 How did the whole thing start? It started during lockdown and one of you was furloughed from me? Yeah. Okay. So I got put on furlough from my job. I was working in a job in England that based a lot in small businesses. They ran markets and we worked with thousands of small business traders. I got put in furlough after during the pandemic when a lot of the markets had to get stopped for obvious reasons and I thought I can't sit here and do nothing. So I thought I'll just give this a go. I'll try it. I didn't ever expect what came next. But then Danielle was pregnant at the time. Yeah, I was on maternity leave and again I was furloughed at the very beginning or the very end, sorry, of my maternity leave. So I just sort of got to hang around with a big fat belly helping out as I could until James came along. So in a way it was timely that the two of you were home at the one time together and had a bit of time in your hands? Yep. 100%. There would be no other real time in our lives since we were teenagers that we would have both been... We actually really went our separate ways. You sailed round the world and I headed off to the US, like this... Completely different countries. Yeah. And then we come home and start this. Just let's pause it there. The sailing around the world, that was the clever challenge, wasn't it? It was, yes. How did that come about? Did that in 2017-18 and I just thought one day I'll give this a go. Basically the same as this business to be honest. Had you any... Well, you had no experience in this sort of a business so had you any experience sailing? Absolutely none. I knew it was a ferry to Scotland. How did it go? Absolutely amazing. One of the best things, probably the best thing I've ever done with my life so far. Part of a crew? Yeah. There was eight of us that did the whole race together, still friends with them. Then there was a lot of crew that came and did different sections of it. But absolutely amazing, a full year and we did full circumnavigation. So you had no problem finding your sea legs? Well, sea sickness was not my strength. Every single time I would leave a port, three days of sickness. Yeah, but you toughed it out. Oh yeah, you got to do it once you leave. There was no land for at least another month so... So you had no choice. You get used to it. Well, you get... Singer swims, yeah. Literally, yeah. Well done. Now listen, getting back to the business and where did it come from? Where did they... I mean there must have been a spark. So because I was working with a lot of small businesses, I loved the idea of starting my own. I just kind of had the attitude if they can do it, why can't I? I watched them all grow and they did everything from sell homemade breads and cheeses to homemade clothing. I would watch them come on these markets and progress from basically one man bands up to having warehouses where they were nearly leaving us to open their own shops. It was just inspirational to watch that and I always really loved the idea of being able to do that and progress through that. And then the crafty side of it was definitely our mum. Oh, our mum. Yeah. There was ever a woman who crafted its own mum. But do you each bring something different to the business or is it a totally combined effort and that to both of you just do whatever it takes? Yeah, we'd certainly be on the ground and probably a sensible cloud. Yeah. Very fair. Very balanced. Yeah. I would be creative and like do a lot of the design and you're very structured. Rizan would have a lot of these ideas and she'll come at you and be like, oh, we should do this. We need to do that. Let's do this. And I'm like, okay, let me get a pen and paper, write these down and let's now action those. But that's why we work well together. That's why we wouldn't necessarily have those ideas. But you'd keep those ideas and think, oh yeah, we should do this. We should do that. Okay. Let's actually do those. And the award was great because it means more exposure. Personalised wedding supplier of the year and it was a big event. Rizan, you didn't get to go to that, did you? I didn't. Only Danielle went to that one. She was having a few days off and she was down that part of the country and I was like, you go ahead. I'll watch your baby. Yeah, pretty much. Which was fine. Actually, I didn't think we were going to win, to be honest. So it was actually a really big shock for us. It's the whole of Ireland of all the win suppliers. Earth was one of the biggest categories. And for us to even win that, I genuinely, genuinely did not think that we'd be coming home with that. So what does it meant to a small start-up company? We spotted the story and then it only got on news and here you are now. But I mean, it's meant more exposure and more followers on your socials. Yeah, 100%. Even that night, just being there and having such influential people and other small businesses, like that networking, first of all, and being able to say like, hi, I'm Danielle from Noted Ireland. Who are you? And already you've got a connection and then they share you, you share them. And again, win supplier study were fantastic in sharing all the businesses and especially those that had won an award. And that for us, it catapulted us for a few days especially, you know, getting followers and on social media. So it was great. Yeah. And I think for a customer coming on now and saying you have these awards, it's really nice for them to be able to trust you. Yeah. And they know that what they're getting is a good product and that's really helpful for us as well. Yeah. Well, you're able to say now an award-winning business. Absolutely. Yeah. Was that, Ann, tell us or tell us a little bit more rather about what the company do. Now this is for a wedding supplies that you won the award for, but it's more than that. Yeah. So what we would specialize in is personalized items. So we do our most popular selling things would be things for the wedding morning, like the robes and the pajamas for the bridal parties. They come in all their gift boxes, all their little flutes. Like the things that we like to think are like what makes the memories, like a few years down the line and you look back and you can just see how beautiful it all looks. Hopefully someday your daughter's sitting looking at the photos and she can point out who's who, looking at everything. And also a lot of them will probably be keepsakes. Yeah, absolutely. 100%. Yeah, because it all goes so quickly. It's 24 hours at the end of the day and it goes so quickly and to think that you can still be drinking out of your future Mrs. glass or whoever you're going to be for the rest of your life essentially. You know, it's lovely. So it can be anything, robes, glasses. And that's one of the really nice things about what we do is we can make custom items to suit people. Like this morning I was making Liverpool football shirt table plans for a lady. It's nice to add those really personal touches to people's days that just make them stand out from other weddings and just feel like them. And that's what we love about it. So it's about bespoke weddings. Yeah, absolutely. You're listening to the couple and it's what they want and you try to do what they request. And I suppose that's how we've also grown in that sense that it's the brides in the grooms that come to us and tell us what they want. So we know what avenues to go down because there's no point in making something that nobody's interested in. They come to you and tell you, oh look, I need an umbrella for my wedding. Could you put my name on it? Absolutely, no problem. And have you had many unusual requests? Requests that you have to go, well... There's probably some we couldn't share right now. I'll talk to Roseanne about that and see if it's on her list of wacky ideas. Where does most of the business come from? Most are local? All over Ireland. Yeah, a lot of stuff goes everywhere. Really, there's probably not a county at the minute. Last year, we sent out 4,000 orders and they went from Cork to Galway, Dublin. Great. All over Dunagalty, though. Even recently this year, there's been a few going to the likes of England, Scotland, Wales, which is an interesting thing as well. And again, that's maybe come after the award, which could have stemmed again from something like that. Yeah, I'm sure it's increased the profile. Yeah. And your socials and your presence on social media, that was part of the judging process actually for the award. Yeah. So having a big presence online would be very important. I'm looking at your website here, and it's very impressive looking. Thank you. So again, as well as the website, having a presence on social media. Yeah, and we would try really hard, actually. We think that's one of the things that's got us this far is to always make sure and have good, well-photographed products that are photographs of true light and things like that. Yeah. And we've worked hard on that from the very first day that we started the business. We've always tried to do that. People, they'll only see the product in the photo before they buy it. And if it doesn't look good, they're not going to buy it. But what we never want to do is Photoshop it to look good. We always put the effort in to make it naturally as good as it is. OK. We do put a lot of effort into things like that. It's a product as you produced it. Yeah, exactly that. So where does, what's the next step? Where does the growth come from? I mean, you've had a busy time of it. Has it been possible to step back and say, OK, what can we develop now? What's going to be next? At the start of the year, we moved our office around. So it started off with just me, the kitchen table, then Danielle joined. And now we've got three more. So there's five of us in total. Oh, wow. So that's really helped us, allowed us to take on more orders. Yes. And Danielle and our other printer, Nicole, have been taking on a lot of that work. And while I've been working on trying to come up with some ways to develop the business, these awards were one of the things that we'd factored in. We've recently been doing wedding fairs around Donegal. We were at Ungreen Inn. Oh, the Belfrey. There was definitely a few of them. We went to Undaria, yeah. So they've been great. In future, we're currently working on a wee marketing plan, but we're not finalised yet. So you're definitely not sitting still? Oh, definitely not. No, definitely not. Definitely if I tried. Well, listen, once again, congratulations on the award. It's great. And it's great for a fledgling company. And to get an award and, you know, obviously use it as a platform amongst other things. But it's called Noted Ireland. If anybody wants to check you out, big presence online and on social media as well, Danielle and Rosanne. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. TFI Local Inc. Operate over 1,300 door-to-door.