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 favourite 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 suffered two hideously 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!