Louise gets creative for big occasions

Weddings are big business and a South Galway resident is hoping to make them her big business in the coming months.

Louise Olsthoorn, who lives and works in Tubber, started her own business in April last year and is looking forward to what she hopes will be a very busy 2010.
Although in recent years Louise worked in retail sales, her early working career has proved very useful in her path to establishing Grace Covers, which provides room decor for receptions.
“As a teenager I spent many years working in hotels, mainly the Armada Hotel in Spanish Point, now a famous wedding venue and also on the front desk in the
West County, one of the busiest hotels in Clare. It was always my intention to eventually return to the hotel industry but in a different capacity than before,” she told The Clare Champion.
Grace Covers supplies products for hire to decorate reception rooms for events such as weddings or society balls. Her stock includes chair covers and colour coordinated organza sashes, a large sparkling fairylight backdrop for behind top tables and silver candelabras for use as table centrepieces.
“It started off as a part-time venture back in April but has since allowed me to leave my full-time job to work at building the business. I am now doing work in Clare, Dublin, Galway, Cork, Kerry and Offaly to name but a few,” Louise reveals.
The Miltown Malbay woman has always been artistic, something which lends itself to her new career but more important, she believes, is that she has a strong attention to detail.
“I have always enjoyed being creative. It’s a great feeling to walk into a function room that looks average and leave it looking amazing. It really is a job with a huge level of personal satisfaction. I guess I have always had a good idea of what looks right and works well in a room. I am a total perfectionist when it comes to the business and I think that’s very obvious from chatting to me when planning an event.
This is essential, especially from a wedding supplier, as it gives the bride and groom the confidence in you and your product,” she explains.
Although Louise runs the company, someone else was very influential in its formation. Louise married recently and her husband Michael is also an entrepreneur.
“I always wanted to run my own business, who doesn’t really? It was just a matter of coming up with a good idea and putting the time and effort into getting it off the ground. I decided on Grace Covers when we were planning our wedding but it’s only the start of many more ventures hopefully. My husband also owns his own company and watching him go through the start-up phase and succeed in running a company really inspired me to get out there and do something myself,” she claims.
Louise designs the chair covers and sashes, specifying size, shape, material and colour but the products themselves are manufactured abroad.
“It took months of Internet researching and sample stocks before finding someone who was both reliable and had high quality to offer. Obviously, price was a major issue too and although I did try to source my products in Ireland initially, it wasn’t possible on my budget at the time,” she outlines.
Since its foundation, the enterprise has grown steadily, according to Louise.
“I did my first wedding fair last January with only one sample chair cover to my name. I was terrified. I got a few bookings in the bag that day so I knew I was on to something good and the confidence began to grow. I used local papers, wedding magazines and radio stations to begin with. It felt like a lot of money was going out at the time and nothing coming in so I was very lucky to be able to keep my day job to pay the bills.
“Once I got the Internet site up and running though I had a huge increase in business. I concentrated on price as my unique selling point. I really wanted to appeal to the masses and not just to the lucky few who have huge budgets at their disposal. This meant the profit wasn’t huge on each event but I was starting to get busy, so it was working out well for me. Now I’m at the stage where I’m being recommended and that’s a real buzz,” she says.
She worked on 70 events from April to the end of last year but she refuses to rest, despite her success so far.
“This year, as well as running Grace Covers, expanding my customer base and increasing the brand name recognition I am hoping to possibly start another new business venture with Michael. We are always chatting about different ideas and have a few in the pipeline. It’s a really challenging time now in Ireland but I’m not afraid to fail a few times before hitting the jackpot. It’s so exciting to see a simple conversation turn into a viable business,” Louise concluded.