My first favourite thing about owning a bridal shop is the sense of privilege (and satisfaction) that I feel from dressing Brides and Grooms for their big day.  It’s such a rewarding industry and helping Brides with their preparations is a real honour.  I absolutely love seeing the pictures after the big day - I don’t think I could ever tire of this job!  My second favorite thing is the buying!  Selecting styles for our future Brides is lovely, sometimes it’s hard to choose which Designers and which dresses to have on our rails (mainly because I love them all) but again, it’s a really fun aspect of what we do.  This year saw the launch of a new designer wedding dress trade show in London called the ‘White Gallery’ and Kirsty (our shop Manager) and I went to check it out …. I didn’t exactly have to drag her along she too shares in a relentless passion for bridal and loves buying as much as I do. Out of earshot of my husband Rob (Menswear) I plotted with her, ‘look; I know it’s only 45 minutes on the train to London but it’s an excuse to stay in a posh London hotel I’ve found us.  I’ll tell Rob it’s absolutely critical that we stay over and do two days …Oooo and let’s see if we can pop and do a little shopping in Zara whilst we’re there!’ ….  So we got our way and our plan worked, lol!  We packed faaaar to much!!  The Porter who welcomed us had to use a wheelie luggage cage (a frequent side effect of my ‘shoe-bag-itus’).  We checked in early and our rooms were not available so they allowed us to use the spa facilities before we went off to the show.  Within ten minutes of being in the spa I sufferred two hideouesly embarrassing experiences … Firstly I walked into the loo where a lady had omitted to lock the door!!  Oh God, it was awful!!  Self consciously I made a quick exit and proceeded to freshen up, I’d been wearing flip flops across London and decided to wash my feet in the shower cubicle.  So, fully dressed, flip flops off, I selected the switch for the handset I was then holding.  It was the wrong switch!  Instead of the hand held shower head delicately spraying on my feet all three super power body jets hit me in the face!!!  I got drenched, my make up ran and I suffered further humiliation as afore mentioned toilet lady helped me to switch it all off!  She and I agreed it was not a good look, although worryingly I’m not sure if she meant mine or hers!!!!  Anyway.  The show itself was a huge success, we really enjoyed the fashion shows and meeting new Designers.  We took on a new designer called Pepe Botella, new to the UK market, these dresses are dramatic and romantic, gorgeously stylish and I know that our Brides are going to love them.  They’ll be available - from September!

Wow!!  My Goodness, it’s been hectic!  Do I always say that at the start of every blog post???…..  So, firstly; Rob and I visited the British Bridal Exhibition just a few weeks ago and we had a such a brilliant time, especially at the awards ball!  It is with thanks to our wonderful customers for their votes that we made the finals for the 2010 ‘Bridal Retailer of the Year’ award, we made it to the top six in the country!  Sadly we didn’t win but that’s okay, we have many business awards  under our belt and ever the optimists, there’s always next year!  Harrogate plays home to the exhibition twice yearly and it’s where we select and buy our styles for the forthcoming season.  I’ve chosen some absolute stunning dresses from a new label called Mark Lesley.  We are so thrilled to have taken on this gorgeous range and along with their signature label we’ve also taken on their couture and paradise collection which will be in-store from September…. Last weekend I flew to Madrid for the exciting launch of the 2011 San Patrick collection, they are totally stunning!  I love this years collection and found it hard to whittle it down from the 100 styles shown on the catwalk.  Next year’s trends are set to continue with even more elegance…. beautiful lace, fabulous layering, romantic ball gowns, sleek fit and flare fishtails and wow factor glamourous ball gowns!!!  I went alone (which was a real bonus beacuse at Stansted I nipped into the Mulberry handbag store and brought myself a black Mulberry clutch, a huge treat for me and a special purchase which wouldn’t have been allowed had my adoring husband been with me, he just doesn’t get the ’shoes & handbag’ thing!)…. Business is (as usual) booming and we have received so many wonderful thank you cards and photographs and we were so thrilled to see the video highlights for Chris & Cally’s wedding – we were lucky enough to look after the beautiful Cally for her bridal, bridesmaids and menswear needs and they all looked stunning on the day.  I’m so soppy and literally wept through this mini video.  I hope you agree that it certainly looks like there was a lot of love and laughter on their big day, everyone looks amazing! Cally & Chris’s wedding day video highlights  thanks so much for sending this in and many congratulations from us all.

March and September are the months in which we do the bulk of our wedding dress and bridesmaid dressbuying for the coming season, we order gorgeous new dresses and accessories and should see them in-store by January. Last week Rob and I went to Harrogate to meet with our Suppliers at the biggest European trade event where we excitedly watch fashion shows which showcase the latest designs and decide what dresses to order for our Brides to choose from. We have chosen some stunning new bridal gowns and accessories. It was a mega busy few days with lots of walking from stand to stand, my feet survived although I’m not so sure about my liver!! We met up with our favourite friends from the industry (Jo & Richard from the Princess Wardrobe in Pontefract) as well as other fab bridal shop owners and industry contacts. It’s a great time for networking and also a great time to let our hair down. One night we arrived back at our hotel at 3am having danced our socks off in a nightclub! We were the last to leave and both Rob and I agreed that we are getting far too old to party!! Lauren and Kirsty held the forte at the shop on Tuesday which was extremely hectic as usual. All of the wonderful weddings at the weekend went well and we returned to many lovely comments and cards, thank you all especially to Amber & Tony who delivered the most magnificent thank you gift basket of Thornton’s goodies, you are so kind and I am now so fat!!!

March was as usual an exciting and busy month for us at Abigail’s Collection. We received some beautiful new thank you letters and pictures from March’s newlyweds. Congratulations to everyone especially Faye and Joe, we loved your pictures so much we decided to feature one alongside this our first ever blog…. We also launched our fab new website which is proving a real hit with our Customers, one of our Bride’s commented that it is one of the nicest sites she has ever seen, which is saying something – her husband-to-be is a graphic designer! Please let us know what you think, feedback is welcome…. Also in March we enjoyed a staff buying trip, we drove to Harrogate to visit the largest bridal trade exhibition in the world and select new styles for the new season ahead. As usual it was great fun. Despite walking for hours to meet with Suppliers and aquiring sore feet in posh new shoes we still managed to bust a few disco moves in the evening and also aquired sore heads after one or two cocktails!……