The Lovely Janey Butler

Earlier this year I started to follow the lovely and very talented Janey Butler on twitter. Janey is an amazing wedding and event designer / planner based in the North West. Whilst I have been volunteering at Liverpool Museum I have been working on my Bronze Arts Award. One of the sections I need to complete is writing about someone within my chosen industry who inspires me. As soon as I read the brief, I instantly knew I wanted to write about Janey. She very kindly allowed me to interview her and provided me with some lovely images to go along with it. So again thank you Janey and below is my interview with her.

Sophie - Hi Janey! I would first like to thank you for agreeing to answer some questions for my Bronze Art Award

Janey - You are very welcome darling.

S - First of all could you tell me a little bit about yourself?

J - My name is Janey Butler and I own and run Sweet Days and Roses which is a bespoke wedding planning and design company based in Cheshire.

I was born and grew up in the Cotswolds on a gorgeous farm in a beautiful conservation village in the heart of the Gloucestershire countryside, which for a child was just idyllic. My mother is an amazing gardener and always had beautiful roses everywhere which is where, I am sure, my love of roses and flowers comes from.

My love of art and design also started from as early an age as 6 when I used to annually win art competitions I entered into. My Nana was an amazing artist and I think I have inherited her artistic genes.

As a family, we always used to go over to the south of France in our VW camper van and this is where my love of this gorgeous stylish country came from. I still adore now popping over to France every year to get my supply of vintage linens and buttons and other gorgeous antique french pieces that I use a lot within my work... we are in fact off to Paris in May to do just this.

From here I went to a good school where I excelled in Art and Design and then went onto Cheltenham Art College and then the London College of Fashion off Oxford Street where I studied Theatre Costume design.

I have always loved making things out of gorgeous bits of fabric, especially if it is a little worn and torn...there is something very satisfying making something beautiful for someone to love and treasure out of something that most people would just throw away.... This fills me with a lot of satisfaction.

I now live on a beautiful small holding in North Wales, with my husband Andy and our dog Ruby and cat River. We have plans in at the moment to develop our little cottage into a beautiful home. My husbands work is wonderful and I also help him with his projects on the interior design side of things. His website http://www.llamadevelopments.co.uk/ and our other home Spring Cottage is also on there which we just recently developed from a dark and damp little cottage into a beautiful, light home that it is now.

I adore my garden, and love Roses and especially cottage garden flowers and I tend to use these an awful lot in the weddings that I design and style.

Janeys wonderful office and the HQ for Sweet Days and Roses

S - Where did it all begin for Janey of Sweet Days and Roses.

J - Andy and I got married at the wonderful Babington House in Somerset which is a beautiful Georgian House with its own gorgeous, tiny chapel in the grounds. http://www.babingtonhouse.co.uk/

Our wedding was a beautiful day, and I just loved organising everything for it. In the run up to our wedding I made all of my ladies favours which were out of gorgeous vintage linen, vintage lace, old mother of pearl buttons and pretty faux velvet flowers, pearls and twinkly rhinestones. These were filled with gorgeous smelling lavender and had little personalised pretty cotton name tags on the back with "Andy and Janey. 21st August 2008"

Vintage favours made by Janey

J - I am all about attention to detail. I am a firm believer that it is this that sets beautiful weddings apart and it's the little finishing touches that people see and remember.

After our wedding everyone kept telling me I should set up my very own wedding planning and design company as lots said it was the loveliest wedding they had been to....So I put my thinking cap on and decided to put my hand to it and this is where Sweet Days and Roses was born from.

After our wedding Cosmopolitan Bride Magazine contacted me and said they wanted to feature our beautiful day in their fabulous magazine and they did a 4 page spread on our wedding day. 

Since then I have helped design and plan so many beautiful weddings, a number of which you can see on my lovely website http://www.sweetdaysandroses.co.uk/

Janeys Wedding feature in Cosmopoliton Bride Magazine, I love her dress!

S - Who or what are your inspirations?

J - I adore French architecture & antiques. I love finding gorgeous vintage bits in brocante or junk shops and even if a little worn or broken I love painting them up and fixing them and making them into beautiful objects to use within my weddings or for vintage styling with photographers for magazines , etc.

I especially love the Louis XVI furniture and design. The whole romance and beauty of this time is just so evident in furniture and architecture and even the way people dressed in this period of history ...simply fabulous.

Gorgeous Vintage finds painted and brought back to life by Sweet Days and Roses 

J - I adore flowers, especially roses ....I have a real love of roses, the way they look and smell is just heavenly in my eyes. I just love working with them, especially the beautiful old English Roses, these are the best.

I also love nature, and like to keep all that I design and make as natural and pure as possible.

Some of the lovely flowers from Janeys garden that inspire her.

S - If you could name the most rewarding thing about your job what would it be?

J - Making things beautiful, especially my weddings that I create and seeing the gorgeous bride smile with excitement as to what we are looking to achieve.

I also love meeting other fabulous people within this industry and working with them and their creative talents. I have met some amazingly clever people through my line of work, and continue to do so on a regular daily basis.

Vintage styling by Janey

S - Is there anything you dislike about your job?

J - No nothing at all......I love it all !! x

S - What has been your proudest moment as a designer?

J - My work is often featured in fabulous glossy magazines and this always makes me feel very proud. I have been featured in Brides Magazine, Cosmopolitan Bride as well as Country Living Magazine with my favours and gifts.

I think though for me the proudest moments are just seeing how a wedding I have been working on for months and months all comes together on the big day and to see the brides and grooms elated faces at how beautiful everything looks....That always makes me feel very proud and very very happy.

S - If you could offer one piece of advice for someone wanting to make it like you what would it be?

J - Enjoy what you are doing right at this moment. Do well in your studies but always remember that you have a lot of life and time ahead of you and to not get too bogged with worry about things.

Enjoy this time of your life and focus on the studies you really love. This will stand you in good stead for the future.

Always be courteous and kind to others as you never know who you may well bump into or need in the future. (You are always lovely and courteous honey so no worries there !)

Love life and follow your passions.

S - Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions. I really appreciate your time and can't wait to work with you in May.

J - Me too darling xxx

Thanks for taking the time to read my blogpost and thank you to Janey for providing the wonderful photos and answering my questions.

As I am using this interview for my Bronze Art Award, I would really appreiceioate it if you could post your own comments about who inspires you and why? The more comments the better as it will all help towards my Bronze Art Award.