A few weeks ago, the Perth Art Upmarket did a write up on Charcoal and Champagne - our recent win at the Wedding Industry Awards and founder Aneta Wnek ... here's the article in case you missed it – enjoy!
The Wedding Upmarket team sat down with Aneta Wnek, the creative force behind the award winning Charcoal and Champagne. After recently being awarded the 2022 Best Hens Parties in Australia at both the Wedding Industry Awards and Australian Wedding Awards, Aneta gave us an insight into how it all began, and what she envisions for the future.
How did you get started with your business?
Charcoal and Champagne is a concept that was born from all the years I spent working as a designer and creative director in advertising, as well as an artist who draws portraits of random strangers around the world with my ‘Lifelines, portraits of serendipity’ project.
Since I can remember, over and over I would find myself surrounded by people who would say to me ‘oh, you’re one of those right-brain creative types’ as if it was some kind of medical condition that they only ever read about. And they weren’t sure if they wanted to catch it in case it infected their left-brain label! In the meantime, my travel and the Lifelines project were exposing me to a kaleidoscope of cultures and beautiful people who I met, drew and had incredible experiences through.
I learnt about communication on a whole other level, about shared-vulnerability, being ‘seen’, perfection, control and a whole lot about being human, with humans.
I found that letting go, trusting my intuition and dancing with serendipity resulted in what I can only describe as magic. A sliding-doors moment and me choosing to start my own design studio, created an opportunity for me to ‘try something’ on the side. This is when Charcoal and Champagne was born as a fun experiment through which I wanted to create experiences for some of these ‘non-creatives’, designed to reconnect them back to the dormant and too often forgotten parts of themselves – their fearless, curious, and wildly creative inner 5 year olds.
Tell us about the process of a session:
Participants are guided through a unique ‘creative journey’ as they experience life-drawing often for the first time – yes these often feature a nude model (often male at hens events, but we do also get requests for females and sometimes costumes.
Working with charcoal, everyone is encouraged to push their creativity with fun creative challenges set by their very own creative coach – in the setting of their home or venue. I absolutely love watching the transformation in the room as people get to know themselves and each other a little better. There’s regular eruptions of belly laughs as people share and are surprised by their masterpieces, allow themselves to let-go and remember how to reconnect to their inner 5 year old and simply have FUN!
We’re coming out of a time where so many of us have really missed connecting with loved ones in fun and meaningful ways –the format of the workshops provides the perfect setting to not only connect but to make some fun lasting memories!
What does Charcoal and Champagne offer?
So much! We offer the following experiences:
Monthly social pop-up events open for the public to join
Special events like the upcoming MOTHERS DAY social workshop
Team Building Workshops
Hens Parties
Birthdays
Wellness Workshops & Retreats (including body image)
Family-friendly Arty Parties
School Workshops for teachers and students
Collaborations and Festivals!
Do you work on your business full-time? Or is your business a side project you enjoy?
It started as a passion project and now is a full time focus as I love the impact it has on people. As a small business owner, what has been the biggest challenge that you’ve faced?
Most notable, Covid definitely was a challenge with events – it was impossible for anyone to know what was around the corner and how long this thing was going to last – I had to make a few big decisions like whether to go online.
I took this opportunity to redo my website and clean up a few branding things which turned out to be a great call and has helped me elevate the business.
What are your goals for the future?
I would love to have a wider reach with what I teach and the workshops. Speaking, presenting, writing a book. You can find Aneta at Wedding Upmarket on Saturday 29th April at UWA from 10am to 3pm.
Alternatively, you can connect with her here: Instagram https://www.instagram.com/charcoalandchampagne/
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