Friday, 28 December 2012

A Continental romance mapped for a London couple


Stuart and Kate were enjoying one too many glasses of red wine at Parisian bar, La Palette – once the haunt of Picasso and Matisse, when they decided that after many years together, they’d get married. A year later, they tied the knot and celebrated with a series of events in London - a ceremony at Islington Town Hall, Lunch at The Connaught and an after party at Hoxton Hall. Once they’d recovered from all the excitement and celebration, the couple made their way back to Paris to stay at the Hotel du Petit Moulin, designed by Christian Lacroix. As a memorable gift to his new wife, Stuart commissioned Bespoke Gift Maps to record the couple’s romantic series of marital events. The map depicts the streets of London at the top half, with all the wedding destinations labelled and points of interest highlighted. Beautiful illustrations of La Palette and the Hotel du Petit Moulin nestle in the bottom corners of the map surrounded by a unique depiction of Paris. A small illustration of the eurostar snakes down towards Paris past the couples names and the date of the wedding in the centre of the map. Now Kate can frame the memories of the wedding and remember them every day as she embarks on married life with Stuart.

Contact:

Tuesday, 18 December 2012

Wedding Ring of Kerry

The beautiful Bay of Dingle and Ring of Kerry is the Irish home to bride, Fiona. Fiona loves it so much that she chose it for the venue of her wedding to groom, Richard. The bride and groom wanted a traditional, worldly map with a Celtic feel that would represent this part of Ireland. Some touching family references were included such as an illustration of Fiona’s Uncle’s boat, Fergus the Dolphin and the bride and groom’s favourite pub.

Bespoke Gift and Wedding maps
Phone: +44 208 776 7984
Mobile: +44 797 316 2790
E-Mail: mail@bespokegiftmaps.co.uk

Friday, 12 October 2012

Barnsley House Wedding venue map



As wedding venue's go Barnsley House set in postcard-pretty Cotswold countryside, ticks all the right boxes for a boutique country wedding. Perfect to escape to for your wedding day, get married in the beautiful village church or tie the knot in The Potager Restaurant. Your guest can enjoy the Hotel or Village pub with rooms while you can just enjoy your own special day with them. Being even more relaxed knowing that everyone followed the directions carefully to this celeb hang-out in the Cotswolds thanks to Bespoke Gift Maps.
mail@bespokegiftmaps.co.uk
07973 162790

Thursday, 4 October 2012

Wedding March


Bespoke Gift Maps recently produced a classic black and white map for the wedding of Sarah and Stuart for their tour of the borough of Islington. The starting point is Islington Town Hall, then the map suggests a route through the area for the guests to take on the day. The suggested path guides the guests from venue to venue – from ceremony, to drink, to dinner. Presumably everyone found their own way home, so long as they hadn’t had too much to drink!
mail@bespokegiftmaps.co.uk

Special London Wedding Venue.


Dominic and Caroline are very lucky to be able to get married in one of England's finest and most iconic churches, St Paul's Cathedral. The couple just wanted a simple but classic black and white illustrated map to go along with the invites. The map is a mixture of decorative elements along with key information on tubes, trains and parking. The  maps also shows the relationship of  the venues and easy access routes between them.

Tuesday, 18 September 2012

Sri Lankan Birthday Party


Our recent map of Sri Lanka, created for a guy’s 30th Birthday party, has to be one of our favourite hand drawn maps to date. The week long party took place in Sri Lanka at the famous Villa Thalassa on the south coast of the island. The celebrations also included a trip to watch England play Sri Lanka at cricket in Galle. The client wanted a retro feel to the map. We achieved this through the muted colours and the use of French for some of the place names.

Party invite anyone?



Bespoke Gift and Wedding Maps have been working with Kasimira Part Organisers for a couple of years. On two occasion they asked us if we could create invites for parties, one Christmas and one Midsummer party, using our unique hand drawn calligraphy.  As the designs developed we added illustrations of wizards, elves, fairies and toadstools to enhance the invites and to capture some of the themes and events taking place at the parties.If you are hosting a party, why not start it off with a beautifully illustrated invite that can be sent digitally or through the post.

Love the shoes!


One brides passion for shoes provided the perfect inspiration for her wedding stationary. It was only fair that her first love was present on the day too. The image of a trainer and a Manolo high heel represented the couple on their save the day cards and for a more formal tone, a pair of brogues on the order of service. For the leaving party and honeymoon, they returned to a more casual feel with the image of a flip flop and flipper. The footwear besotted bride may have committed to the other love in her life, but there’s always room for an extra pair.

Emergency 999 – Ambulance, please


Together with renowned illustrator Michael A Hill, Bespoke Gift and Wedding Maps recently produced a series of images for the wedding of Gary and Sophie, a London based couple. Gary and Sophie are both ambulance drivers, so celebrated their wedding by arriving and departing in nothing other than a bright fluorescent London ambulance. The image of the happy couple departing the church in the ‘Just Married’ ambulance complete with cans tied on with string was used on the order of service and menu cards. 

Not Just Maps


Earlier this year, we worked with Orchid Events to produce a series of black and white images for a well travelled couple to use on their wedding day. The imagery was used across their wedding stationery, on name cards at tables and on leather luggage tags for the guests. Having travelled all over the world, the quirky couple returned to London to wed. The images, from a badger with a bunch of roses, to a kiwi bird, to a hibiscus flower, to a Taj Mahal, represented their vast travelling experience. As well as sharing travelling experiences with wedding guests on the day, the beautiful images will continue to serve as personal reminders of the couple’s travels as well as of the wedding day. 

Sunday, 15 January 2012

Bespoke Gift Maps Interviewed!

Read All about it! Read All about it! Kent's Own Bespoke Gift Maps company interviewed by Penny's Wedding Website, read a little bit more about our wonderful maps and gift maps.
http://www.pennyswedding.com/?p=3721

Enjoy!

A Passport to Love


No, not a Mills & Boon novel, but a recent commission for the wedding of Holly Branson (Sir Richard's daughter) and her groom Freddie Andrewes. The bespoke passport had its own idiosyncratic crest featuring a llama, a flamingo, a turtle on top with some gecko's on the shield. Inside there was a hand drawn map showing the exact location of Necker Island, for those guests who mistakenly thought it was just a location from Pirates of the Caribbean. Our special crest was used again in the Order of Service. More photos of the wedding (and the passport to love) are in this week's Hello! magazine and website.
Bespoke Gift and Wedding maps
Phone: +44 208 776 7984
Mobile: +44 797 316 2790
E-Mail: mail@bespokegiftmaps.co.uk


Wednesday, 26 October 2011

First Birthday Bespoke Keepsake map

When we started Bespoke Gift Maps we never really considered repeat customers, We imagined that clients would just get married once, or celebrate a 50th Birthday once but we were mistaken, our clients have more imagination and creative thought than maybe ourselves.

Take for instance MC in Dublin, she commissioned a wedding present earlier in the year, a map of her two friends lives in Paris, where they met, where they lived and where they had great times together. Everyone loved the special gift map especially MC who came back recently with a request for her niece's First Birthday present. So much more special than a cuddly toy. In this we mapped her first year in Dublin, not that she can appreciate it now but in years to come Ruth can look back at the map and say, "Auntie, why a kangaroo?"

MC also wrote some words about the experience-

"I have commissioned two maps from www.bespokegiftmaps.co.uk and couldn't
be happier with them. Both maps have made the most wonderful and original
gifts, and I have subsequently recommended the site to family and friends.
Michael has been a delight to deal with; he is helpful, creative and
produces truly beautiful art (in no time at all!). I will be back time and
again for gifts for special occasions. Thank you!"

Thank You MC


Bespoke Gift and Wedding maps
Phone: +44 208 776 7984
Mobile: +44 797 316 2790
E-Mail: mail@bespokegiftmaps.co.uk

Tuesday, 25 October 2011

Bespoke Walking Map



Sometimes it best just to let the client do the talking -


"Earlier this year, a group of six of us walked the Coast to Coast. As a memento of the walk, I wanted to have a map drawn, to show where we had been.


I contacted Michael at Bespoke Gift Maps to ask if this was something that he would do. I was not sure about exactly what I wanted so he asked for details of the walk and what we had done. I directed him to a blog that we had kept whilst we had done the walk.


Michael had a look through and came up with a draft, based on the blog. He added lots of little graphics highlighting some of the incidents along the way, some of which were very subtle. From the draft, I asked him to add a few bits and change a few bits, and when the final map came through, it was far far better than I had ever imagined.


From the very basic brief that I gave, Bespoke Gift Maps came up with a finished map that was brilliant and completely captured the experience we had. It was personal to us and I would recommend his work to anyone." NB(Client)


This client has since commissioned a 50th Birthday gift for a friend, more later.


Bespoke Gift and Wedding maps
Phone: +44 208 776 7984
Mobile: +44 797 316 2790
E-Mail: mail@bespokegiftmaps.co.uk

Sunday, 4 September 2011

Around the world wedding




With backgrounds that span many locations, this couple wanted to highlight areas around the world that held a special place in their hearts. Each location held a lovely story and was featured through the creation of a bespoke map. This folded invitation created by Romeo and Jules Bespoke Stationery featured a navy script on the front and the custom map on the back to share their own personal story with their guests. Thanks to Jennifer at Romeo and Jules for the photos.

Bespoke Gift and Wedding maps
Phone: +44 208 776 7984
Mobile: +44 797 316 2790
E-Mail: mail@bespokegiftmaps.co.uk

Thursday, 23 June 2011

40th Birthday Gift- Life on a map


When Nicola wanted to give her husband-Graham a present for his 40th birthday she wanted something special and unique, something that was really personal and bespoke. Nicola sat down and mapped out Graham's life from his birth in Canada, his school days, university, work, and the very special times in their live together, the important personal moments, the shared fun times and the emotional times all to be captured on a single piece of artwork.
Graham was so pleased with the stories the map told that he called round to thank us for producing such a fabulous gift for him.

The picture shows Graham opening the present on his birthday morning.

Bespoke Gift and Wedding maps
Phone: +44 208 776 7984
Mobile: +44 797 316 2790
E-Mail: mail@bespokegiftmaps.co.uk

Wednesday, 22 June 2011

Classic Wedding Map


The party organisers Kasimira commissioned a map for the wedding of a member of the Waley-Cohen family. Simple and classic, this map directs guests to the rural location close to the family home. My map for the Royal Wedding had added pelicans and this one has added horses because of the family connection with racing.
Bespoke Gift and Wedding maps
Phone: +44 208 776 7984
Mobile: +44 797 316 2790
E-Mail: mail@bespokegiftmaps.co.uk



www.kasimira.com

Thursday, 28 April 2011

Official Royal Wedding Programme Map






Michael A. Hill and Bespoke Gift and Wedding Maps is proud and honoured to have been commissioned to produce an illustrated map by The Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry for the Official Royal Wedding Programme and Order of Service. It is a wonderful feeing to have been involved in the Royal wedding if only in a small way and my wishes go out to the happy couple. The complete official booklet can be downloaded from http://cde.cerosmedia.com/1G4db6de7f30814652.cde or itunes.


Bespoke Gift and Wedding maps
Phone: +44 208 776 7984
Mobile: +44 797 316 2790
E-Mail: mail@bespokegiftmaps.co.uk

Wednesday, 27 April 2011

House and Shooting Party directions





The owners of Alresford Hall wanted to make sure every guest at their Shooting and House parties would be able to find them in their quiet rural idyll in Essex. Tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the main cities, the map lets the guest have an over view on one side and more detailed close-up views on the other. Printed simply in black and white with a picture of the Queen Anne style house and the family crest giving it that very personal and bespoke feel. I'm off to get my suitcase ready now.

Tuesday, 26 April 2011

House Warming Present


The Diggle Family moved to their dream village in the heart of the Oxfordshire countryside, to a house that they carefully restored and modernised to create a wonderful welcoming home. To capture this time and to literally put themselves on the village map, James who had worked with Maps Illustrated through his landscape architecture company decided to get them to create an illustrated map of the village, including James's favourite pub, the children's school and most importantly their house, in fact their complete village life captured on the map. The map a home-warming present to themselves hangs in the hallway, a talking point for anyone who visits their beautiful home.