Personalised Favours

This month, we’re celebrating ten years since Personalised Favours came to be. To commemorate, we look back on the PF journey over the past decade and look forward to all the exciting things yet to come.

Transformation story

It was ten years ago that PF company founder and online entrepreneur, Melissa Wilkinson, began an e-Bay business in her garage. Through a whole lot of blood, sweat, tears and sacrifice, the business has been transformed from a backyard operation into a multimillion-dollar international enterprise, operating throughout the United States and Australasia. This is her story.

Every man needs a cave. A den. A sanctuary from the outside world. A place to call his own.

Creating the ultimate man cave comes down to a combination of the right ingredients to give your guy his own special refuge.

We go on a journey to uncover the top seven Man Cave must-haves to ensure his special sanctuary ticks all the boxes and keeps him refreshed and raring to go when he returns to the outside world.

7 Man Cave Must-Haves No Guy Can Go Without

1.    Quench his thirst

Let’s face it: no man cave is complete without a few of his favourite beverages. And in a large majority of cases this equals beer. And what could be better than sipping (or slurping) his choice of ale from an Engraved 425m

Personalised Favours Founder and Joint Managing Director, Melissa Wilkinson, has two babies – one is the personalised wedding and special occasions online store she began from her second bedroom almost ten years ago as the cornerstone of her global online empire, and the other is her four-month-old daughter, Jaz. On the eve of International Women’s Day 2019, Mel shares an honest account of the challenges and triumphs in her journey so far and helps women everywhere understand how they can achieve #balanceforbetter across all aspects of their lives.

Finding Better Balance

Although Melissa is only relatively new to the juggle of motherhood and running your own business, she already sees the renewed perspective being both a mum and a business owner has bou

Before you book the booze cruise and set up the shot glasses, check out these tips to ensure your Hen's party is the best one of her life. Being asked by the bride-to-be to plan her all-important Hens party is a pretty big deal. After all, she'll be surrounded by some of her closest girlfriends and family members, and you want to make it a night for everyone to remember, for all the right reasons.

From budgeting to bridal gifts, this 'how to' guide will make sure your Hen is the happiest chick on the block.

Set up her last-ever big date

It seems obvious, but the first thing you'll need to do is pick a date for the event. Be sure to give people plenty of notice, as it can be hard to find a day that will work for everyone. Of course,

The marriage of a couple brings together two families, two sets of ideas and traditions, and two diverse ways of life. But what if your marriage also marks the union of two cultures? To commemorate national Harmony Day 2018, we share our complete guide to successful cross-cultural wedding celebrations.

Ceremonial rights

Straight off the mark: decide whether you are going to have two distinct ceremonies or a combined ceremony that includes elements of both cultures. If your cultures are distinctly different and one of you wouldn't feel satisfied without a full traditional ceremony, then two ceremonies may be the only way to go. Just remember,

Image via Pinterest

The verdict in Australia's Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey at the end of last year was a cause for celebration around the globe. With a resounding 61.6% of survey respondents voting "Yes" in support of same-sex marriage, our land down under had finally joined the global movement of acceptance and love equality. And on the 40^th anniversary of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade this past weekend, Sydney celebrated in a way only it knows how - with a festival of love that knows no bounds and shines a light on the issues affecting LGBTI people around the world.

Following on from the outpouring of positivity and affirmation in response to PF founder, Melissa Wilkinson's story, we've decided to continue the International Women's Day (IWD) celebrations by showcasing more members of our talented team. With around 20 female employees spanning four decades, you'll soon see for yourself why Joint Managing Director and token male, Matthew Mosse-Robinson, describes the team as a fearless female force.

Inspiration in the everyday

Sometimes the greatest inspiration is found in the everyday. With a diverse and dynamic workforce here at Personalised

In celebration of International Women's Day (IWD) 2018 on March 8, we want to share a story with you about a woman who inspires us all. PF company founder and online entrepreneur, Melissa Wilkinson, began an e-Bay business in her garage nine years ago. Through a whole lot of blood, sweat, tears and sacrifice, the business has been transformed from a backyard operation into a multimillion dollar international enterprise, operating throughout Australia and the US. This is her story.

In the beginning

Mel always knew she had to be successful because she loves expensive stuff. With a degree in Industrial Design (Hons) and a background designing product ranges for clients including Disney, Adidas and David Jones, Mel is passionate about designing and creating beautiful,

Every year around the world on February 14, people recognise their lovers, friends, spouses, teachers, offspring and secret sweethearts with romantic gestures, gifts, and declarations of love and affection. The Feast of Saint Valentine has become so popular, there is even an established anti-Valentine movement (cos' you haven't really made it until you've got some haters). With sources claiming Valentine's Day generates around $15 billion in sales in the US, and with more than one billion Valentine's cards sent across the globe, have you ever wondered how this global love affair began?

Source: Thinkstock

From pagan roots love does bloom

It all started with Lupercalia, a pagan fertility

When you are planning a wedding in the near to not-too-distant future, the holiday season can be either a help or a hindrance. For some of us, it offers the ideal opportunity to test-drive different family dynamics and crowd combinations before the main event. It can also provide a much-needed break away from your usual schedule to dedicate to planning your big day. But for others it can be a source of frustration - suppliers are busy or closed and it may prove a stumbling block to your wedding planning momentum.

We examine how to use the holiday season to your advantage on your journey to the aisle.

Road testing crowd combinations

You don't get a lot of opportunities to get friends and family together before the big

As the world holds its collective wedding breath for what will undoubtedly be the nuptial event of the new year - the much-anticipated marriage of Prince Harry to his all-American princess-in-the-making, Meghan Markle - we forecast the top wedding trends for 2018.

In the meantime, we'll continue to speculate on which of these trends will be included in the royal wedding celebrations, which no doubt will set a few trends of its own.

Increased customisation

Industry insiders predict weddings will become increasingly personalised and more intimate. Gone are the days of the mass-produced, one-size-fits-all, assembly line, standard wedding. In 2018, couples will be looking at increased localisation including unique locally-sourced produce,

Weddings are seasonal affairs, with trends coming in and out of vogue as sure as winter becomes spring. But some wedding traditions never go out of style. Here we bring you the ten wedding traditions that have withstood the test of time - and we predict will stay with us for many years to come.

Lace

A seemingly obvious one, but what wedding is complete without this romantic, feminine fabric appearing somewhere throughout the celebrations? From bridal gowns to designer décor, weddings and lace are a perfect match.

Flower crowns

From flower girl staples to bridal fashion statements, the flower crown never gets old. While your choice of blooms may vary depending on what's

Wedding favours add a personal touch to your celebrations and express your gratitude to guests for being a part of your special day. These days wedding favours are both practical and personal, offering guests a keepsake that can continue to be used long after the last remnants of butter-cream frosting have been devoured. The good news is it is no longer necessary to break the budget showering guests with precious stones, as was the custom of the European aristocracy. Today there is a range of inexpensive personalised gifts available for guests that reflect the unique personality of your union and help them share in the memories of your special day. Here we investigate the top five wedding favours people will actually us

1. Flip-flop bottle opener

If you are planning a destination wedding to an island paradise or hosting a nautically-themed event, your wedding

From baby animals to blossoming blooms, there's so much to love about spring. And with spring being the most popular season to get married in Australia last year (37% of couples said, "I do" in Spring 2016*), we decided to share with you what we love most about spring weddings:

1. Symbolism

The season of new beginnings presents a perfect time to mark your new beginning as husband and wife. Spring is also associated with new life, fresh starts and fertility, so if babies are high on your agenda, there may be no better time to tie the knot. Mark your new beginning with a white freestanding joined names wedding sign set to highlight your new married couple status.

From the second that ring is slipped onto your finger, you're faced with the daunting task of sharing your nuptial news with your family and friends, as well as your wider social networks. And news travels fast in this hyper-connected world of ours, so it's easy to understand how your journey to the altar can be tracked, tagged and tweeted via social media every step of the way. To make sure you do it with dignity, we share with you the secrets of this modern-day minefield and help you successfully navigate social media wedding etiquette.

Engagement Announcements:

• Tell your immediate family first.
  While it's tempting to immediately shout your engagement news to the world via your socials, a phone call

Invitations set the benchmark for your wedding and create the initial impression for your family, friends and loved ones about what to expect from your upcoming nuptials. Your invites set the tone for your main event, so here we share our top tips for getting it right with your wedding invites.

Write it right

There are a few key elements of content that need to be included in your wedding invites. These are:

• The names of the bride and groom
• The wedding date and timing
• Location of the ceremony and reception
• RSVP information

Apart from these essential elements, it is at the discretion of each individual couple whether you want to include additional information such as dress code,

Wedding favours are a way to say thank you to your loved ones for the part they have played in not only your nuptial celebrations, but your life to date. Rather than impractical, impersonal favours that will be left on the table when the festivities have faded; we show you five ways to create unforgettable wedding favours that sincerely express your gratitude and are guaranteed to go home with your guests.

1. Use it

Wedding favours that can be used in the world beyond the wedding are always a big hit with guests. If you're getting married in the middle of summer, items such as Hangover Kits, wooden wedding fans, customised beach thongs or stubby holders to keep your beer cold go a long way. Similarly, winter weddings may see you providing wraps, gloves or even slippers for tired, post-dancefloor feet. Personalise these presents with your own special message, artwork or design to provide a practical gift with a personal touch.

What is it that you remember most about the weddings of friends and loved ones? While a designer gown, 5-tier cake and 10-carat diamond rings are impressive; it's the intimate details that leave a lasting impression.

What are wedding favours?

Wedding favours add a personal touch to your celebrations and express your gratitude to guests for being a part of your special day. These days wedding favours are both practical and personal, offering guests a keepsake that can continue to be used long after the last remnants of butter-cream frosting have been devoured.  

Use wedding favours to complement your individual style

Wedding favours need to reflect the unique personality of the bride

These days the majority of couples find themselves in the 'try before you buy' scenario. Most people live together to test out how the relationship survives under one roof before even contemplating the notion of marriage. Before the distant sound of wedding bells begin to chime, many couples have bought a house together or made other significant financial investments, and may even have a couple of kids together before making it official.

Celebrating another year, or you know someone who's birthday is coming up? Im sure we all do, right! There's something so touching and meaningful about a personalised gift. Finding the 'right' gift is the hardest part. That's why we've put together a collection of pretty cool & unique gifts that you can engrave with the recipient's name, initials or even favourite saying and message just from you. Whether it be an engraved glass, engraved decanter, engraved wooden wine box - Personalised Favours has the answers or gift that will be treasured forever.

Here are our Top Personalised Birthday Gifts for 2016:

Engraved Glassware

Image Sourced from Pinterest

Your wedding reception is a unique room that you can style to reflect the love and personality of you and your new husband or wife. Whether it be extravagant, simple, modern or rustic, the theme of the room will be you. Styling your wedding tables can often be tricky. You don't want to 'over-style' and clutter the space your guests have, but your don't want them to look bare either. What you really should be doing is opting for a simple, but unique look. Think innovative, engraved and and fresh - your guests will appreciate the artistic side to your wedding decor. Wood Vs Mirror - Check out our top tips for styling your wedding tables:

Table Numbers

Table numbers ca

We recently ran a competition and asked the question: what do you love most about your fiancée? We had such an overwhelming response with over 1000 fabulous answers; we couldn't possibly keep them to ourselves.  We had a number of entries from females, AND MEN telling us what they loved most about their other half.

Here are some of the best ( and funniest ) answers we received from our lovely customers and facebook followers:

What do you love most about your fiancée?

He gave me the most precious thing in my life - my daughter !! Better than diam

Gold weddings have become the trendiest wedding colour palette in recent years. The sparkle and shine it brings to your special day, makes gold a must have colour when planning your wedding. Scroll through your instagram feeds and you are bound to stumble across a magical metallic wedding setting. From cakes to stationery, to dresses and decor, gold transforms the ordinary to extraordinary.

In celebration of the long weekend ( YAY!), the team at PF have decided to give away another $500 voucher to shop on our online store. To enter visit ?

Planning a wedding is not an easy feat. There are so many things to consider and more often than not, it can be a stressful experience. As the Mother of the Bride, the best thing to do is to acknowledge how hard it can be planning a wedding and to be as helpful and supportive as possible.

Here are some helpful responsibilities Mums can take care of:

• Help find & get quotes on ceremony locations
• Help the bride choose her wedding dress
• Assist the bride with the guest list.
• Determine what the bride wants you to wear on the special day. Then consult with the mother of the groom so you can both coordinate your elegance.
• Attend and help organise the bridal shower/hens night
• Assist with preparing and organising wedding

A Parisian style monochrome wedding is a beautiful theme to coordinate with and one that can be easily carried out throughout your entire wedding. Not only is black and white a classic theme, it is also timeless and will be forever popular.

The Key

The key to pulling a monochrome wedding off it to be mindful of the black to white ratio. You want the white to be the dominating colour, with pops of black thrown in to compliment. After all you don't want a dark and gloomy wedding!

Invitations and Stationary

Start by setting the tone of your wedding and think ab

So you're planning to have your wedding in a beautiful garden! We have found some gorgeous inspiration to help you visualise how your garden wedding could look along with some must have unique ideas!

Use your surroundings, fill an archway with all the flowers and plants that will be in your garden location. You can also use florals to decorate your guests table, placing the table number within the bouquet.

In case the weather starts to warm up, provide your guests the option of a

I love details. It's the little touches or "details" that make a wedding extra special. When planning a wedding the "details" often come last. They are something that are planned at the end and unfortunately they can sometimes be over looked.

The big details are things like center pieces, flowers, the cake, the dresses and the bouquets. However it is the little details that get your guests talking and gushing over. The little details can be different

Personalised Favours was once again so very humbled to accept the award for the No 1. Bomboniere for NSW at the ABIA's on Tuesday night the 8^th December.

For the second year we have been lucky to be a part of the beautiful event hosted at Dockside in Darling Harbour. A big thank you to all our lovely customers who voted for us. We can't thank you enough! We were up against

While our lovely brides have been busily preparing for their upcoming nuptials, our PF team have been hard at work preparing their personalised wedding orders! It is about time we shared a little behind the scenes action and share our wonderful workplace with you all.

We have come a long way over the last couple of years and it is all thanks to the continuous support and love from you guys. Sherridan has been busily organising our showroom, arranging products and clearing out.
If you would like to pop in and say hello and explore our showroom, we are open from 8.30am - 5.00pm Monday - Friday.

We have some pretty exciting projects and events coming up like the ABIA awards and releasing our new Christmas range. Stay tuned for the launch!

Social media updated from Emma - We have hit 30k likes on Facebook and will be announcing an exciting competition soon which you will want to be a part of. 

So what is the Bridal Bazaar? Every bride visualises her wedding day, from what she dreams to look like to the opulent or simple stylings of her gorgeous ceremony and reception.

The Bridal Bazaar event was held in Sydney for all who dream of creating an unforgettable and unique experience for their guests and themselves. A treasure-trove full of wonderful items perfect for the fashionista, socialite and glamazon.

Guests were able to peruse through the beautiful styled stalls from Australia's most sought-after creatives at the prestige Dockside, Cockle Bay Wharf. Undeniably the event oozed extravagance, luxury and a lavish atmosphere.

After meeting the PR guru herself, Roxy Jacenko, this month at the Ministry of Talent seminar, we have been inspired busy little bees. So this week, we're taking you behind the scenes to show you what we have been doing while y'all were sleeping.

Our week starts off with some wild bareback riding along the beach - kidding! We do however hit the ground running each week; and this week was no exception.

Here are our top 4 moments from the week that was:

1. SHOWROOM

Our show room is up and running! Did I hear an -OH YEAHH- All our products for display for you to

Personalise your wedding from start to finish to create a more intimate and special experience. Have your family and friends feel important to you throughout your wedding with these simple and handy tips:

1. Create a unique wedding sign welcoming your guests to your wedding.

2. Include guest names on your invitations.

3. Sand ceremony - Personal moment between bride and groom. It symbolizes bringing together two families or two lives into a single stream.

Choosing the right colours for your wedding or engagement party can be a difficult task. There are so many combinations to choose from and it can be a little bit overwhelming. To give you some inspiration, here is one of my favourite colour combinations: Purple and Gold!

Some examples for you to draw inspiration from:

Stand out from the crowd and make a statement with a beautiful engraved GOLD ACRYLIC invitation

2015 and into 2016 will be the year for individualism. Couples are seeking to infuse all elements of their wedding with unique and personal touches (and I don't just mean adding fireworks to your dance floor). I mean injecting real personality and symbolism that reflects the couple and their unique love.

Couples want to communicate who they are and this is done so by including unique and otherwise out of the ordinary features. 2015 has witnessed a surge in personalisation and with the endless ideas and continuous evolving ideas readily available within the industry, it is no wonder how some couples can become carried away. After all, it is an exciting process which allows couples to be involved in the process and express their creativity.

Here are some of our hand-picked ideas that brides can't get enough of.

Signage: Creative signage is a booming trend which will be sure to stick around for a long time. Whether your into Rustic

So what is Rustic? Is it a trend or a style? There is something lovely about a rustic style wedding that remains ever so popular with our brides today.

Rustic weddings are not a trend but in fact a style and one that is diverse, heart-warming and so very creative. Not to be confused with a vintage style wedding, but Rustic can branch off into many style niches such as Rustic Chic, a small amount of rustic but with that elegance we love at weddings.
There is Rustic Country, Rustic Vintage and so many other variations. Rustic is all about the textures, fibers, natural beauty, handmade and raw aspects of our world.

So what are the fun and characteristics that define a Rustic wedding? If you have been living on Pinterest then you will know that burlap hessian and mason jars rule them all. You may have also seen handmade recycled timber signs, native flower bouquets, garlands, bunting

We are often asking Brides where they get their inspiration from or what inspires their wedding style. With an abundance of sources out there to tickle anyone's fancy, it's no wonder Brides have such a difficult time deciding whether they like a,b or c!

Sources such as Pinterest have come a long way with providing endless streams of wedding amazingness for women to gush over and sometimes only dream of (damn budget!) The more traditional sources of inspiration are the humble (and heavy!) wedding magazines. Still as popular as ever and always a nice companion when sipping a cup of tea in your pj's.

Where ever you live and whatever your style, the wedding industry will cater for you and it is with our pleasure that we do so. So when it comes to looking for that beautiful Bonbonniere or that perfectly personalised invite, we are there for you waiting with open arms and ready to help you on your journey to wedding bliss.

A fantastic source of wedding suppliers, real

This week we have been talking about preserving elements from you wedding. You spend hours months and maybe a year planning your wedding, and before you know it, the party is winding up and its time for the honeymoon. What do you do with all your spare menus, invitations, flowers, bombonieres and table décor?

1. Why not have these preserved in a 'Shadow Box' and Mason Jar?

A shadow

Yes! A creative and useful way to begin your journey to walk down the aisle is by sending out a save the date to friends and family once the date for their big day is locked in.

Not only are save the dates very affordable, you can also have a bit of fun selecting a design and style, which will set the feel your wedding from the very beginning! Save the dates are a great idea and they will definitely get your family and friends pumped up for the big day!

They are also useful to send out if you have guests travelling internationally or interstate for your wedding. Not only does it give them plenty of notice of your big day, but it also allows them to factor in travel, leave, where to stay and their budget.

With most couples, planning

Personalised Favours humble beginnings started in 2009 moon lighting and selling on eBay. We found a niche that we were really interested in, i.e. the wedding industry and concentrated on creating quality and unique personalised products.

Since then we have opened an online store while continuing to sell on eBay and now employ 6 full time staff members and continue to grow.

We were contacted by Kochie's Business Builders to inform us we had been nominated for the Rescue My Site Competition in the Local Legends category. As you can guess we were thrilled