AS HEARD ON NOVA, 96 FM, 92.9 AND TRIPLE J

92.9

Valentine's Day radio interview at 92.9

No. 1 question I always get asked at interviews :

" What is the weirdest wedding proposal you have organised ?"

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ABC TRIPLE J

Was an absolute blast being interviewed by ABC Triple J for my business. Just weeks after giving birth to my son.

Check out the podcast and interview write up here

www.abc.net.au › Catapult › Stories

A romantic business

Erin Kirkness has made romance her business.

The story so far...

If your man has been having secret meetings with Erin Kirkness, chances are you are about to get really lucky.

Erin has made it her business to create romance, whether it be rose petals and themed hotel rooms, organising a chef to give you a night out at home, or helping a nervous would-be groom choose the best way to propose to his beloved.

"I used to work as a wedding stylist and had a guy say: 'Look, I need some decoration in the room, it looks terrible.' I thought: 'This is a good idea' and it kind of went from there, [and] within six months [I had] developed the idea."

Her company Romantic Rooms now operates out of Perth and Melbourne, specialising in decorating hotel rooms with satin and rose petals right through to setting up a romantic wedding proposal.

"[They guy would] give me a call secretly and I'll meet them for lunch in a secret spot. I've got 50 different proposal ideas they go through to find what suits them and their partner best.

"Picnics are quite popular, and you just kind of secretly hide behind a tree waiting for them to arrive to the picnic, and then I'll run off and set up their room so they can go back to that. There's been nothing really out of the ordinary yet, but I'm waiting for it, I'm up for the challenge. I'd like to do a sky-diving one, or something like that."

A room for romance

Erin says she had to make some modifications to the room decorations in order to get hotels to agree to the idea, including only using battery candles.

"It was hard work getting in there, especially with the rose petals. They have a lot of white linen, and they get really nervous about the rose petals going on that. So what I came up with was a satin overlay to go over the bed.

"The cleaning up is a bit gross, but I normally get there pretty much at checkout time and quickly go grab all my stuff and clean up and housekeepers seem to like me so that's all good."

She says the hotels are now recommending her to guests.

"Once they know that decorating a room can sell their hotel, especially for a wedding, they will keep recommending you, and you go to their expos and all their clients can see your work as well."

Although word is getting around, Erin, who has a new baby in tow, hasn't ruled out getting a second job to build up an advertising fund. She says her plan is to have staff all over the country creating Romantic Rooms.

"The different forms of advertising I really need to use with my business are expensive," she says. "Television would be fantastic, but even print media seems to be quite expensive. Valentine's Day needs a big advertising campaign."

In the meantime, this dyed-in-the-wool romantic is enjoying spreading the love around.

"I have this really beautiful book that I put in the room for their comments, and saying 'it's just such a nice end to our wedding day'. And also the proposals are just go gorgeous...The comments are just really, really great."

by Rebecca Martin (05/02/2008)