Wedding wins for two firms
Bride and joy at awards
Two Blairgowrie businesses are celebrating after regional wins at the Scottish National Wedding Awards last week.
Shona Sutherland from Taystful won the award for North Cake Designer of the Year, and Something Special Flowers won the North Florist of the Year category.
The awards ceremony, which took place on Monday, February 27 at Glasgow’s Crowne Plaza, recognises the best in the business, as voted for by members of the public.
Shona was a finalist at the awards in 2016, and was determined to win this year.
She said: “I was keen to give more focus to weddings this year, so by giving more energy to it, I was able to improve my wedding cake services, skills, advertising and website information.
“I was delighted to be nominated again and was pleased to hear from most of the married couples they had submitted positive reviews to the Scottish Wedding Awards about us.
“To find out I had won the north region cake designer of the year award was a tremendous bonus, and I feel that all the hard work over the past few years has truly been recognised.”
Something Special Flowers took home Blairgowrie’s second award of the evening when they won Florist of the Year for the north region. Owner Jillian Page declared: “It was magic! When they read out the nominations you get so nervous and in your heart of hearts you do want to win it. I just jumped out my seat when it was announced, because even after all these years it is still exciting and nervewracking, and a wonderful feeling when you get this type of thing.
“You are never confident of winning, especially when you see how many people are in your category, but you still always hope you are going to get it. We have been in the finals five times now, so we hoped we would one day win the category. Everyone in the shop was very excited in the lead-up to the awards.”
Jillian added that the awards mean a lot as they are voted for by the members of the public.
She said: “The awards which are voted for by brides and grooms, those mean so much more because it reflects the service we give. Those are the best awards.”
Both Shona and Jillian believe having two awardwinning businesses in Blairgowrie will boost the wedding industry in the area.
Shona said: “It was fantastic to share the evening with great local companies, since we work closely on the same events.
“To have Something Special Flowers win on the same night is such a great advert for Blairgowrie being the place to come for wedding arrangements!”
Jillian agreed, commenting: “It is brilliant and exciting for any small town with a small community. We are well supported here in the town, and we are giving something back by putting Blairgowrie on the map for good reasons. We are proud of our town and to be able to showcase what comes from our town.”
Blairgowrie’s Gordon’s Cater Hire were also shortlisted in the awards this year.