Wedding styling, The Little Wedding Helper

Kirsten Butler is The Little Wedding Helper, a wedding stylist, previously a primary school teacher, based in Horfield. Her hands move as if she’s creating in the air the table pieces and cake stands festooned with petals, flying sequin drapes fall into position right before me. The enthusiasm is equalled when Kirsten – The Little Wedding Helper – discusses the wedding community in Bristol. Not officially a collective as such, they are certainly part of an independent wedding movement, bells ringing teepees up and clusters of floral displays on trestle tables waiting for their guests.

“The tide has turned for weddings, it’s about DIY and collecting objects that resonate meaning. So many brides look at Pinterest and I say ‘that’s a beautiful board, but I can only translate so much of this’. Balloon arches and chair covers – eek.

“Starting off in the business, I found that there was a particular market that I wanted to appeal to. I wanted to put a cake on a dressing table, have a table plan on a chest of drawers with flowers spilling out of it. And at the beginning, I wanted to take any wedding, but I found that hard. I think when you’re creative, you have to think: what’s my USP?”

Kirsten’s weddings are collaborative, they reflect the couple she works with, but there’s definitely a The Little Wedding Helper style. It’s in the touches, displays and table settings. Kirsten beautifully transforms manor houses, marquees and village halls, styling each venue herself the morning of the wedding.

“It’s about sprinkling inspiration, creating a wow factor for you and your guests that will be talked about and remembered long after the confetti has blown away,” Kirsten says on her website. This sparkle has won her national wedding awards.

“It’s amazing to see the wedding industry change and all the small businesses emerging. We are all great friends and it’s really important. We have tweet ups and support each other. There are many independents pursing their second careers, keeping jobs alongside their wedding business. Quite rightly, they are waiting to see how their business goes first, because it takes a lot of guts to go full-time in your creative business.”

This is something Kirsten knows all about. A primary school teacher for 12 years before having her daughter and returning to work part-time, in 2006 she was asked by her best friend to help create her dream wedding and loved the process. She realised too, that as well as inspiring, sourcing and collating everything, someone to set up the wedding decor would be helpful to couples. “A light bulb moment,” she says. “Sometimes an extra pair of hands with an eye for creative detail is what some couples need.”

Two years ago, after working weekends on weddings while still a teacher part-time, Kirsten took the plunge and went full-time with The Little Wedding Helper. “I couldn’t imagine not doing the styling or the creative,” she says. She had to learn business management quickly and then a bit of delegation, using her own strengths to their full potential. Would she ever delegate the wedding set up for a couple, or any of the creative? “Never the wedding set up, I’d have to be Skyping continuously!” She has helpers with elements of the process, but it’s about Kirsten’s unique skills and the way she can somehow magically transfer a couple’s special relationship to their big day.

Images: Albert Palmer, Frances Taylor and Kirsten Butler