The Wedding Room Blog

Filtering by Category: wedding dresses

Filtering by Tag: wedding dress shops

First Look

Everyone is talking about ‘the first look’ right now. That moment when your eyes meet for the first time and you see your partners wedding look. These moments are captured by your photographer and posted on social media, it is a definite trend. But we know of another ‘first look’, it happens a lot, and has just this moment happened here.

A bride arrives, as we welcome her and talk through how the appointment will go, she is already scanning the rails at our collection. We offer brides the opportunity to browse our collection, this gives chance to feel fabrics, look at detailing and talk through styles. We select dresses to try and talk through each one, usually adding a wild card here and there. And then it happens, they fall in love and no other dress stands a chance.

Once the celebrating and congratulating calms, they so often say the words

‘You know, I spotted this dress as soon as we arrived and I knew it was the one’ - And there it is, the first look.

Lucy’s ‘YES TO THE DRESS’ moment

bride, engagement, Dresses, Wedding, wedding dresses, Wedding Photography, Wedding venues, Weddings wedding dresses, wedding day, wedding dress shops, bridal, sayyestothedress

Published on by Mary Jeremiah.

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The Buying Process - Covid Style

One of the most pleasurable yet difficult processes of working in a bridal boutique is when the time comes to choose the next seasons dresses from your designers. Alongside from ensuring we are able to offer our brides a diverse collection which hopefully offers a selection for a variety of ages, body shapes, style and fit, it is also a time for the designers to thank us for being their customer. These events are the designers ‘showcases’ and we have been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to travel a little for this and to be, well let’s say a little ‘spoiled’. A perk of an already very rewarding job. But then Covid-19 happened and like so many of you, the way we work has had to change, including the process of buying our collection.

On Tuesday this week, we set off down the M1 to Milton Keynes to visit Justin Alexander, the designer of our ‘Lillian West’ collection. This is the first of this kind of event since March and we thought we would share how buying has changed.

Pre Covid-19 times these showcases would be part of a huge event featuring many different designers, there are two a year, one in Harrogate and one in London. Each designer has an area for their range and you arrive and browse at your leisure.  Refreshments are on tap, the rooms are styled to perfection and the dresses are being modelled by real woman so you have the opportunity to ask to see certain dresses on, see how they move, fit, catch the light (all the things that give a dress it’s magic). We would each make a shortlist of the ones we loved and then sit with a coffee (and a cake) and go through our lists, discussing the individual elements we loved for each design and how it would be a good addition to our current collection. Some we agree on and some we don’t but eventually we arrive at a final list (this takes some work). We sit down with our account manager and place our order, maybe enjoying a drink and a few sweets at the same time.  We get a little goody bag to take home and we are done – it is a stressful but very enjoyable process.

This time was a little different. Numbers are monitored so we must arrive at our allocated time, we put on our face coverings and use the hand gel and make our way to the exhibition room. Under the new guidelines the dresses sadly cannot be modelled by real people but are beautifully presented with all the details we need, images are available on iPads however the Wi-Fi is less than perfect, so this takes time.  As usual we have a list ready of the dresses, we think are potential, this is made beforehand from a presentation online (a bit like homework) so we have an idea of what we want to look at. We spend time together going over the dresses, feeling the fabric, checking how it will feel against the brides skin, notice the fine design details which make the dress unique and how ‘wearable’ it is in reality – there is a lot to consider.

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After a good time focusing on the dresses, we take a break – but instead of refreshments laid on we have coffee vouchers so we head to the bar and order, we sit down, remove our face coverings and talk.  We get together a shortlist and return to check we’re happy with our selection, minds are often changed at this point so when were are happy we place our order – at this point we are already excited to take delivery of our dresses and see them on our brides, our job is done. 

Covid-19 HAS changed the way we buy, no doubt about it, it is different. But one thing we did find on this visit was the support and passion felt for the Wedding Industry. From talking to designers who were on hand to offer advice, to other boutique owners facing the same challenges we are, to the team working at Justin Alexander who’s roles have changed since the pandemic, everyone is feeling the same, which somehow gives comfort. One thing stands out, we are all looking forward to picking up where we left off in March. Maybe with a few lessons learned but with more passion and excitement than before.  After all, as we all keep being reminded, LOVE ISN’T CANCELLED.

Dresses, Wedding, wedding dresses, bride, Trends and Styles lillian west, wedding dress shops, weddings, bride, justin alexander, bride to be, Bridal style

Published on by Mary Jeremiah.

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Sample Dress Love

We all know that your wedding dress is possibly the most important item of clothing you will ever buy and choosing it should be a very special and memorable event - we pride ourselves in making sure your experience at The Wedding Room is the very best it can be.  We choose the dresses we have to offer our brides VERY carefully, making sure we have something for every bride, but after a while dresses become discontinued and we have to move our gorgeous dresses on to the sample rail, it's a sad day for us because it means we are no longer able to order dresses both ourselves and our brides love.

FEAR NOT !

Now is your chance to own one of these gorgeous gowns at a hugely reduced price, perfect for brides on a budget or for saving a little of the dress budget to go to something else.  Our favourites are some luxurious underwear or those shoes that seem devilishly impractical and self indulgent - we say GO FOR IT !

In store we have over thirty sample dresses, we do not always go for set 'sample sale' days, we know our dresses well and if a bride guides us to a style we know we have available in a sample then we will always offer it - finding your perfect dress is paramount to us.

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We currently have sample dresses available from the following designers. 

Stella York, Lou Lou Bridal, La Sposa,

Eliza Jane Howell, Lillian West and Lusan Mandongus

 To make an appointment to come and see us and our dresses call 0115 9258876.

bride, Wedding, wedding dresses, sample sale wedding dress shops, weddings, wedding dress, bride, Lou Lou Bridal, la sposa, Stella York, lillian west, Lusan Mandongus, eliza jane howell

Published on by Mary Jeremiah.

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