The detachable belt on this dress is bang on trend and this statement piece is sure to draw the attention of girls who love their bling.  We love the figure hugging silhouette which accentuates a bride’s curves… and then there’s the drama at the bottom with the ruffles and the flamboyant train.

I reckon this one will be a winner and I’m dying to see the reaction it gets when it comes in.  Keep an eye on our facebook page  where we keep all our followers up to date with all new arrivals.

My first potential mistake was that it was always going to be white. I was lining up all these different types of white fabric and trying to decide which one to go for without even thinking about the fact that white may not be the best colour for me to wear.   But thank goodness, fate drew me to a gorgeous gold and ivory brocade which I very nearly missed out on seeing.  Had I bought white, it would have been a disaster as it turned out that white is a colour that drained my pale complexion.

My second mistake was to tamper with the original design and try to do my own thing. Sometimes a dress is designed as it is because the cut and shape a designer chooses is for a reason! The split at the front that we wanted to incorporate just wouldn’t sit right and had to be scrapped!   It wasn’t working – fiddling with the dress was a no-no.  Lesson learned and off to Belfast for more fabric for a new skirt section.

And the third and most costly mistake was to assume that I would suit the dress and love myself in it.   I was an average height, and size 8 with curves … I should have suited anything.. or so I thought!!   The line in the middle of the dress cut me in half and did nothing for my (then) tiny waistline (which has since increased significantly after 11 years and the two bambinos!!).  It also made me look shorter.

It was six weeks before my wedding, and I remember standing in front of a full-length mirror in my mum’s sewing room and thinking ‘I really don’t want to wear this dress!’  It was then that I tried on one of my fishtail bridesmaid dresses (as I was almost the same size as my chief bridesmaid at the time) and I fell in love with the silhouette immediately.  I never in a million years thought I’d have liked a mermaid shaped dress with an empire line, but it worked perfectly!  Problem solved!   This time, we had to send my brother’s friend to a shop in Dublin to pick up some hard-to-get fabric, and finally the whole dress was taken apart and put together again with a new bottom section, and I was finally happy with my dress (and my mammy could breathe a sigh of releif!)  I loved it!!  I got butterflies in my tummy and couldn’t wait to wear it!

So the lesson learned – and the advice that I pass on to all my brides – is to keep an open mind when going shopping for wedding dresses.  If  you come in with yourself pigeon-holed as a ‘halterneck fishtail dress’ bride for example, you’re never going to know that you might just look and feel even more fabulous in that big fifties style strapless ballgown or that vintage lace dress with the one shoulder.  The dresses often look very different to what you see in the photo shoots online or in the magazines.  Just because that 6ft size 8 model looks great in it won’t mean that you will love it on.

Brides always say to me that they get a ‘feeling’ when they find ‘the one’ (a bit like getting that feeling when you find your man!).  I guess finding your wedding dress is a bit like that.  You’ll just get a gut feeling and everything else (if you even decide you even want to look at any more) won’t compare.

At our shop, we’ll let you pick out a few dresses to start with based on what you think your dress will be, and then depending on how much you want us contribute, we’ll pick out the rest based on what we think will look good on you.  We’ve seen all the dresses on, so we know what suits (and if you happen to come in when a new dress arrives, we may even use you as a guinea pig to test it out!) and you may just find that you could surprise yourself like many, many of our brides do.  Including me.  And hopefully, by visiting a bridal shop like Beautiful Day, you won’t find it as tricky as experience as I did by being able to try on and being able to order what you’ve tried on in the flesh.

Me and my husband in our wedding day back in the year 2000.

]]> http://www.beautifuldaybrides.co.uk/index.php/2012/05/choosing-wedding-dress-surprise-yourself-2/feed/ 0 http://www.beautifuldaybrides.co.uk/index.php/2012/05/hair-bride/ http://www.beautifuldaybrides.co.uk/index.php/2012/05/hair-bride/#comments Tue, 08 May 2012 20:34:41 +0000 Ciara http://www.beautifuldaybrides.co.uk/?p=563 Continue reading →]]> After picking the dress, one of the biggest dilemmas is what to do with the hair.  Brides stand in front of my mirror every week, pulling their hair in all sorts of directions… ‘Hair up?’, ‘Hair down?’… ‘half up-half down?’

I had a bride in recently who got very frustrated as she thought she had found the perfect hair do… until she saw it with her dress and everyone agreed that with her dress she had to go for an up do as opposed to tumbling locks.   Finding the right style was a tricky one, and I think she was worried that I thought she was being a bit of a diva.  I had to reassure her that she wasn’t and I told her that one of my biggest regrets about my own wedding day was not to speak up and tell my hairdresser exactly what I wanted.  I ended up with a hairstyle that not only do I look back at with regret, but I didn’t even particularly like it at the time!!!  Remember that getting hairstyle is a bit like picking your wedding dress.  You may think you know what you want by looking at models in magazines, but they may not always suit you.  We see brides frequently coming to our shop in love with a particular dress from our website or our magazine advert, and not all of them love them when they try them on.  As a bridal shop owner, it’s our job to not let them get down about it and pull out some other great styles that they can try.  I’m always telling brides that I won’t be offended if I pick a dress for them and they don’t like it.   And I don’t even get paid for providing this consultation service! Your hairdresser is there to listen and help you find the right style.  And remember, that is what they are paid to do!!

We always encourage brides to try on their dress the day of their hair trial by synchronising their dress fittings with their hair trial appointments.  That way you can see how it all looks together and we will allow you to try out all our different tiaras, head dresses and veils so you can see what works best.  Remember too that we are happy to let existing brides borrow head dresses from our shop for hair appointments if she is trying to work a hair style around a particular head dress.  Check out one of my favourite Liza pieces on one of our brides Lisa – I love this shot and i think she got the hair style and head dress perfect

We also stock head dresses by Calla Rosa designs and Heading up and many of the pieces can be customised at little or no extra cost to the bride, and are often delivered in a matter of a few weeks or less.

I found this page in ‘The Knot’ today and thought I’d share it with you all – it’s got loads of fab hairstyles – you’ll be spoilt for choice for ideas!!!!

http://weddings.theknot.com/ODB/themes/realweddings/results.aspx?STOPREDIRECTING=TRUE&type=3&wedding%20details=hair&ODBTHEMENAME=Real-Weddings&MsdVisit=1

Maybe the bride should have just put the style number on the invite and saved all the hassle..

However….  then she knows that some of her guests will be logging onto the website to get a nosey at what her maids will be wearing – just for nosiness sake!  For many brides, this would be a big no-no!! The dresses should be a big secret, and many brides would get really upset if people knew their dresses and/or colours before their big day.  Personally, I don’t see the big deal.  One of my sister-in-laws was quite open about her colour as she had many of her female friends and relatives worried about coming in something similar. And guess what?  She didn’t have any guests turn up in long buttercup yellow bridesmaid dresses…. except for the bridesmaids of course!!    I guess it depends on the motives of your guests!!  If you get one who is determined to look like an extra bridesmaid, you’re in trouble!!!! (this happened at my wedding by a guest ‘in the know’ about the style and colour and she had many of my guests a bit confused on the day!! lol!!!)  But most female guests wouldn’t want that sort of attention to be fair… most but not all.  (I did think it was all a bit funny in hindsight in relation to my own big day)

The beauty in buying your bridesmaid dresses from a shop like ours (or indeed any bridal shop) us that you won’t be worried about the high street problem of people wearing the same dress as your bridesmaids. We have worked out that we have a style/colour combination of at least 5000 dresses  (it’s actually extensively more if you count that some are two tone and each two tone dress has almost 6000 combinations alone!!!).  As a rule, guests seldom order their outfits in a shop like ours as they are often out looking in the weeks running up to the wedding (unlike the more organised brides who, in general, plan at least 6 months ahead and have their picking choice of any combination of style and colour)  And theoretically, if they did, they could always check with the shop owner that they didn’t clash with a certain bridal party that they were attending. With most bridal shops (like ourselves) carrying designers that are exclusive in our areas, there is a good chance that they won’t get the same dress in a different shop either.

So if you want your dresses to be a secret and stay a secret, choose wisely and make sure your bridesmaids keep their mouths firmly shut on the topic.  Tell only those you really trust… and ones you are certain that won’t accidently-on-purpose be wearing a identical or very similar dress!

Or you could confuse them all and tell different colours to different people… and you may not even by telling lies doing that!!!

We’ve been seeing it on the red carpet gradually over the past few years (worn by the likes of Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz and Kaley Cuaco) and it has worked its way into the bridal market in a big way.  I love how it it can be used to give a modern twist on a vintage style dress – take the Abiliene Rose dress in our shop. The 3-D organza roses give it an opulent drama that a plain lace dress just wouldn’t have.  The Adrianna dress also gives this same look to an otherwise plain lace fishtail gown.  

Many of the new Maggie Sottero textured dresses are also coming with little add ons – like belts and detachable cap sleeves.  The brides are loving the fact that they have the choice of personalising their dresses with these little extras, giving them the look that they want. The Morgan, Adrianna and Lacey dresses are perfect examples of how you can get a dress with options to add.

Our staff love this new look, and it’s great to see that many of the modern brides visiting our shop are embracing this look and ordering these dresses for their big days.  I think we’re going to see a lot more of this in the 2013 aisle style!!

Hayley has been a member of our staff for 7 years now, and when it came to organising her big day in August 2011, she knew she had to put her own special stamp on it.  And boy, did she it her own way!! From her pink shoes and petticoat, to her multi coloured bridesmaids.  Her polka dot cake and polka dot car…. singing Beatles songs at the church and dancing (yip – dancing down the aisle with her new husband in his converse trainers), it was all about Hayley and Damian making their day their own, and having the guts to have fun and not care what people would think.

The brillaint thing about it was that people thought it was great!!!  8 months later, and we’re still getting people mentioning aspects of the wedding in out shop, and we’ve taken several orders at our shop for rainbow weddings inspired by the colours that Hayley opted for (and she is delighted they are getting ideas from her wedding!)

I just thought I’d share a few pictures of Hayley and Damian’s wedding to show how they made it their own!

Some people are very sceptical of the whole idea and think it’s a big waste of money, but sometimes it’s those little personal things that make a difference to someone’s day out and that you remember afterwards.  Our shop manager, Hayley, did one for her wedding. She said it cost her very little to put it together.  She had loads of the things in the house already, and the rest she was able to pick up for a few pounds in the local pound shop.

One word of warning though!!!  If you decide to do up one of these kits, put a big note (so that those not wearing their glasses can still read it) pointing out that the basket was made up by the bride and asking the guests politely not to steal the contents.  I’ve heard of a few occasions where the guests thought that the hotel left it, and filled their handbags with the contents….  something they probably wouldn’t do if they thought it was put together by their hostess the bride.  One guest was noted to have sheepishly returned to the bathroom and returned the goodies when she realised that she had pinched them from the bride, not the hotel!!!  (many people seem to think it’s okay to pinch things from the hotel!)

So here’s our list of emergency basket contents – some of our facebook followers were kind enough to contribute ideas, and feel free to add your ideas in the comments section.

Plasters, spray deodorant, sewing kit, spare tights, clear nail polish, body spray, hairspray, tissues, sanitary towels, tampons, spare hair grips/pins, safety pins, baby wipes, hair brush or comb, paracetamol, indigestion tablets, mints, body spray/perfume, nail glue, make-up….

any more to add?

emotional brides…. have plenty of tissues and mascara!!!!

I remember when I (eventually) lost my baby weight from bambino number one, I was gutted to find out that my bum disappeared.  I should have been chuffed getting back down to my size 8 jeans, but they were hanging on me – the backside region was all saggy where once, despite being a size 8, I always had a curvy rear end.

After having baby number two, I’ve learned to be happy in my size 12 shape (though I do sometimes wish the mummy tummy was a little flatter) but I’ve come to the conclusion that I want to keep my curves, and I keep a horrible skinny picture of a very un-curvy Ciara from 2006 in my staff room at work to remind me that I never want to lose my curves ever again and to remind myself that I look much better with a wee bit of beef on me!

Back to brides and bums.  I used to get loads of brides hiding under A-line wedding gowns, covering up their bums.  They would die if they had a dress which clung to their derrière on their wedding day and drew any sort of attention to that region, and when fishtail, drop waisted and fitted gowns started creeping back into fashion, at first it was hard to get the girls to go for it.  But things are changing so much – and I’m giving credit to the likes of Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez and Kim Kardashian and to how the media is portraying them in recent years.  Finally girls are embracing their curves and are no longer aspiring to be as thin as what they used to.  Curvier girls are growing in confidence, and they want to show their curves off!   Whether they are a size 8 or 10 (trim, but with a rounded bum) or a size 16 – or even a 24, they are no longer afraid to show off their figure, and I think it’s great!!!!

Here’s a collection of some of my favourite dress in my shop that are great at showing off a brides bum!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JptwkEhdNfY … just incase you wanted to check out Beyonce in action!!

It’s that time of year again when we are just about to get the latest discontinued notice in from our main supplier, Maggie Sottero.   So very soon I will have a whole rail of dresses that I can no longer order.  Included in the sale will be these newly discontinued dresses, other recently discontinued dresses from the same designer and other designers, and even some of the new dresses (these newer ones will be only on sale for 1 day and then will go back up to normal price)

With a discontinued dress, you get the peace of mind that you are getting a genuine designer dress for a fraction of the price.  I know many brides on a budget look down the internet route and all too often they get what they paid for – bad quality, poorly made, ill fitting counterfeit dresses.

With a sample sale, you have the benefit of getting to ‘try before you buy’ at a massively discounted price.  and seeing what you are getting.. and the good thing is… no one need know you got it on sale!! (unless you’re like me and love telling your friends about your bargains!!)

Designer labels on sale will be mainly Maggie Sottero, but also White One, Raylia, Tracy Connop and Estes.

No private appointments on the day – just turn up….. (and bring £395 with you if you don’t want to miss out!!!)

Ciara.

We worked out recently that we let the average bride try on about £8000 worth of wedding dresses on an average first visit to our shop.

We do not charge for your first two appointments to try on bridal gowns. (One hour for the first consultation, and an optional follow-up 30 minute appointment, also free of charge) By that stage we hope for you to be quite confident in your selection of gown. For the third and each subsequent appointment there is a £25 charge, payable in advance, but fully redeemable on your gown order. Careful and considerate use of your time and ours enables us to keep the cost of our products and services at a reasonable level and helps keep our sample gowns in a good condition for others to try on.

All evening appointments continue to be subject to the £25 fee which we have been doing for the past 2 years, however on the first and second visits, this will be refunded as soon as the customer arrives (or if the appointment is cancelled with 24 hrs notice).  This is to make sure that we are covered should a bride fail to show up for an appointment when we have stayed in late for them (which used to happen quite a lot!!!).  In the two years we have been doing this, we have only had to charge for a no-show one time :0)

We have been getting quite a lot of people booking appointments and not showing up for their allocated times for our daytime slots.  Most weeks, about 3 or 4  brides fail to show up for appointments which is very frustrating when we have put the bridal room aside for a full hour for them and I have allocated and paid a member of staff as their helper and consultant for that time.  Very often we will have also turned away people that we could have fitted in had the person simply made a call and  let us know they were cancelling.  I don’t want to start charging fees for midweek and Saturday slots, but should a bride fail to attend her first appointment without letting us know, we will make a note of it as being their first free one hour appointment used up.

I’d be interested in hearing feedback on our appointment fee policy as outlined above – I’m always keen to hear what people think.