Fairs.
Some are great, some are badly organised, some are well advertised,
some, sadly aren’t.
But still, I LOVES THEM!
They vary hugely; we have attended heaving fairs and quiet fairs, but bar one we always take orders. We worked a long 10 hour day once and only spoke to 6 couples all day, but 3 orders came from it (one couple I’d not even spoken to, they picked up a business card whilst I skulked off to peek at the shops!), so I find it really hard to judge a good ‘un from a bad ‘un!

Some spaces are massive and some are tiny. Our stand may not be the most stylish and sophisticated, but couples do seem to love the array of colour and furtling through our samples! And then we’re not a vintage typewriter and suitcase with three samples on them type of company, we’d rather show you what we’re capable of!

But I love chatting to couples, their families, their bridesmaids, their kids. I love a good natter about their wedding and their plans, colours and themes.
It’s another string to our bow. Some brides hate them, some find all of their suppliers at one fair.

All seem to like picking up stationery and getting a feel for the textured card we use, the colours we print, the jewels we use,
the little bows, but best of all the quality.

So pop by and see us this Autmn for a fab, fun Wedding Fair at:

Keythorpe Manor
Uppingham Road, Keythorpe, LE7 9XJ
Sunday 27th September
11-3pm
Tel: 0116 2598100 www.keythorpemanor.com

Ullesthorpe Court
Frolesworth Rd, Ullesthorpe, Lutterworth LE17 5BZ
Sunday 11th October
12-4pm
Tel: 01455 209023  www.bw-ullesthorpecourt.co.uk

The City Rooms
Hotel St, Leicester, LE1 5AW
Sunday 18th October
11-3pm
Tel: 0116 251 5337  www.thecityrooms.co.uk

Inspired Bride
Nettle Hill, Brinklow Rd, Ansty, Warks CV7 9JL
Sunday 25th October
11-3pm
Vintage, Boho, Quirky, Festival  www.inspiredbridesweddingfairs.co.uk

See you somewhere for a natter about colour palettes, themes and that all important wording!

I am lucky. Very lucky.
I have two studios. Yes I have space on the dining table at home to work. Tom and I have our lovely studio in Leicester. But I have a second studio….

How Lucky am I!?
Every summer the kids and I escape to our rural idyll. They go to the village summer club (and TRY to learn French) and I design from my little attic space studio, under the eaves which is generally scorchio…
This summer has been super scorchio. Last summer it mostly rained (very rare). This year it’s been too hot, but gorgeous. I design. Email work off. Tom prints it and sends samples from our studio in Leicester. I get to sit each evening under the stars counting satellites, playing board games, generally chilling with my parents and kids. Shooting stars in Aug (with no city light pollution ) are AMAZING.
(these gorgeous sunflowers were decorating the table at the village Bastille night party)
This summer I have designed lots of reception stationery, I-Spy cards, table planners, winter snowflake invitations, overseas invites, place cards, & lots of fun artworks. I have been out to gorgeous restaurants, taken the kids to the foodie night markets which are soooo popular in the summer here. They eat barquettes of frites and Barbe Papa (chips and candyfloss, which they only get if they order it in French- that’s the rules!!) and I have a great time. Surrounded by fields of sunflowers (ready for harvesting now!)
(this is the view when I leave the house for the ‘school run’ – sunflowers waiting to be picked)
The downside??
Nope.. there isn’t one. except maybe I have burnt the wifi allowance for the month.. twice….
Oh and I have to pack to fly home on Wednesday!

HELLOOOOOOOOO & WELCOME TO TICKLED PINK!
It has been an exciting time re-building our website and adding pics, photographing our ranges, editing pics, writing about what we do, re-writing about what we do… Then the joy of all the parts behind the scene that make a website work and all the SEO (The Googley-find us stuff)
So, we’re Nikki and Tom, husband and wife, designer and maker and we work from a gorgeous, spacious studio overlooking Leicester High Street.

I can tell from this photo, that it was a warm sunny day when I took this pic as my window is open- this is my view of the High Street rooftops from my desk (and those white Papel Picado I bought whilst back packing in Mexico and were used to decorate our venue when Tom and I got married!). Before they pedestrianised the High Street I could rarely open the windows as we had a bus stop on the ground floor below my window and the fumes and noise were too much!
We’d love to hear from you, but meanwhile HELLO and nice to meet you and we appreciate you finding us 🙂
Nikki