Lovely Occasions are the Most Special Part of Life

Meet Roxanne Who for a Living Brings Special Celebrations to Life – All of Your Online Party Needs Covered.

A very big thank you for Roxanne Baldwin, Director and Founder of Lovely Occasions for sitting down with us today, we appreciate your time and can’t wait to talk all things party planning!

Roxanne, you personally love a celebration, hence why your business, Lovely Occasions was born, please share with us how your business is going and how you are adapting with running such a successful business through a global pandemic. So, sit down, grab a cuppa, and get to know Rox.

1. How are you enjoying the work year so far? We imagine that it’s a busy time in the lead into Easter. Please share with us more about the beautiful Easter range? What can people do for Easter this year? 

It’s so lovely to see everyone being able to gather and celebrate again! And yes, Easter is almost upon us, so we have been excitedly curating our new Easter range of fun partyware, gift ideas and decorations. We really want our customers to be able to enjoy this Easter with their families and friends, for so many of us this will be the first time we have been able to get together in almost a year, so it is a really special time.

2. What sort of services does your online business offer its loyal customers?

Lovely Occasions is really focussed on making it easy and enjoyable for our customers to create lovely celebrations and occasions that bring families together and create memories that they will treasure. We bring together quite a diverse range of partyware and decorations from all over the world, including Australian designed brands, to create modern on-trend collections for our customers.

3. How did you enjoy having the shop? That would have one of the most exciting times of your business growth with such a great location for the shop?

Yes definitely, having our Bulimba Party Shop was one of my big audacious goals and it took a lot of hard work to achieve that big dream, so when Covid hit, it meant I would have to close the doors to our pink party paradise. I was naturally absolutely devastated. We had to adapt and that meant relying solely on our online store as well as creating new ways for our customers to celebrate smaller and at home while we all settled into a new normal.

4. What is your favourite part about being in the party industry? Have you always had a passion for the party industry? Celebrating and lovely occasions sounds like it is something that has been a big part of your life and something that you love and enjoy.

There are so many things I love about my industry, but the thing that stands out the most is how happy it is – birthdays and celebrations are such joyous occasions and I just love the creativity and excitement that customers have about the event they are planning. They want to create something wonderful for someone they love to make them happy. It’s just beautiful, and I feel really honoured that customers choose to invite us to be a part of their special celebrations and use our partyware and decorations to create these magical moments for their loved ones.

5. What can we expect to see this year for Lovely Occasions? We would love to hear more about what you have in store for Lovely Occasions.

This year you can expect to see a lot of new collections and a lot of new on-trend colours coming through in our DIY Balloon Garland Kits, as well as some fun photoshoot collaborations. We will have new collections for all the seasonal holidays as well as new themes and styles for birthdays, baby showers and bridal showers. We do also have something very special planned for Christmas, which I am quite excited about, and that will be released via our newsletter in late October. 6. Do you find that social media has helped support your business in its organic growth and do you value the opportunities that comes with that?

Social Media platforms have really given us the channel to connect with our wider audience in a fun and engaging way. It was a bit of a lifesaver through Covid as it has allowed us to continue to keep in touch with our community and industry peers and reach out and support one another. Through social media we are grateful to have had many opportunities to connect and collaborate with some amazing businesses, which has positively contributed to our business growth.

7. What do you recommend to clients in the beginning stages of planning an event?

The first three things I always suggest is to settle on a theme, a colour scheme, and a style for the celebration. Having a theme to work with really helps you stay focussed and not get side-tracked with all the amazing ideas you come across. Then a colour scheme will allow you to make it unique and personalised to the person being celebrated and the style (picnic, cocktail, or a formal dinner for example) will help define the details of what food, entertainment, seating, and decorations will work best. Once you have those first 3 details set, you can let your imagination and creativity run wild to create a beautifully unique celebration.

8. What would your top 5 tips or must-haves for the perfect party hostess with the mostess?

For grown up celebrations I would say my top 5 must haves are:

1. A Styled Bar Cart or Drinks Station.
2. Roving entertainment is always a great talking point.
3. Unique food ideas like jar-cuturie.
4. Signature personalised cocktail.
5. A styled photo area or fun backdrop.

For children’s parties I would say my top 5 tips are:

1. Serve your kids party food in party boxes! It makes portioning kids party food so much easier, with less mess, easier for allergies and dietary requirements, less waste, easier to take home and it looks so cute!
2. Hire an Entertainer or have an activity planned.
3. Take photos of the party, cake, and your child 30min before the party starts, or delegate a friend to be your phone-photographer. (you can also choose to hire a photographer if your budget allows or possibly collaborate with a photographer).
4. Have a wet weather plan just in case the weather isn’t what is hoped for on the day.
5. Prep, assemble, hang and style as much as you can for the party all the day before. The more you have ready to go the less stressed you will be, so don’t leave things to the day of the party, unless it’s absolutely necessary. Some food and drinks of course will need to prepared or catered for on the day, but drink cups, plates and cutlery, napkins for example can all be prepared in advance where possible. Making life for the hostess with the mostess much easier!

9. What are some of your most popular themes with customers at the moment?

Bluey continues to dominate as our most popular childrens theme, followed closely by pastel rainbow and dinosaur parties.

We are also seeing lots of beautiful botanical themes for baby showers with eucalyptus and greenery details.

10. What do you see as on trend for this year for the party planning industry? With Covid-19 changes the face of the way we entertain and celebrate, with some restrictions in place, what advice do you have for our readers for still investing in their party planning, but doing so in a safe and healthy manner?

I can see the trend of smaller at home celebrations continuing this year, as well as an increase in picnic-style events and the use of outdoor parks and green spaces. Venues with Covid-safe plans will also make it really easy for you to host your event, but my advice would be to check the cancellation policy when booking in case of any last-minute changes.

I think we will also start to see fun new ways to serve individual food portions like the jar-cuterie trend, and of course it is now frowned upon to blow out the candles on your birthday cake before serving it to your guests so possibly two cakes – one to sing, and one to serve.

Thank you so much Roxanne for sharing these party planning tips for our valued Gracefully Magazine readers. We can’t wait to see what party planning our readers have instore for this year. With Easter just around the corner, happy holiday planning!

For more innovative and budget-friendly ideas for hosting a perfect party for your loved ones, head on over to the Lovely Occasions website, by visiting – www.lovelyoccassions.com.au. You can also follow #lovelyocassions on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.