beefys-caricatures.com

Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author and creator of the Discworld series, has died aged 66, eight years after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Pratchett wrote over 70 books, had his work translated into 37 languages and has sold over 70 million books in his 44 year career. Recently he campaigned for the legalisation of assisted suicide although he died naturally at his home, surrounded by his family with his cat sleeping on his bed.

His death was announced on his Twitter account with a tweet composed in capital letters – which was how the author portrayed the character of Death in his novels – read: “AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.”

A fundraising site set up in Sir Terry’s memory to raise money for a charity that cares for those with Alzheimer’s has already raised thousands of pounds.

Here’s my tribute.

RIP Terry Pratchett

Wowzer! I’ve got 99 reviews on Freeindex and 97 of them are 5 stars (the other 2 are 4 stars!). Here’s my latest one from Colin Morris! I’m now sat at number 2 in the UK. Boooooooom!

I had a great night drawing wedding caricatures last night over at Swancar Farm Country House for Colin and Sam’s big day!

As soon as I was set up I was whizzing through the drawings – the guests were brilliant and really game for a laugh – it was great!

One of the highlights for me though, was one ‘friend’I made for the night… Isla!!

Isla with her caricature

I drew her pic early on in the eve and before long she was ‘borrowing’ my spare pens and paper and going off to draw – she’d come back every few minutes to show me her pics.

Eventually she came and sat down next to me and joined in with drawing the guests!! It was brilliant and she was so good! I even had other kids joining in too (I might have started my own army of kiddie caricaturists!!)

I even got my own caricature drawn and Isla signed it! It is definitely going up in my studio and will be my Facebook profile pic for a bit.

I got a lovely email this eve from the groom, Colin:

“Hi Mark

So sorry we did not get to say goodbye to you before you left but me and Sam just want to say a huge thank you for yesterday. Your talent, professionalism and friendliness was noted by all and the way you let the kids join in was lovely to see. We have nothing but positives to say about you and wish you the very best of luck and happiness in 2015 and beyond

Been an absolute pleasure

 Best regards

 Colin Morris”

All in all, a cracking night for a cracking couple!

Congratulations Mr & Mrs Morris!

Wowzer!!!

I had a brilliant afternoon yesterday drawing for Vishal and Rupal at their sanji celebrations (a part of their Asian wedding celebration) over at the Peepul Centre in Leicester. There were over 350 guests who kept me busy throughout, and I have to say, I saw some of the most beautiful and lavish sari’s EVER! Cracking stuff!

Got back from a brilliant booking last night drawing for Chelsee & Nathan Brown’s wedding at Sketchley Grange Hotel. The guests were brilliant, especially the best man and his brothers (Salmon Boy and Ed Sheeran ha ha). It was crackin’, apart from the drive home – 2 and a half hrs late due to the M1 being closed! Aaaaarrrgghhh!!!! Ha ha ha. Anyhow, here’s the pics!

A while back I drew caricatures at Nicola and Chris Wilson-Allott’s wedding reception and it was one of the most laid back and easy going weddings EVER! I have some great memories of this booking and asked Nicola and Chris to share their story – here it is…

We met during a Christmas night out at Rock City. Chris asked me if I would like to go on a date and we have been together for nearly 9 years!

After being together for 4 years, Chris proposed at the top of the Eiffel Tower during a romantic week in Paris. We celebrated by purchasing 2 glasses of champagne from the champagne bar located at the top of the tower. We saved the glasses and used them during a toast on our wedding day.

Initially we had no idea of where to even start when deciding what entertainment we actually wanted, all we knew we wanted something the guests could really interact with. We found the sheer variety of entertainment options to be quite daunting! We visited several wedding fairs and came away more confused than when we started!

A lot of the entertainment choices for weddings seem to be very expensive and ‘samey’; you don’t really get a ‘personal touch’. The theme that we had for the entire wedding was to be very down-to-earth, fun, laid back and relaxed. Quite a few wedding traditions, such as bridesmaids, best man and speeches, were left out to take away the more formal responsibilities and expectations so that everyone could truly relax and just enjoy the day.

We were very fortunate to hear about you through word of mouth, and on looking through some of your previous work we knew straight away that the caricatures would be a perfect addition to our entertainment. Not only was the caricatures something the guests could take away as a gift, we also thought it would be a fantastic way to get people interacting and having a laugh as they watched the pictures being drawn. The quality of your caricatures are outstanding and looking through some past examples made our decision to hire you a very easy one. The drawings appealed to us because they were both humorous and very accurate.

Contacting you was really easy and we found you to always be very approachable. There were no issues from start to finish and everything went according to plan.

On the night, you came across as being very professional but also very down-to-earth and you put all the guests at ease whilst they were being drawn. You clearly had a great rapport with the guests. One of our fondest memories of the whole day is remembering you with a big smile on your face, drawing the guests and then watching them giggle when they received the finished product.

“Everyone remarked how unusual and interesting it was to have a caricaturist at our wedding. Every guest was curious to see what was going on, and this helped to create a real buzz within the room.”

A lot of people have their caricatures framed on their walls, which we see when we visit them and this provides a cute reminder of our day! There wasn’t one person who said anything negative.  We cannot thank you enough for the great service you provided and more importantly the contribution you made to many great memories we have of our big day!

If you’re looking for something unique for your wedding day, just click the button below to enquire about your date!

All hail to the king!

Here he is, Joffrey of the Houses Baratheon andLannister the First of His Name. He’s everyones favourite child psycho and was actually the most fun to draw so far! Gotta find some time to colour these up. So, who’s next??

A couple of year’s ago I attended a wedding of a lovely couple at Kelham Hall in Newark (a very grand venue), and also created a framed caricature of the couple for their big day.

 
 
Since I started writing up some of my past customer’s experiences of having me come and draw caricatures at their wedding, Rachel got in contact with me via my Facebook page to say she would like to share her story – here it is!

Tell me about how you met, how long you have known each other, how you were proposed to – I want to know your story!

Rob and I met at The Jug and Glass in Edwinstowe, we were friends for a while before we started seeing each other. Rob asked if I would like to go out for a meal for his birthday (as friends) We went to King and Millar in Sutton and the next day 4/9/08 was when we decided to start seeing each other as a couple.

We moved quite fast as I was moving into my own and house and Rob helped loads, he moved in with me in the January 2009 although he was at my house every night before that anyway.

We went to Mexico with a group of friends in the August 2009 and this is where Rob proposed to me. He had it all planned that we was going to go for a walk on the beach and he would pop the question but it didn’t quite go to plan, I was tired and wanted to go to sleep so Rob went with the others down to the hotel bar, he said he wouldn’t be long. He was gone a long time and I wasn’t happy (grumpy tired) so when he did come back to the room, I had a go at him, not knowing he was trying to pluck up the courage to ask me to marry him.

We were on the balcony and my words to rob was ‘where do we go from here? I don’t know what you want’ Rob went inside came back out and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him, I felt so awful that I ruined his planned proposal and still do but of course I said yes and we started planning our wedding straight away.

We decided to marry in August 2011 so it would give us 2 years to save up, but when we got back from Mexico we found out I was expecting our first child Charlie and decided to put the wedding back a year to 2012.

Christmas 2010 I was sat watching one born every minute and was wanting another baby after we got married so we decided to move the wedding back to August 2011 (good job the venue could change the date)

We booked Kelham Hall and was told that a wedding fayre was coming up, we had no idea what entertainment we wanted for our wedding but we knew we wanted something different. I looked at the stalls that were going to be at the wedding fayre and saw that Beefy’s caricatures was going to be there and straight away we knew that that is what entertainment we wanted.

 
 
Did you know from the start that you wanted a caricaturist? What other entertainment had you thought of?

No, we didn’t really know what entertainment we wanted other than the disco. We wanted something a bit different and something more personal.

What homework did you have to do to find the right entertainment for you both? How easy was it? How long did it take you to find the entertainment you were looking for?

It was very easy to find what we wanted when we knew, when we saw Beefy was going to be at a wedding fayre we knew we wanted to book him. Unfortunately Beefy was ill the day of the wedding fayre but I emailed him telling him we wanted to book him and he was brill from the start.

What was you hoping to get from your entertainment? 

We wanted something for the guest to take home as a memento of our special day.

What was your biggest worry when thinking of and booking your entertainment?

Whether you would be available for our date and if everyone would be able to get a caricature.

How did you find me? How easy was it to get in contact? How well did I handle your enquiry?

Through a wedding fayre at kelham hall. it was very easy to contact you through email. you handle the enquiry brilliantly, there was an offer if we had booked you at the fayre and although we was unable to book you there you still gave us the offer which we thought was great.

What were your first impressions? How did I differ from the other entertainment you had looked at? What made you decide I was what you were looking for?

We loved your caricatures and from your emails you sounded a lovely genuine guy. You were very professional and although you had another booking that day you was still able to fit us in which was very kind of you. You made us fell at ease that our guests will be looked after and entertained and we would be able to enjoy the day without worrying.

So, how did it turn out? What made the experience better than you had hoped for?

It was just fantastic, the guests loved the caricatures and was amazed at your fab work! Your emails proved us right and you are such a genuine person and I knew that our guest enjoyed having their caricature done by you.

What have your friends and family had to say? How well did I do for you? Would you recommend me to other friends and family?

Friends and family loved it and thought it was very unique, they were able to take home some fab memories and a little gift thanks to you. I have recommended you on numerous occasions and I will do for years to come. You made our wedding special and lots of guests commented that it was the best wedding they had been to and that you were such a polite gentleman.

Picture the scene – it’s 2006 at Cruz 101 – One of Manchester’s premier gay nightclubs. There’s two drunk girls on the dance floor, their eyes meet across the crowded dance floor and the rest… well, we now have a happily married couple who have recently just had their first child!

I first met Kim and Jill at my sister-in-law’s wedding and they were both so full of fun. They both wanted to hire a caricaturist for their wedding so it seemed like serendipity when I got chatting to Kim in the queue for the buffet (my favourite part of any wedding ha ha!).

 
They had looked at other entertainment options for their wedding and had already started researching possibilities.

“We’d been looking online for photo booths and wedding entertainment, and then came across the idea of having a caricaturist to entertain our guests.

We wanted something special and slightly unique. Neither of us had been to a wedding with this kind of entertainment before. We also liked the idea of the guests being able to take home a permanent memory of the wedding night and just thought it would add a real ‘fun’ element to the night.”

They were a little worried whether the guests would embrace the idea of having their caricature drawn.

“But when we booked Beefy, we had no doubts whatsoever. First impressions were great! You were very approachable, friendly and a great personality. We knew you would be perfect for our wedding and had also seen how good your drawings were. We didn’t need to contact anyone else.”

 
I had a great evening drawing at Kim and Jills wedding. Their guests were so much fun and EVERYONE was on the dance floor. I drew non-stop for the 3 hour booking, and was paid to extend my booking ( a service I can offer if I am not booked for someone else later).

“You were brilliant and made a great contribution to our wedding day experience from both ours and our guests’ point of view. Everyone really embraced it and you stayed longer than initially booked as you were in such high demand! Seeing how much the guests were enjoying having their pictures drawn and you staying later made the experience better than we could have hoped. All our friends and family said you were wonderful and that it was such a good idea! We would definitely recommend you in the future.”

The best part of being a wedding caricaturist is contributing to someones special day and being part of their warm memories!

If you’re looking for unique and memorable entertainment that also gives your guests a gift to take away, just fill out the enquiry form by clicking the button below.