Ever been to a wedding reception, looked at the table plan only to find that you have been seated with other guests that you either don’t know, have nothing in common with or simply dislike? If so then you will definitely be able to empathise with the following.

I went to a wedding several years ago and unfortunately found myself in this exact situation - seated with guests that I had never met before. Once I took my seat at the table I did the polite thing of introducing myself and trying to make polite ‘chit chat’ with the other guests, but I found myself struggling for conversation and feeling increasingly uncomfortable with all the long silences that kept occurring. Each time I took a sip of my drink I couldn’t help scanning the rest of the function room and wishing I was sitting at another table because they all looked to be having much more fun than ours (although secretly many of them were probably feeling the same as me).

Fortunately the mood lightened up once the drinks started flowing, but this first part of the evening was excruciating and something I’d like to avoid in future. Anyway, I began thinking to myself that the last thing I would want to happen at my Wedding (the so called ‘biggest day of my life’) was for any guests to be feeling the same way as I had (especially if I was forking out a ‘fortune’ trying to make it enjoyable).

During the drive home the following day, I found myself contemplating what could possibly make the start of these wedding receptions more enjoyable. This led to the concept of a Wedding Bomb – a package of some sort that would contain lots of toys, games and novelty items to help amuse guests. The bomb would be a gift from the bride and groom to their guests, would be placed on each table, and would hopefully act as an ‘ice breaker’ and provide entertainment for them during the early part of the evening.

Over the next few months I decided to devote some time to developing my idea further and found myself spending weekends dragging my girlfriend round various novelty shops and toy stores (when I knew she was secretly gagging to get into all the designer clothes shops we passed) for ideas on what could go into each bomb. I’d even find myself getting excited about toys and games that I hadn’t seen for years but that I remembered were brilliant when I was a kid. Over the months I ended up collecting a whole bunch of items that I thought were groovy and that everyone else would also like, irrespective of their age. I then sought the opinion of friends and family so that I could end up with a ‘shortlist’ of the favourite items.

I then went on to design the actual look of the bomb. The one thing I was keen to ensure was that it looked extremely elegant so that it would complement any table arrangement that the bride and groom had chosen. I think I’ve managed to achieve this now and you can see the outcome at my new web-site (www.partyheroes.co.uk). Currently we sell Party, Hen, Wedding and mini bombs and reaction to them all has been absolutely brilliant so far and I’m hoping that I can expand the company so that I can offer a greater range to cover a whole host of other events.