About Us

Who are we? 

Ballavimus was set up by people who love going to balls and dances, for people who love them too. Whether they're reeling balls in the Highlands of Scotland or waltzes in snowy Vienna, it's fun to dress up occasionally and create beautiful memories with friends old and new.

 

Why did we start?  

A friend asked one of our founders if they remembered their first ball in Scotland. With regret, they didn't. It was a while ago and they'd started to blur together. 

We said it was a shame we didn't have a ballroom diary to look back on. In 2024, we started asking asked a lot of bookbinders if they could help. After many, many attempts, in 2025 we found a British bookbinder who saw our vision. They suggested we ask our friends see if we wanted to do a group order. We said we'd have a go. We sold 40 in two weeks! Orders we coming so fast we had to stop taking more to process them all. 

We've also set up a blog - The Dance Card to provide all the advice we wish we'd know when we first started going to balls and dances at university (a few years ago now!). It's our small way of giving back. If there's a topic you want us to write about, let us know.

 

What do we do? 

Our three-word Mission Statement is to Elevate Every Ball. 

Ballavimus is a company that creates beautiful products that make the planning, attending and reminiscing about every ball even more special and lasting. We make both innovative products as well as reviving heritage ones.

We won't sell anything that we don't use, wouldn't want or have not tested ourselves already. Our products are designed to last and become family heirlooms. 

We have started by making bespoke ballroom diaries, having received amazing demand following our first production run. 

If there's something old or new you think could make going to any ball even better, we'd love to hear from you. Please do get in touch!

 

How do we work?

We try to do everything with a sense of fun and a little pinch of irony and perspective. Against the problems of the world, dancing in ballrooms isn't the only thing that matters in life. We ruled out First World Problems Are Still Problems as our Mission Statement...  

We care about the environment and good causes and try to factor those into our business wherever possible. 

 

Why are you called Ballavimus? 

Ballavimus is Latin for "We danced" or, as we prefer it, "We had a ball!" 

For bonus points, the name comes from the Latin word Ballare, meaning "To Dance". It's where English (and many other Romance languages) get the modern word "Ball" from.

And for those wondering, it's pronounced Ball - ah - vim - mus