How The Memory Knot Company Began – Part 1

How We Met – Our Blind Date Romance

There may be some of you out there who are wondering how we got started in the wedding industry and why we are called The Memory Knot Company… well wait no longer!

Jaimie is from Nottingham and in the late nineties until 2003, she occasionally worked for her housemate who owned his own event production company. She gained experience of the industry when helping to decorate for large corporate events, weddings, and college parties whilst also training to be a children’s nurse.

Many a night was spent making props for various events, before going to university the following day. Alongside her student life, Jaimie also worked part-time as a health care assistant for a children’s hospice. That’s where her creative stationery skills began, making child-friendly sympathy cards for bereaved families, which lead on to her making wedding invitations and greeting cards as a side-line.

Meanwhile, in a small ‘middle of nowhere’ village perched on top of a mountain in Cumbria, Jaimie’s sister and husband moved from Leicestershire and bought the quaint village pub.

One person who made it his life’s mission to keep this pub in Garrigill afloat was local traditional blacksmith Andrew [shown on the right in the photo below, alongside his brother and fellow blacksmith]

At the time, Andrew and his family owned and ran a visitor’s attraction at Andrews parents’ property, comprising of a tearooms…

… waterfall walk and blacksmiths forge, conveniently located within a 5 minutes’ walk away from the pub.

In September 2002, Jaimie’s parents planned a holiday to visit Jaimie’s sister at the pub in Cumbria, which included many trips up the road to the tearooms for the odd afternoon tea. That’s where they met Andrew and his family, with Jaimie and Andrew’s mums bonding over card making and crafty things. On one visit, the topic of conversation centred on their ‘middle of nowhere’ location and lack of available women for Andrew to date. Jaimie’s parents persuaded Andrew to pose for a photo, as they had “a lovely daughter lined up” for him!

He was a little apprehensive, as on this occasion Andrew had his apron on because he was running the tearoom and had been making scones… very fetching! Once Andrew got his ‘arm from behind his back’, said photo was taken and started its journey back to ‘the daughter’ in Nottingham for approval. A few days later Jaimie’s mum emailed Andrew, under the ruse of giving his mum some info on craft work… the end of the email also stated that Andrew’s photo “has won first prize in the, you’re in with a chance competition!”

Andrew replied… eventually, can you believe he made her wait for 3 days because he’d been busy shopping in Ikea with her sister!!

At his request, Jaimie sent a photo of herself in return and that sealed the deal for Andrew… an embarrassing blind date was arranged for us in the village pub when Jaimie visited the following month.

Strangely busy in the pub that particular night… word had obviously got around the village that the landlady’s little sister was up for a visit and meeting Andrew for a hot date!

We hit it off, got very drunk and many visits between Nottingham and Cumbria commenced. After just 6 months of dating, Jaimie found a rare opening at Northumbria university where she could transfer and continue her nursing studies… so I imported her from Nottingham in March 2003!

We rented a cottage together ‘on top of the mountain’ for a year, before Jaimie suggested us getting married [when Andrew was drunk, which she still does now when she wants things]. Andrew kept her waiting for a few months until July 2004, when we went to Tunisia on our 1st holiday together… his t-shirt says it all!

On a day trip, Andrew popped the question on a tourist ‘pirate ship’ off the coast of Tunisia.

He waited until everyone had jumped overboard to go diving… less witnesses!! Andrew recalls, the moment… “I got down on one knee and Jaimie thought I was about to throw her overboard.”

“Once she stopped screaming ‘No, No, No’ and grasped the situation, she finally said yes!”

At the time, Jaimie couldn’t see properly due to a fair amount of suntan cream getting in her eyes, so Andrew said, “I miss-read the tears and eye rubbing as her being ‘overwhelmed with emotion’… turns out not to be the case, lol!”

So, we set a wedding date for September the following year, deciding it was a good idea to have a marquee on the lawn at Andrew’s parents place and thought we would do it all ourselves. Great decision, or so we thought and subsequently the concept for The Memory Knot Company was borne out of the ensuing planning and decor stresses we experienced. Find out how our wedding planning went in the next blog; part 2 of this behind the scenes look at The Memory Knot Company.