Tanya Samonas: Etoile de Mer actually means Starfish in French and the 3, well, the 2 partners and I just really like the name Whirl from Greece, and we’re on the beach, trying to think about the new name for our company; and we saw beautiful little starfish and we thought, well that’s a very exult, we do brilliantly because our gift to delicate and pretty and we just like the whole maritime field to a being Greek we thought would bring a little varied and cultures like this into it. Almonds were traditionally given at weddings to symbolize the prissiness and sweetness of married life, the prissiness of the almond and the sweetness of the sugar coating; but we thought we would take it off a notch and just make them more fun and for some of our wedding faves, we don’t even include the almonds at all.
George Watts: That’s it, thank you for joining us on the show, pleasant to have you here. Well, listen we have to look at all these amazing, beautiful boxes in front of us; it’s like a water color, I feel like I want to dive in.
Tanya Samonas: All your Christmases came at once
George Watts: ( Laughter ) It looks absolutely beautiful; now earlier we’re talking to Tanya about some of the bits you put together, but before we go into that, where do you start when the bride and groom comes to you in terms of putting their fingers together?
Tanya Samonas: Okay, we will basically follow a theme, any color, any pertinent style, and so we will verify and ask the bride and groom if they have an invitation that has a specific color or font or pattern that they want, or if they have flowers, maybe they have pink flowers, in which case we’ll use pink as a theme or maybe they have fruits, in which case we might try and incorporate some kind of fruit, or very often seasonal will do spring things; so pretty much anything that they come with, we can follow. And so it can be full of very, very specific to very, very, vague.
George Watts: And there’s some really vibrant colors here
Tanya Samonas: The most popular themes that we speak about are classic, the creams, the pinks, the whites; but you do get some people who really want to make a mark, in which case so they’re the very bright greens or the yellows or the very zebra print and so on and so forth.
George Watts: Well there’s a lots at the opening, have a little look there some of the things; say what do we do with this?
Tanya Samonas: Well, basically as you can see it’s a beautiful little miniature champagne, silver plated champagne bottle; but the surprise is when you open it, we get bubble. Isn’t that fun?
George Watts: That’s great
Tanya Samonas: I know
George Watts: That’s great, I can imagine myself at the dinner table just playing bubbles (--)
Tanya Samonas: But you know they’re really nice to hold as well
George Watts: I love it
Tanya Samonas: Because they’re fun to play with and they’re great for all ages, they’re great for children, cause children have to love bubbles, and they’re great for men cause men like just to play with, and women just buy them cause they’re pretty. So they work for everyone.
George Watts: And also, most importantly it’s something that people can keep
Tanya Samonas: Forever, so this ones’ really, really popular with the ladies, it’s a little hot, queuing, it’s there, and you can again, you can engrave a little name or date or initial or something
George Watts: That’s gorgeous
Tanya Samonas: And that’s lovely for weddings cause it’s romantic
George Watts: It’s very romantic
Tanya Samonas: And again, your people who have that may take it home and if arduous time, if you’re using, you just always remember that, ah, that was in Georgia’s wedding, I remember it’s so lovely. And that’s why people like coming to us because they find lovely things that you can’t normally find in the shops and so on and so forth.
George Watts: And this, oh I mean this pieces is obviously very traditional here with the (--), but what a beautiful way to present them?
Tanya Samonas: What a beautiful way presenting in such a very cost effective way of doing a gift for people if you don’t spend too much money
George Watts: Now I want to get more personal, how do we really make a favor represent of the dead
Tanya Samonas: Okay, let’s say you came to do the wedding or to do your favors with us, we probably talk and have a little conversation and discuss what you want as a gift; we’d talk budget of this in colors and once we covered that we’d start to be a little more about who you are and what you want and let’s just say you just want to find a token of sweetness and for happy life and maybe we think of our own, for example the honey part
George Watts: Let that get out of you
Tanya Samonas: Yeah, it’s so cute it’s just a simple idea. It’s very simple we basically just personalize the tag, so it was Michelle and Benjamin and have the date to their wedding and we just stuck a little honey spoon for a sweet bite
George Watts: And so it is
Tanya Samonas: And so they just totally personalize their event on their day
George Watts: Beautiful, it’s lovely, lovely; and also I saw over here, I just can’t read about, this gorgeous sort of paw shell
Tanya Samonas: Now, this was a sea shell and basically the wedding was abroad and it was by the sea, it was a beach resort, and they want the thing to follow the theme and so we came up with the idea of a shell; and because they didn’t want to just give a shell or what, is that what do you with the shell; we basically put some little sweeties inside and have a little starfish charm of it. So instead of following the whole theme with the beach, sea and where they were, and then of course the guests can keep that, then wear it, and little reminder of the wedding; and the shell is just very pretty as a token
George Watts: Thank you so much
Tanya Samonas: Thank you
George Watts: Finding the shell, I guess is just a little bit so brilliant