Friday, 31 December 2010

Thanks for 2010

Just a quick note as the year draws to a close to thank all our customers for their support during 2010.  Our business continues to grow despite the economic downturn, but we are still relatively small and hope to grow further during 2011. 

We hope you all had a good 2010 and will have an even better 2011 too! 

For those of you who will be brides in 2011, we hope your day is as special as can be, and with you and your partner a long and happy future together...

Don't forget the 5 sugared almonds that represent fertility, longevity, wealth, health and happiness...  and the best sugared almonds on the net are our fine Italian Sugared Almonds... so you know where to come...  ;-)

Happy New Year!

Sunday, 19 December 2010

VAT Increase Jan 1st 2011

The rate of VAT in the UK increases from 17.5% to 20% on January 1st 2011.

As a gesture of goodwill to our valued customers, and in recognition of difficult economic times, Cameo have decided to absorb this increase.  We will not be increasing any of our prices as a result of the VAT increase.

Happy Christmas! 

Postal Difficulties

You will all no doubt be aware of the difficulties within the postal network caused by the severe snowfall during late November and December.  Cameo have endeavoured to dispatch on time, and our Wakefield warehouse has been open every day, as usual.  Unfortunately we are in the hands of the Gods on this one, and rely on the courier services and the Post Office.  To our knowledge, the vast majority of our customers have received their orders without too much delay, and we can only apologise for any inconvenience caused to the few.

Thursday, 2 December 2010

Tweet Us!

You have been able to follow Cameo Favours on Twitter for quite some time now at http://twitter.com/cameofavours

Now we've added the Tweet button to our wedding favour and confectionery pages, you'll find it down the left hand side, under the menu bar. 

If you see something you like, please make sure you tweet to your friends!  Not only does this let your friends see what you are thinking of for your wedding day, it also helps us, by spreading the word on our fantastic website and our fantastic prices.

Thank you for your support!

TWEET AWAY!

Sunday, 21 November 2010

Often Misunderstood: Red

The colour red often has negative imagery and meaning attached to it, but we say NO! 

Red is a wonderfully vibrant colour, exciting, dangerous, passionate and an ideal symbol of love.  February 14th is literally festooned in the colour, hearts, roses, underwear! 

It seems the Chinese have got this colour right, in our opinion.  In China red symbolises fire, courage, loyalty, honour, success, fortune, fertility, happiness, passion and the wonders of summer.  Red is also the traditional colour of weddings, and gifts are often wrapped in red paper.

So listen to this wise and ancient culture, and brighten up your occasion with our red favour boxes a selection of which are shown below...


Red Chest Favour Box

Red Heart Favour Box
Red Cone Favour Box

Red Tuxedo Favour Box


Congratulations to William and Kate!

Few days late in offering our congratulations to Prince William and Kate Middleton, but we've had a busy week!  Both Louise and I are delighted by the news, and don't hide our royalist tendencies...  think its just the tonic the country needs in the downbeat times we are going through.  Let's hope the day is special, and their marriage long and fruitful.

In the years following the marriage of Charles and Diana, there was a resurgence in the wedding business.  Whilst we may well have a vested interest in any such boom over the next few years, lets also hope it reaffirms this nation's belief in the institute of marriage. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11765422

Wednesday, 3 November 2010

Website Disaster!!

OH NO!!

A recent update to the website temporarily resulted in the loss of the shopping cart functionality.  We apologise sincerely for this but are now pleased to inform our customer that normal service is resumed.

THE WEBSITE IS FIXED, AND YOU ARE ABLE TO PLACE YOUR ORDERS.

It's the first time we've lost the website in our 6 years of online trading, and we're not happy about it either, and you can rest assured measures have been put in place to prevent any such future loss.

Again, SORRY!!!

Sunday, 17 October 2010

New Chocolate Brown Boxes

Introducing our FANTASTIC range of Chocolate Brown Favour Boxes

These favour boxes are made from top quality card with a subtle silk finish.  The boxes come flat packed and without decoration, but the woven edge tie ribbon featured on the images below is available in a variety of colours and widths from elsewhere on the website.

Our Brown Favour Boxes come in 5 classical designs, Brown Bustina Favour Box, Brown Chest Favour Box, Brown Cone Favour Box, Brown Handbag Favour Box and Brown Favour Box with Lid.  All designs are also available at up to 20% discount in our bulk favour boxes listings.


We are currently re-vitalising our favour box pages, adding clearer images with thumbnail functionality (ability to click for a larger image).   The Chocolate Brown Favour Box range is one of the first to undergo this transformation, but all will have been refreshed by the end of 2010.

Below are the 5 favour boxes available in this range:



Brown Chest Favour Box

Brown Bustina Favour Box

Brown Favour Box with Lid

Brown Cone Favour Box
Brown Handbag Favour Box

Saturday, 25 September 2010

Navy Blue Silk Favour Boxes

Our most popular selling items continue to be wedding favour boxes, of which we have a massive range or colours, styles and finishes.  Silk favour boxes offer great value for money favour boxes and come in 15 great colours, each range including many different shape favour boxes, such as chests, hearts, cones and many more.

Whilst ivory silk favour boxes tend to grace more wedding tables than any other, gold silk favour boxes come a close second, and with colours as varied as orange favour boxes, lemon favour boxes and chocolate brown favour boxes, you are sure to find the right colour for your wedding favours.

The image to the right shows the fantastic navy blue chest favour box, sold flat packed and without decoration, but the ribbon and flowers are available to purchase from the cameo favours website.

Also in the navy blue silk favour box range:

navy blue chest favour box
navy blue cone favour box
navy blue heart favour box
navy blue box with lid favour box

Sunday, 19 September 2010

Rockin' Wedding

EXCLUSIVE TO CAMEO - WEDDING ROCK

Incredibly colourful and incredibly tasteful...  our new range of Just Married Rock Sweets come in a variety of colour to match your wedding day colour scheme. 

Select from the following colours, all at bargain price of just £4.95 for 50 individually wrapped pieces of rock.


Gold Just Married Wedding Rock Sweet

Red Just Married Wedding Rock Sweets

Green Just Married Wedding Rock Sweets

Lilac Just Married Wedding Rock Sweets

Purple Just Married Wedding Rock Sweets

Burgundy Just Married Wedding Rock Sweets


 

Blue Just Married Wedding Rock Sweets

Black Just Married Wedding Rock Sweets


Thursday, 26 August 2010

New Range of Favour Sweet Jars

FOR A LIMITED TIME

New range of retro sweets in jars, ideal for use as wedding favours, available at just £2.25 each. 

Top quality sweets in 6cm jars with screw top lid, unbranded and unlabelled to allow the bride and groom to easy apply their own personalised stickers or tags.  Why not add some ribbon and place cards to your shopping card too, to add your own personal note to your guests.

There are 8 classic sweets to choose from:




Tuesday, 24 August 2010

Fish & Chips Anyone?

Want to be original on your wedding day?  Why not serve Fish n Chips up to your guests?  Of course it might not go down well if the vinegar ends up all the hired tuxedos, but try these fantastic NEW fish and chip chocolates for a safer, non splash option!



These delightful cones filled with fish and chip shaped chocolates are available in white chocolate and mile chocolate and retail at £3.99 each.  If that's too expensive to give to all your guests, why not serve up to the top table, or all the ladies (I'm sure they'll share!).

Our chocolate, as always, is made with top quality ingredients and tastes delightful.  Go on, put a smile on your guest's face!   Small wooden forks not provided.

Sunday, 8 August 2010

Table Scatter Crystals

Check out this new addition to the website, fantastic high quality crystal gems, ideal for scattering on your wedding reception tables or other parties.  Available in 8 colours (see below), these table scatter crystals come in 100g packets containing approx 450 crystals in 3 different diameters, 5mm, 10mm and 12mm.



Available colours:

Sunday, 25 July 2010

The Dark Knight

Back in 1939 DC Comics introduced the world to Batman, a dark avenger who terrorised the criminal fraternities of Gotham City.  Although initialy a dark, sinister force when sales began to fall in the 1960's, the character was brought to our TV screens in probably the most famous guise.  Along with his sidekick, Robin, this Batman camped his way through bright backdrops and amusing storylines and gave Batman a firm place in modern pop culture. 

By the 1980s, that series had faded to the odd repeat and Batman faded from the public consiousness, and as he did, comic sales once again plummeted.  A subsequent re-invention in the 1990's saw the comic series turn its back on the camp caped crusader, and re-discover the original Dark Knight.  A series of major Hollywood blockbusters and a popular animated children's TV series, which perfectly captured the dark character of this mysterious figure, fired Batman back to the top of the comic book sales and he is once again a firm favourite with children young and old.

And now Cameo bring you a fantasticly sinister range of partyware, ideal for a child's birthday party.  Our Batman Dark Knight party range includes Batman Paper Plates, Batman Party Napkins, Batman Party Tablecovers, Batman Party Banners, Batman Party Cone Hats and Batman Party Loot Bags.  All available at our usual low prices.  To compliment the range, we also bring you solid black tableware, to really add to the atmosphere.  There are no yellow tights to be seen!

Please check out our full range of partyware, there is sure to be a range to delight your little ones, or to impress your BBQ guests.  And as with everything Cameo Favours sells, we aim to bring you quality products at the lowest prices.

Sunday, 13 June 2010

Pink is the colour!

In our recent online poll, PINK is still the favourite colour of brides for their special day!  It tied for first place with LILAC, with BURGUNDY coming in joint third with ORANGE.

 

Just shows the traditional floral summer colours are as popular as ever and for those wanting something a little different, orange seems to be growing in popularity!

No matter what colour your wedding theme, we have the colour to match.  With over 300 different shades of craft flowers, favour tulle, boxes and ribbons available at http://www.cameo-favours.co.uk/, you are sure to find something that please.

Floral Beauty...

We've updated our massive range of delightful craft flowers and you can find them here...

http://www.cameo-favours.co.uk/wedding-favours/favour-decorations/craft-flowers/flowers.html

These range from the tiny mini open rose which has a diameter of just 5mm, up to the large daisy flowers and paper lily craft flowers.  All ideal to add a fantastic touch to your wedding favours and to compliment your chosen flowers.

Our ever popular ribbon roses are ideal for craft projects as well as favour tulle and favour box designs and are fantastic value for money.  They are available from just £3.84 for 48 flowers.  Also available to buy in bulk volumes for those larger projects.  Bulk ribbon roses are available at £25 for a missive 432 roses!

For a alternative twist to the ribbon rose, why not try our excellent diamante ribbon roses which are slightly more expensive, but still a very cost effective way to create beautiful favour designs.

Please check out our craft flower ranges!

Saturday, 15 May 2010

Disney Classics

We've just added two new great Disney Princesses to our partyware ranges.  The first is the original of the princesses, Snow White, which dates back to the 1937 film and is still a firm favourite.  We have delightful plates, cups and napkins sure to delight party girls young and old.


The second is the latest of the princesses, from the fabulous film Princess & The Frog.  These products are available now at amazingly low prices, and if you combine with our budget solid colour partyware you can make your money go even further.




And don't forget, we already have several Disney classics for your own little princesses...






Thursday, 22 April 2010

Old Traditions!

As we forge ahead with new trends we cannot forget the old favourites, which continue to sell strongly year after year.   Traditional net / tulle wedding favours are still as popular as ever and our massive range of favour tulle styles and colours is testament of the versatility you can put into these elegant designs.  And they are VERY affordable too.

One of our most popular ranges is a fine mesh net.  This favour net retails at just £1.75 for 25 individual nets, and you would generally use 2 or 3 nets in each favour creation.  Available in 19 spectacular colours you are sure to find one to match your chosen scheme, and by mixing with our fantastic flowers, such as the delightful and low cost ribbon rose, and our massive choice of ribbons, you can create your own unique design.

Each net would traditionally be filled with 5 Italian sugared almonds, but as an alternative why not try 5 chocolate dragees?

Saturday, 27 March 2010

Ben 10 All The Way!

Boy's Party Ranges

We've recently updated our Boys Ranges of Party Products, much to the delight of our own children!  With all three boys, this is a part of our business they take particular delight in.  Whilst the eldest has moved on to Spongebob (also available), our middle one is keen on Ben 10 and our youngest, who is only 2, is struck on Go Diego. 

All our boys have birthdays in the coming months, so I'm sure we'll be using some of our stock on parties for our own children.  They can select from the boy's ranges below, and we are continuously looking for new fantastic products to add.


Monday, 22 March 2010

Wedding Rock Sweets

Rock On...

After a problem with our wedding rock supply, today we are pleased to announce its return.  And we have plenty of it!  Our wedding rock is fantastic quality, manufactured to our very own design, specific pantone shades and delightful flavours.  Keep watching the website too, because we will soon be adding several fantastic rock designs for birthdays and other special occasions.

Currently, our range includes:

Silver Just Married Rock Sweets
Gold Just Married Rock Sweets

and

Multi-coloured Mr & Mrs Rock Sweets

And at just £4.99 for 50 pieces, you won't find wedding rock of this quality any cheaper.

Sunday, 7 March 2010

From Me to You...

Many new products added to out Me to You ranges. 

With Mother's Day all but upon us, we've got a few remaining products left to clear, and all feature 10% off. 


Valentines has passed, but love lasts the whole year round and most of the Valentines ranges are suitable as love gifts at any time. 


It will soon be Easter, and along with our excellent range of Easter themed favours and confectionery, we also have a wide selection of chicks and bunnies from Carte Blanche.



We've also refreshed our Birthdays, to include many age specific bears, mug gift sets and Me To You Photo Frames.

http://www.cameo-favours.co.uk/metoyoubirthdays.html

Please call in and check out all the Carte Blanche Me To You giftware, ideal gifts for those special friends and loved ones.

Sunday, 21 February 2010

Wedding Favours For Less...

In response to demand, we have added some low cost, high value tulle favour making kits to the website.  These kits contain enough tulle, flowers, ribbon and favour bases to make 50 fantastic table decorations.

ALL THIS FOR JUST £16...

50 coloured scalloped edge cristal tulle
50 white or ivory cristal tulle
1 reel 25m 3mm satin ribbon in matching colour
50 base saucers
50 ribbon in matching colour
50 ribbon roses in white or ivory
 
And choose from the following colours:  Lemon, Pink, Candy Pink, Peach, Lilac, Pale Blue, Fuchsia, Burgundy, Black, Navy Blue, Terracotta, Silver, Dark Green, Gold, Autumn Gold, Hyacinth, Violet.
 
You can find the kits here   http://www.cameo-favours.co.uk/allinonekits.html
 
And we've even added a simple step by step guide too, although we don't guarantee success - that will be down to your own artistic skills! 
 
Find the guide here  http://www.cameo-favours.co.uk/guideallinonetullekits.html
 
Please note, these kits do not included confectionery as we did not want to limit the buyers choice.  We have a massive range of almonds, dragees, chocolates and much more online to put in the kits, and all at a low price.

Sunday, 14 February 2010

How to Keep Our Youngest Happy...


As promised, we've started to add new ranges of Party Ware.

It was not hard to decide which range to add first, and our youngest boy made sure we knew where he stood on the subject!  As he approaches his third birthday his speech is coming on well, and his chants of "Mickey, Mickey, Mickey" when he saw the product catalogue made our minds up.

Visit http://www.cameo-favours.co.uk/mickeymouseclubparty.html and you will find a range of delightful Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party products sure to bring a smile to your young ones' faces just as they did ours.

Inexpensive too...  10 large paper plates for £2.50, 20 napkins for £2.25, a high quality plastic re-useable table cover for only £2.75... 

And as a special offer, if you follow our Blog we will give you 10% back on all Mickey Mouse Partyware purchases made before the end of March 2010.  To claim your reduction follow this Blog and email us at enquiries@cameofavours.co.uk requesting the 10% cashback, quoting the email used for the purchase, and we will then credit back to your account.




Friday, 12 February 2010

Plans, plans, plans!

Last weekend we attended the largest trade fair in Europe at the NEC, and found loads of fantastic new suppliers!  As soon as we've digested all the ranges available to us, we will start to upload on to the website, so please put us in your favourites and keep checking back.

Alternatively, keep an eye on this blog... as we add, we'll tell you on here, and by following us you will have access to exclusive offers not available anywhere but here.

So, for fanastic new chocolates, more budget tulle and ribbons, new selection of favour boxes and some amazing party ranges including Hello Kitty and Tweetiepie, just watch this space in the coming weeks!

Sunday, 31 January 2010

Andy Murray - Scottish Sympathy Needed

Poor, poor Murray!  Got up bright and early to watch the build up, which actually ended up being longer than the match.  You've got to hand it to Federer, he's a cool customer, never faltered.

We have a lot of Scottish customers, proportionately far more than any other region in the UK.   Not sure why that it, it might be there are just less favour suppliers north of the border or that Scots care more about their wedding decor!

Whatever the reason, long may it continue!

To celebrate Murray doing so well, thought we'd highlight our fantastic range of thistles which are excellent additions to favour boxes.  The beautiful heather / thistle spray featured retails at just 95p each (at time of writing) and are very popular.

And if you become a follower of this blog and order thistles before the end of February 2010, we'll give you 10% cash back on the full order (exc P&P).  Simply email us at enquiries@cameo-favours.co.uk and tell us you are following along with details of your order, and we'll credit the 10% back to your account.


Better luck next time Andy!  It's only a matter of time before it comes off for you and we'll be following you all the way.



Saturday, 30 January 2010

Wish Cadbury would stop changing their packaging!

That time of year again when Cadbury flood the world with fantastic Easter products!

The ever popular Cream Egg and Mini Eggs will be with us until Easter and then they disappear from our shelves once more. For the last three years we've stocked Mini Eggs, ideal for putting in favours, and they've proved pretty popular. Usually the sell by date on these runs into August / September, so they would still be in date for the majority of summer weddings and baby showers. But as we all know, chocolate never really goes off does it!


The biggest problem we face in selling mini eggs is that ever year they change the way they sell them and its a pain!


First they had 2.5kg boxes where the eggs were loose, then they disappeared so we had to move to 2.4kg boxes which housed 24 x 100g bags, and now we've had to shift to their large 340kg bags! These bags are much larger than those you normally see in the shops, and we can sell at a very favourable price, but just hope our customers go for them - they tend to like the boxes...





btw - we tried to sell Cream Eggs but think they were a bit big, we didn't sell any!! But, just like any mini eggs we end up with, they soon found a home!!

Wednesday, 27 January 2010

Hello Reader!

Hello all, welcome to our blog.

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Cameo Favours are suppliers of all sorts of fantastic products for weddings and parties. 100% web-based our range is massive and continues to expand. We now stock tulle / net for favours, favour boxes, ribbon, flower decorations, favour inserts, jewels, leaves, table trivia (very popular at the moment), almonds, dragees, rock, chocolate hearts, all sorts of other confectionery, giftware, cufflinks, invitiations, party products for kids and adult parties... the list goes on! Visit our website to see just how many lines we now stock www.cameo-favours.co.uk

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We decided over the Xmas break that it was about time we gave out valued customers more of an insight into our business, www.cameo-favours.co.uk

A Brief History of Cameo Favours

Louise and I (Paul, her hubby) are very proud of her business, which has grown rapidly since its very humble beginnings about 8 years ago. What started as a boredom relief for Louise following the birth of our first child has now become quite a significant operation!

Initially, Louise, driven by the enjoyment she had drawn from creating her own favours for our wedding, decided to try her hand at creating designs for others. For a couple of years we attended wedding fayres around the Yorkshire region, and it proved quite a successful venture, and one she could carry out whilst looking after our young child. It was a perfect work from home idea for a mum not wanting to return to full time employment.

At the same time I was developing an interest in web design and suppose it was only inevitable that we chose to take Cameo Favours online. We did that back in 2004 and we are now on version 15 of the website! It keeps me busy.

Our website can by found here...

www.cameo-favours.co.uk


From that part time business eight years ago, Louise now employs five full time staff who operate our warehouse in Wakefield. Our ranges continue to grow, with our most recent introduction a massive range of themed children's party products - Ben 10, Spiderman, Dora the Explorer, Hanny Mandy, Winnie the Pooh to name a few - plus other themed parties - Casino, Wild West, Hollywood, and many more.

You can see the full range of partyware here...

http://www.cameo-favours.co.uk/partyranges.html


We will use this blog to highlight changes to the website, new product ranges, our observations on market trends, especially when it comes to wedding favours and colours (green and purple seem to be popular for 2010 weddings!)

We may also add exclusive offers here occasionally... clearance stock... heavily discounted lines... so please follow this blog, link to us, keep checking back!

All the best

And if you are getting married in 2010 (or beyond!) have a good 'un!

Paul Bowen