Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2015 / January 2016 | Page 40

INTERVIEW
Six figure budgets

in London before, as she describes it,
“swapping my briefcase and Blackberry for
a tiara and magic wand” and transforming
herself into a children’s entertainer.
In many ways, this proved a perfect
combination of talents to spot the party
business potential on the Island.
Even before the end of their first year in
business, Dazzle and Fizz was starting to
attract larger London bookings: “I’m not
quite sure how” says Charlotte, “probably
it came via people who holidayed on the
Island, around Seaview and Gurnard”.
She admits it felt overwhelming at first
when the bookings started speeding up
and getting bigger in scale.
“We felt a bit out of our depth for a
while, but then we decided we just had to
go for it”.
She recalls getting one massive
confidence boost early on, from a spythemed party they organised at a venue
in Notting Hill, for 40 children.
“We did everything from the décor and
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styling to table dressing and the client
was really pleased with us, which made
us realise ‘Yes – we can do this!’
It wasn’t long before Charlotte and Dan
had to take on a couple of staff based
in Southampton and the New Forest, to
help with events on the mainland.
“By mid-2012 I seemed to be spending
every Saturday and Sunday on the ferry
going to mainland parties” she recalls.
That made no sense, and ultimately
led Dazzle and Fizz to re-locate to their
current base in Surrey, from where
they can service their main client base
in London and the stockbroker belt
of Hampshire and Surrey. They now
organise around 1,000 parties a year, at a
rate of up to 20 a day.
They franchised out the Isle of Wight
arm of the business for a while, but that
closed in October 2015 so that Dazzle
and Fizz could concentrate solely on
their booming core business on the
mainland.

As a recommended party provider to
such high profile venues as the Mandarin
Oriental Group, Bulgari Hotels and
Coworth Park in Ascot, Charlotte and Dan
have become used to dealing with high
net worth individuals.
Whilst she won’t reveal names of some
of the rich and famous they have worked
for, she says they can often be given a
working budget that runs into six figures.
These big bashes will typically include
such luxuries as designer cakes, swathes
of ‘couture’ balloons, theatrical-style floral
decorations and hand-made, bespoke
party bags for the young guests to take
home.
Most important, though is the
entertainment, performed by their handpicked staff, all professional actors like
Charlotte and Dan.
They offer dozens of themes, but the
perennial favourites with children are
Pirates, Princesses, Super Heroes and
Fairies.
Always bursting with new ideas,
Charlotte and Dan have also developed
‘Mystery Quest’ and Science-themed
parties, as well as a Panto featuring the
birthday child as the star.
They also offer parties tailored for
children with special needs – which are
especially close to their heart since their
four year-old son Ollie has autism.
Ironically, they started doing the
special needs parties very early on - even
before Ollie was diagnosed with Autism
Spectrum Disorder.
”We had done a party on the Isle of
Wight for a little girl with special needs
and at the end, she came and thanked
me in sign language – which at the time I
did not know” explains Charlotte.
This incident prompted her to learn the
Makaton sign language system, which
she could use in special needs parties.
What she didn’t realise at the time was
that ultimately she would also be using it
to communicate with her own son, when
he was diagnosed with his particular
special needs at the age of almost three.

Inner child
Catering to the need of every child on
their big day is what still drives Dazzle
and Fizz, who clearly love every moment
of their work.
Dan still works seven days a week as an