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Personalised embroidered maps from House of Whatnot

*Please note this competition is now closed 28/03/13*

There are some lovely little businesses out there and when an email drops into my inbox from one who creates a product that I utterly love, it’s a pure pleasure to share details (and a competition!) with you all.  Today I get to introduce you to Sally who runs House of Whatnot creating these beautiful framed maps with embroidered personalised details.

Wedding map keepsake with embroidered intials

If, like me, you fall head-over-heels for Sally’s delightful keepsakes, then you might want to enter the competition at the bottom of the blog post – one lucky couple will win a personalised framed map, featuring a special location to you picked out with an embroidered heart and your initials.  I am just so envious of whoever wins this!

Handmade personalised wedding map

First I want to tell you a bit more about Sally and how she started up House of Whatnot.  Like many others, Sally was inspired by her enjoyment of making items for her own wedding and once it was over decided to continue creating handmade items to decorate her home.

“I’ve always dabbled in a lot of arts and crafts, going into a frenzy for my recent wedding last August in the Cotswolds.  I made a lot of the decor and accessories for our wedding and felt a bit of a loss for projects afterwards.”

Wedding gift with embroidered initials and wedding date

It was only natural for her to combine her love of maps and with her love of embroidery, and what she came up with was a contemporary take on the traditional embroidered piece.

“I’ve made maps for people to have as props at their wedding that they can keep forever afterwards, for anniversary gifts for couples, to remember their wedding location or their honeymoon travels, and for wedding gifts from others to the newlyweds, as well as locations of baby births!”

Embroidered personalised wedding maps from House of Whatnot

The maps come in a variety of sizes – five, six or seven inches – depending on the map and which size suits it best.  Your map can feature either an ordnance survey map, or in some cases a vintage map if Sally can source one for the location you’re after.

Handcrafted and personalised wedding map memento

Sally currently offers three different maps – a £25 map embroidered with a symbol in any colour (such as a heart or a house), a £35 map for a symbol plus initials of the couple in one or two colours (the initials monogram is designed by Sally), or a £40 map including a symbol, couples initials plus the date of the wedding.

How to enter the competition

*Please note this competition is now closed 28/03/13*

Sally at the House of Whatnot is offering one lucky couple the opportunity to win a map of your chosen location embroidered with your initials and a symbol.  This competition is open to couples getting married, couples who have got married and would love a keepsake of their day, or perhaps you’d like to win it as a gift for family or friends who are getting married.

To enter, simply leave a comment in the box below telling myself and Sally why you would like to win, where you got or are getting married and, unless it’s a gift for another couple, why you chose the location.

House of Whatnot embroidered map

Please ensure that you enter your email address in the box provided as this is how we’ll contact the winner.  All entries must be received by midnight on Friday 29th March 2013.  Please note, your comment might not appear immediately as all comments are sent for moderation to prevent spam – but it will appear shortly!

Please make sure you read the terms and conditions below before you enter this competition.

Terms and Conditions

1. This competition closes at midnight on Friday 29th March 2013.
2. Only one entry per couple.
3. Entries must be submitted via the comment box on this blog post – please ensure your leave your email address when it asks for it (it won’t be displayed publicly but we’ll need it to contact you if you’re the winner).
4. By entering you agree for House of Whatnot to use the final embroidered map in promotional material and for The Natural Wedding Company to share it on the blog.
5. Maps usually cost £35.
6. The winning couple will receive the finished maps posted to a UK address only.
7. Please allow 10 days from competition close to the winner receiving the finished map.
8. The winner will be announced following Easter weekend.

Comments

Sarah on 20. March, 2013

This is a beautiful idea! I would love to have one made for our wedding.
We’re getting married in August in central London (Marylebone town hall) then having the reception in a pub local to us in South London. The map would look amazing displayed at the reception, as we’re decorating with lots of eclectic/ mis matched items. We’ll be buying our own property together after the wedding & the map will also look great displayed there & be a lovely reminder of our day & time living together in central London 🙂 xx

Kim Hutton on 20. March, 2013

I would love to win this embroidered map for me and my fiancee. I’m hoping to add loads of lovely crafty touches to my wedding, though I won’t be able to make them all myself so this would be amazing. We’re getting married at the Capital Hotel in Edinburgh in April next year. We choose it because it has an amazing walled garden we can have our photos taken in and our wedding theme is going to be woodland, so it’s perfect!

Adele Kilpatrick on 20. March, 2013

To Charlie & Sally,

A beautiful design you can keep forever – It is a gift that would show where the new chapter began. We are trying to create a vintage feel to our wedding and this is something we could use and look back on to remind us of all the little things that went into the day. We are getting married back in Australia where are from in a winery called Killara Estate Seville East Victoria next year on the 15th of March. It is a place that we laugh, relaxed, had lots of smiles and ate lots of amazing food over the years we have lots of memories and it was the location we kept coming back to. Thank you very much Adele x

Sophie on 20. March, 2013

We are getting married in June 2014. My boyfriend is a town mouse while I am most definitely a country mouse – but we live together in the centre of Manchester, so when it came to deciding a location we knew it’d be tricky.

But as soon as we both clapped eyes on the gorgeous Dovecote Barn, just two miles from where I grew up and where my parents still live, in North Oxfordshire, neither of us needed convincing – it is simply the place for us! We’d love the opportunity to hang the map in the barn at the wedding as it would suit the listed building perfectly!

Lisa Jones on 20. March, 2013

Gosh these are so gorgeous!

I’ve been looking for a unique ‘hand made’ present to give to my best friend for her wedding (I actually really want one for my own wedding too but must be a dutiful friend and stick to the pursuit of wedding gift for someone else, not me!!)

I absolutely love the timeless quality of the embroidery map and I can imagine this up in my friend’s house for years to come as a lovely reminder of their wedding day, and something to pass down to their children. What an unusual and lovely keep-sake! Lisa x

Amanda on 20. March, 2013

Such a beautiful memento of the day!
I’d love one as the place we’re getting married means so much to us. We’re also on a tight budget and I haven’t even got my husband to be a gift yet.
We’re getting married in mid April in Barnes, London.It’s where I grew up and where we live now. Our church is only a two minute walk away and we’re so happy to get married there. It’s our place of worship every Sunday. Our three year old son goes to Sunday school and the Montessori nursery of the church.
Our special day will also be his special day. His christening will happen after we sign the register and all move down to the font!
We’ll be walking to church together and then walking to our local riverside venue for the reception 🙂
Barnes is also a historic location, so an old map may be found of it!
Xxx

Jodi Fenney on 20. March, 2013

What a totally beautiful idea! We are getting married at Pimhill barn in Shrewsbury. I knew i wanted a barn and stumbled across this one – i was just blown away when i saw it and have based the whole wedding around it! I am doing lots of cross stitch embellishment on the place settings and invites, and will be decorating the entire place from scratch so this would make a beautiful focal point that would be so in keeping with our style.
I am really keen to be able to keep lots of things from the wedding to include in our house decorations, and i can also see this over looking wonderful over the fireplace! xxx

Bev on 20. March, 2013

We’re getting married in February 2014. My fiancee & myself both lived in Devon. We are getting married in the Corn Barn, an amazing rural location dating from the 18th Cent, in Sutton Barton, Devon. This venue combines both our love for the rural countryside & my financee’s farming background. The handmade map would be such a fitting centrepiece to the venue as it would show many places relatives are from locally; places where my fiancee’s family have lived, worked and farmed which would then become an heirloom for us to pass on. It would also seal our day perfectly & uniquely.

Kat Ford on 20. March, 2013

I would love to win this, these are so beautiful and such a unique idea! We are getting married at our local church which is just over the road from our house in April 2014, our reception is then being held at the Hillbark hotel, which is a stunning house less than 5 miles away. We chose this place as it’s incredibly beautiful and exactly what we wanted, but it is also close to the graveyard where my fiance’s mum is buried. It feels nice that we will be so close to her too on our big day. I would love to win this, not only because of how special the prize is, but because we will be asking for a contribution to our honeymoon off our guests if they want to give us a gift, it would be lovely to have a keepsake from the day too, which we could hang up in our bedroom.
Kat x

Nicola Yarker on 20. March, 2013

Hello Charlie & Sally.

These look loveley, a really unique decoration and people can keep for years to come.

I would like to win one of your designs as it would really go well with our travel theme. I am even stitching fabric heart favours our of world map fabric. As a couple we love to travel and also share Sally’s like of maps. Sometimes I’m worried that our house will just be covered with them. Hence the reason for our wedding theme, as it actually means something to us as a couple.

We are getting married in Buxton (Derbyshire). The ceremony is taking place in the Pavilion gardens, as i loved the idea of an outside ceremony. We then move across the road to the Devonshire Dome (currently owned by Derby university-where Matt studied). When we were searching for venues we needed somewhere large (two big families) and like everyone purse freiendly. Buxton appealed as when we were first dating we would spend days walking and piknicking in the Peak District. Buxton is also half way between both of our families, so great to get everyone together and make a weekend out of it.

As far as falling in love with the pavilion gardens and the dome, its not difficult. Both are individual and stunning. The gardens require no decorations as its all green and even has the River Wye running behind the bandstand which is where we will be making our vows! The dome allows us to really impart our personalities on the venue. Hopefully without going too far we will have our travel theme. Maps and suitcases with places we have visited together will be dotted around the large room. A stitched map would work beutifully with out other decorations, potentially going next to the cake or the card suitcase.

Sorry about my rambling, get excited thinking about our day and all that we have planned for our families.

Nicola

Kate on 20. March, 2013

I’ve not seen anything this special for a while – such a wonderful idea Sally! I bet they’re being snapped up like hot cakes!

We’re getting married at Hilltop Country House in Prestbury at the end of June. We just fell in love with the place; it’s so pretty and I always dreamed of an outdoor ceremony. Everything is happening in the same venue so the map would be just perfect for us – I’m pretty sure you’d get our house on there too!

We do a lot of walking around the area and live just down the road so it’d be a very precious thing to own and would certainly take pride of place on our big day.

All the best for lots of future success with your clever little business!

jade miller on 20. March, 2013

What a fab and unique keepsake, we are using an old cornish map for our wedding in October, we are cutting it and using it as small bunting for our card box. I can just see this stood next to our old typewriter, which we have instead of a guest book. Love this, good luck with your business, i cant tnink of anyone who wouldn’t adore these. Thanks Jade xx

Jane on 20. March, 2013

Wow, what a treat for the lucky winner! We are getting married in Settle in the Yorkshire Dales in a beautiful stone coach house with lots of windows and white-washed beams so it’s lovely and bright with incredible views. We can’t wait to decorate it with lots of interesting things for our guests to look at. Something everywhere they turn. We’d love to hang this from one of the old hooks running along the barn wall. My boyfriend is obsessed with maps. He even mapped a huge area in Scotland as part of his degree and we have the A0 map on our wall! He’d be thrilled if we won. Thanks for offering this up for grabs Charlie & Sally! x

Sarah Powell on 20. March, 2013

Hi there,

Firstly may I say how beautiful these are,and what an inspired idea!
I am lucky enough to be marrying the love of my life in 3 months & 30 days and cannot wait. I am completely over excited slready! We’re getting married at St Thomas church Wells in Somerset. Then having our reception at the old Mulberry headquarters at Kilver Court. We are trying to have as many poignant meaningful things at our wedding as possible and doing lots ourselves. It’s going to be a vintage summer fete themed wedding and one of your maps would look beautiful. Crossing fingers & hoping to get lucky! Right… Back to sewing the bunting!

Gemma on 20. March, 2013

What a fabulous idea! I love crafting and I’m making lots of things for our wedding. We are getting married in Wells, Somerset in July as it is a beautiful historic and yet small city close to where we live. We feel so at home in Wells, it seemed the perfect place to get married. This would be a perfect reminder of our special day that we could hang in our homemade home. As I craft myself I totally understand and appreciate the work that goes into items like this, but they are so worth it. My fiancé absolutely loves maps so I think I would gift this to him! Keeping my fingers crossed and thank you for this chance 🙂

Emily on 20. March, 2013

I LOVE these! It is especially fitting for my husband and me because he is English, I am American, we met in North Carolina, moved to Massachusetts, got married in England, and are having another, bigger wedding back in NC! We have traveled all over together! We got married the first time in Sheffield, and this time we are getting married in Greensboro, NC on 6 April. Also, we’ll be celebrating our 2nd anniversary (from the first wedding) this August. Is this confusing enough for you?! 😉 We are SO excited to be marrying each other…again! 🙂

Martin on 20. March, 2013

I’d like to win this because my gorgeous wife to be will love it. Simple as that.

I’ll write fast seeing as I’m the only bloke here so far I think, and no-one will see me doing wedding stuff! ; )

We’re getting married this summer in a tiny village called Meerbrook in Staffordshire, near where my fiance grew up. There’s a little church, a village green and a village hall. We’re doing everything ourselves. We don’t care what the weather will be like as it will be gorgeous whatever and we’re having all our friends for a big party. That’s all. Simple and cheap but fun.

Lauren on 20. March, 2013

I’d love to win because we’re having a destination wedding, uprooting everyone from London and heading to….. Ilam in the peak district! We’ll all be together for the weekend so the location will be a key memory of the day. Plus, we’re having P&L everywhere, it’s a match made in heaven!

Faye on 20. March, 2013

Hi Sally & Charlie,

These are such a beautiful idea! I still get around using only my street map and road map books, much to the amusement of my satnav-loving friends! I can sit and look at maps/atlases for hours, they’re fascinating. I also remember struggling, as a little girl, to get the plastic ‘loop’ onto the ring of the embroidery ring my Gran brought me – it took ages to get it on right! How lovely to own something that is so unique to you and the place that is special to you – which leads me to my next point.

We’re getting married at Beechenhill Farm, near Ashboure, Derbyshire. As soon as we saw it we never considered anywhere else. It’s a working, organic dairy farm and holiday accomodation rolled into one in the most stunning location. It is also exactly halfway between our hometowns!! But what really makes the place is the family who run it and the ethos they run it by – they advocate organic, eco friendly, local living and are drivers for the local rural community. They are keen to share their knowledge and encourage others small businesses to try new ideas, be innovative, and embrace change for the better. We would have chosen Beecenhill anyway, but the people really make it what it is – and very successfully so. We are planting a beech tree (Beech for Beechenhill!) at our wedding, as we intend that in the years that follow it, we can at anytime take a drive down, pull over, and see it growing, just like our marriage. Who knows, one day that tree may even end up on a map itself! We will also be able to stay there for an anniversary weekend, to celebrate the amazing place it is and what we promised to each other there. As you can tell, the place already means a lot to us, so having a little map of it, done so well, as a reminder every day would be the icing on the cake.

Faye x

julia on 20. March, 2013

We are getting married in June and when we first visited our chosen wedding venue last summer we just fell in love with it. We were looking for something intimate and a little different and the beautiful Windmill at Cley-next-the-sea on the north Norfolk coast seemed so appropriate. I grew up in The Netherlands, my fiancé is Norfolk born & bred and the location (as well as just being gorgeous!) represents a little bit of both of us. I love this quote I found in book and I think it sums up our chosen location perfectly “…it’s as if a little bit of Holland has drifted across the North Sea…” It would be wonderful to have such a unique momento to remember our special day at Cley.

Suzy Simpson on 20. March, 2013

Hi Charlie and Sally,

I love these maps! As a very amateur embroiderer myself I can see the passion that goes into making them.

Winning one would be really special for my fiancé and I as we are both somewhat nomadic. I am Irish but grew up in Cheshire. He is Welsh but with parents in the military he moved every few years. We met in Edinburgh 9 years ago, first lived together in Stirling and have now moved to Yorkshire to start a new life there.

We both have roots all over the UK and Europe and initially wanted to get married somewhere significant to us. In the end we chose to have our ceremony at St Benedict’s Church and our reception at Stanneylands Hotel, both near my childhood home in Cheshire. We chose this location because it is close to both sets of parents and has good transport links for our faraway friends and family. That might sound really unromantic, but we think getting married isn’t just about us and we wanted it to be easy for our guests to come and enjoy our day in relaxed, comfortable and welcoming surroundings that the wonderful people at the church and the hotel are giving us.

In the past few years we have learned that as long as we’re with each other any day can be as important and significant as we want; our wedding day will always be the first day of the rest of our lives, wherever it is. We aren’t having a theme, or any bells and whistles, we just want people to come and celebrate with us – eating, dancing and having a jolly good time!

As we’re both academics, a lifetime of regular relocations is on the cards. We have framed maps all over the house anyway (we understand the map love!), and would love a beautiful embroidered map as a unique keepsake of our wedding day, to remind us of another place we have roots; another place with happy memories that will follow us no matter where we go!

Thanks for reading!

Suzy xx

Kate Mather on 22. March, 2013

It’s fate! The beautiful embroidered map displayed above has our initials on it!

Aidan and I will ‘tie the knot’ in a stunning rural location on the west coast of Scotland this summer. It’s called Crear and is set in rolling countryside with a breathtaking backdrop of the isles of Isla, Jura and Gigha. If the Scottish weather behaves itself (!) we hope to get married on the beach beside Crear called Stornoway Bay. We met in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in 2009 after being set up by a mutual friend. We’d hit it off so well before we even met that Aidan had me saved in his phone as ‘future wife’! I think fate played a hand here too! The setting for our wedding was a natural choice. We love it. We hope our day will be relaxed, romantic and most of all fun.
To have such an unusual and beautiful reminder of our wedding day and very special wedding location would be truly wonderful. My fingers and toes are crossed xx

Cat Williams on 23. March, 2013

What a gorgeous idea. I love it! I would love to win. I get married 8 weeks today in a beautiful little church in the Troodos Mountains in Cyprus. It’s surrounded by lush green trees and winding country rounds. I’d love a forever reminder of the location.

Emily on 25. March, 2013

Wow!!! As a Geography teacher this would be a perfect gift…utterly perfect for mine and Stephen’s wedding at the lovely Preston Court. This would add a new dimension to my ever expanding map collection and my serious cartography fascination. What a gorgeous way for us to remember our special day in 2014, I have never won anything so this would be such a treat and a lovely heirloom. Everything crossed x

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