Gift Focus inc Attire Accessories - November/December 2020

84 A date to remember A Year of Dates is an innovative gift company founded by husband and wife team Kate and John, here they tell us more about their journey When did you start up and why? The business started in 2016, Kate was looking at more flexible working options following maternity leave and with a background in graphic design wanted to do something creative. What prompted you to launch the business? For Christmas 2014 John made Kate a date jar, in it were 74 sealed envelopes –he got a bit carried away! – each containing a date idea. We opened one each week and made sure we made time for each other and to fulfil the cards instructions. We feel fate had a huge part to play in the first envelope, which was to buy each other a £10 gift. As Kate was keen to start a blog about the dates John purchased the domain name ayearofdates.co.uk.