How to Throw A Hooley

In this bumper article for Studio Members, I'll go into detail on all the elements we handmade for our Hooley. I'll cover everything from making bunting and festival flags, illustrating invitation, hand painting table cloths, decorative signs, my mum's banners, hanging decorations, to balloon weights. It's full of useful suppliers, videos to show you the process, and images of our making process. Lets get stuck in!

The very first thing I made for both weddings was our invitations. Invitations are such an expensive part of a wedding budget and I felt all those I look at weren't overly personal. As we were throwing quite an unusual party, I wanted to create invitations which got everyone into the mood and gave them a teaser of what was to come. I do a lot of printing with The Fabled Thread, so was no stranger to ordering my own printed goods. If you want to take this approach for your own event, then there are lots of places who will scan your images in at high resolution for a fee then send them to be printed. Whilst I have my own high res scanner, I have been recommended Point 101 in the past, and I used Print.Work in Leeds for the printing. These are just example places who offer these services, but no matter where you are in the world, there will be suppliers who will help you achieve something special.

For the drawings on my invitations I took inspiration from one of my all time favourite illustrators, John Broadley, who I first came across from seeing his menu designs for the chef Jeremy Lee at Quo Vadis. Some examples are shown below.