Always a highlight in the business calendar; once again it was time to brave the A1 traffic, bombard our favourite boutique style Harrogate Hotel and shop till we drop for wedding dresses and bling galore!! With thanks to our Ashleigh we set off armed with brilliantly organised files and this time it was real girlie road trip with myself, Ashleigh, Kirsty and Sarah attending. Amanda and Charlie held the fort at work and survived an (as usual) very busy Tuesday… thanks Guys, great job!
Having only recently welcomed our baby girl Arabella into the world – I decided I could only tear myself away for one night and two days and so it was a real mission getting to see all of our lovely suppliers in such a short space of time! The girls and I had a great time however and brought some GORGEOUS new styles for 2012! The highlight of the buying trip for me (in terms of dresses) were the Alfred Angelo Disney bridal dresses, with 8 new fab styles launched for the beautiful iconic Princesses. We were very impressed with the new designs and were thoroughly Disney’d by the time we left the Alfred Angelo stand! They even had their own Prince Charming giving out flashing jelly rings, it was a bit tongue in cheek and we all agreed that our Rob or Cheeky Charlie would have made an equally great Prince Charming! So be aware Boys, if we do any Disney in-store promotions you know what we’ll be asking you to dress up as …. We’re very excited to have ordered the range of matching Disney bridesmaids and mega cute flower girl dresses too, they’ll be in-store from January! And also hot off the Alfred Angelo press is that they will be releasing a ‘Twilight / Bella’ wedding dress in November as the film is released, we don’t know what it will look like but are fairly intrigued to see if it is anything like the movie character’s dress … don’t worry girls, if it’s gorgeous we’ll get it, if it isn’t we wont!
Other dress collections that really stood out for us were the ever lovely White Rose, Mon Cheri and Mark Lesley labels. In amongst the many new dresses that we have brought we’ve chosen some very striking fitted silk options, a few multi layered romantic organza numbers, some show stopping pick up taffeta’s, a gorgeous twinkly lace column dress and a couple of cheeky swinging short styles too! We wish that we had enjoyed more time shopping for accessories but we were so busy dashing from dress stand to dress stand that we only managed to select from our top Suppliers; as usual Kirsty made a bee line for the big feather fascinators, she always looks enviably good in them, no matter how big or outrageous! New for the coming season will be some on trend ‘hatinaters’ so watch this space for new designs Ladies.
During the British Bridal Exhibition some of the Designers showcase their best designs in an ultra professional and exciting bridal preview fashion show which we always attend and as usual loved! The girls and I sat sipping bubbly and munching on chocolates as the models paraded the latest!! We took bets on who might fall over (jokes aside, no one did, they never do) and sat right in front of the confetti cannon which made us all literally jump out of our seats at the end of the show and if that didn’t draw enough attention to us we were then showered in a huge quantity of chunky red confetti!
Commercially speaking a few mainstream dress designers seemed to have really branched out with their designs becoming increasingly more adventurous. The signature styling that the likes of Justin Alexander, Veromia, and Ellis have become predictably known for seems to have diluted a little. I find this rather exciting because rather than just offering one kind of look these bridal dress designers seem to offer so much more within their collections now – it’s an exciting time in bridal fashion where literally anything goes which means that 2012 brides really will be totally spoilt for choice.
My husband Rob was home with our new baby Daughter Arabella so I popped to check out our menswear designer’s range on his behalf… they’ve launched some very smart new mini diamond patterned waistcoat designs and a strong but neat masculine striped pattern for 2012, we’re looking forward to receiving these in-store and know they’ll be a real hit with our 2012 Groom’s Room gents! Also new for 2012 is their new charcoal grey suit, a great option to compliment many wedding themes and a particularly fab option for on trend vintage styled weddings that will continue to be popular going forward into 2012.
I really missed Rob on our BBEH buying trip but he did an amazing job (thank you Darling) staying home and looking after our little Arabella who has become cheekier, cuter and chunkier in just the two days!! Talking of which I must dash… I have a date with my Daughter at the nappy changing station …Oooo yes! ….. wish me luck!!