My Moonpig Virtual Blogging Event

AD – This post is in collaboration with Moonpig

My birthday fell right at the start of lockdown, and not being able to spend time with friends and family and blowing out candles over Zoom was a fairly surreal experience, Now, more than ever, many of us aren’t able to spend time with our loved ones, and the subtle act of sending a card, or a gift of flowers to let someone know your are thinking about them can have a huge impact on their happiness and wellbeing. A few weeks ago I sent flowers to a friend to celebrate passing her exams and her reaction was so lovely. It was completely unexpected and really brightened her day; bringing a bit of positive at a time where life can feel more than a little overwhelming!

Last week I was invited to a virtual blogging event with Moonpig to learn more about their range of Birthday cards, flowers and gifts, as well as learn about their brand new app packed full of loads of user friendly features.

My first real ‘night off’ in months and with a social life that is distinctively lacking, I was really looking forward to the Moonpig app masterclass, flower arranging and cocktail making; and in a way, this was like the birthday party I never had! 🙂

Introducing the Moonpig App

If you haven’t already downloaded it, the Moonpig App is available now on both the android and apple stores and is 100% free to download. During the blogging event, Jasper walked us through the Moonpig app and we learned all about it’s fab features.

First up was the Moonpig reminders feature. If you’re anything like me, trying to remember what day of the week it is at the moment let alone upcoming birthdays, anniversaries and special occasions can be really tough. We all have so much to juggle at the moment, that inevitably things start to slip through the net.

The Moonpig reminders feature is really quick and easy to set up, and once done, can send you notifications of birthdays and occasions that are coming up, ensuring that you have time to choose and send a card or gift in plenty of time for the event. You can even import dates from your diary or calendar, which for those of us that are currently time poor, makes birthday admin super easy and convenient.

Moonpig have an absolutely HUGE range of over 10,000+ cards to suit every occasion. I learnt that if you find a particular card you like, you can look at the back page to see the designer and then search the designers name to see all of their designs – this is great if you particularly like a certain type of illustration or tone.

If 3 months of lockdown have left you a little lost for words and you’re struggling for what to write, Moonpig have that covered too! The inspiration tool helps recommend words for every occasion you can possibly think of, and makes a great foundation to edit and make personal to you.

A brand new feature (currently only available on iPhone) is the Virtual Reality tool; which I have to say is pretty epic. This feature allows you to see exactly the size and feel of your chosen design in your own home, which is ideal when wanting to understand the scale of the cards you are buying.

I used this feature below to see how big the Giant card was and WOW – it really is absolutely ginormous! This card most definitely makes a statement!

Of all the Moonpig app features, by far the one I loved the most was the ability to add handwritten messages or even add your children’s doodles to your cards. Using the in app camera, you can write your message on white paper, before snapping a picture to cleverly uploads to the content of the card. You can even ask family members to all write their own name.

Ordering items online can have a tendency at times to feel a bit soulless, so this element of bringing the personal back was a huge positive for me. At the moment in particular when we can’t be with the people we love, this handwritten element will be really gratefully received.

Flower Arranging with Moonpig 5 Day Guarantee 

Next up we we took part in a virtual flower arranging session with Roxanne – Moonpig’s Chief Flower Officer, who not only was a lovely host answering everyone’s questions but also has one of the best job titles I’ve ever heard. I was sent an absolutely stunning bouquet called Luxury Summer Garden, which was full of beautiful pinks and greens. This arrangement came hand tied and wrapped in a frosted cellophane and featured two tone roses, lisianthus and scabiosa as well as unique and dainty viburnum. It smells amazing!

All Moonpig flowers come with care instructions and 5 days of freshness guaranteed (or they will replace them), and this bouquet was so big, I had to split into two vases initially! My bouquet is still going strong now and its currently day 6!

Roxanne taught us all about the flowers included in our bouquet and how we should look after them. I had always trimmed the stems of my flowers, but never truly appreciated the reason why – trimming at around 45 degrees helps prevent a vacuum in the vase and ensure all the flowers get the water they need. She also advised us about refreshing the water (something that I have never done previously!) and how to remove any wilting flowers to prolong the life of the others.

We took part in an online flower arranging session with Roxanne, and I found it so calming arranging the florals, sorting them into types and then adding each one in phases to build up the final bouquet.

Moonpig have an awesome range of flowers including letterbox range which can literally be posted through the door (so recipient doesn’t need to be in). They have also just launched some pollen free lilies too which are amazing if you love lilies but are less keen on the orange mess!

Cocktail Making Masterclass with Mix & Twist

In the final part of our evening, James from Mix & Twist held a cocktail masterclass, using the gin that Moonpig sell as part of their gift offering. After 19 weeks of lockdown, attempting to work from home whilst homeschooling my two kids, a nice cocktail was just what the doctor ordered!

The class was so much fun following along on screen, mixing up the cocktails and learning all about how to make a perfectly balanced drink (whilst simultaneously trying to not spill vodka on my MacBook). We were also shown how to make vocktail versions too and with work at 8am the next morning this was very welcomed!

The cocktails we made included:

• Summer Garden – 45ml Vodka, 25ml lime, 25ml sugar syrup, mint leaves, cucumber, 25ml elderflower soda
• Strawberry Fizz – 45ml Vodka, 25ml lemon, 25ml sugar syrup, soda, strawberries, lemon
• Passionfruit Martini – 45ml Vodka, 20ml lemon, 25ml passionfruit syrup, 60ml pineapple juice

Overall I had an absolute blast at the Moonpig virtual blogging event, and it was great to learn more about the gifts, flowers and cards available at Moonpig.com.

To celebrate the new app I have a special code for 30% off a card and a gift when buying together. This promotion is valid until the 26th August – simple enter APP30ORDER at checkout!

You can download the Moonpig app from the Apple Store or from Google Play store now.