Friday 16 July 2010

Launch Party for Estate Escapes a Success!

We had a very successful launch on Tuesday evening (July 20th) and all the hard work and preparation was worth it! Delectable canapés produced by the wonderful chef extraordinaire, Marion Dupré, delightful wine from our favourite Howden-based wine merchants Flourish & Prosper, and most importantly great feed-back and comments from all the guests who attended.


Christian and I are extremely grateful to Janet Reuben, Chief Executive of Visit Hull and East Yorkshire, for joining us at the launch and are thrilled with her comments too. Janet was very impressed with the cottages saying she ‘loved the interiors and that we’ve thought of everything our guests could need’. When you’ve gone to such lengths to renovate and furnish cottages like we have done over the past year, it is so rewarding to hear such positive words from a lady who certainly knows the business.


Huge thanks should go to Christian’s fantastic aunt, Jan Odey for doing guided tours of the properties. Jan has spent most of her life on the Hotham Estate and was curious if not a little sceptical about the changes we were making to the cottages. But last night, she admitted she thinks what we’ve done to both the interiors and the exteriors more than pass the Jan Odey test! So taken by their charm, she offered to take guests around both cottages and gave them a potted history of each room. What was so interesting for guests was that Jan could remember who lived in the cottages, what they did for a living, how many children they had etc etc dating back at least 60 years.


Finally, we had our first taste of publicity on Tuesday. A photographer from The Journal spent the evening with us. Hopefully, it will get people talking...