I am thrilled to have been nominated for the 2024 Good Funeral Awards in the “Best External Supplier to the Funeral Industry” category. It feels a huge honour for little old me to be up there with so many exceptional providers in the Industry’s most sought after set of awards.
The awards cover 18 categories, from ‘Best Crematorium’ and ‘Most Promising Newcomer’, to ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ and of course ‘Funeral Director of the Year’. I believe that ‘Best External Supplier to the Funeral Industry’, which includes suppliers such as florists, IT software and stationers like myself, is a new category for 2024 (don’t quote me on this!).
From the very beginning, my mission has been to innovate and elevate the standards of funeral stationery and the experience that families receive when arranging it. I understand the profound impact that meaningful, high-quality choices can have for families arranging a funeral, and I am dedicated to offering a refreshing, modern choice of Orders of Service (and other printed memorial items) alongside the highest possible customer care.
I’m a very small fish in a very big pond, though, choosing to focus my efforts on quality rather than quantity and the fact that every single person should be treated as an individual. My prices are higher than my competition and my turnaround times are longer – but this is because I’m offering a unique and personal product and service to every single family who comes to me and I feel so passionately that this is what’s right and needed. It is therefore a huge honour to receive this recognition and validation that others share these values and that I’ve made a difference to those who have chosen to work with me.
I have been lucky to work with some of the most wonderful families – many who have come to me individually, via google at midnight, because they wanted something different to the options they were being given. Never do I fail to be humbled by the fact they are trusting me with something so important, at a time when there really is no margin for error. I feel so privileged to have been able to work with them and create something special for their loved one.
I am also so fortunate to work closely with some incredible, and hugely inspiring, funeral directors, as well as celebrants and other industry professionals, who dedicate their lives to helping others in their time of need and carving the way to changing funerals for the better. I’m so grateful that they have extended their trust to me when recommending me to families in their care, and for the support they have shown to me.
So – an enormous thank you to everyone who has worked with me these last five years. It is not taken for granted and every single order still means as much as the very first. But the biggest thank you in this particular context goes to those who have taken the time to nominate me. Especially because I know that the form is long! So it really does means so, so much – thank you.
Finalists are announced later this month – please keep your fingers crossed for me! It’s a tough and broad category, with 11 other fabulous nominees ranging from florists to refrigeration to marketing services – I’m the only stationer. Whilst I highly expect to be totally outshone, you never know! Watch this space, and read more about the Awards here!
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