Our feature today is the most stunning, effortlessly beautiful country estate wedding, which features our bride Amanda wearing the striking Jesus Peiro 6000 wedding dress, which has become something of an icon here at the chapel!
The wedding was planned by Liz Linkleter Event Planning & Design and the delicate, natural fine art photography is by Taylor & Porter – such a delight to share such a beautiful wedding!
Usually, I would write up a real wedding post with content submitted by the bride, however today’s post is a little different! Amanda and Adam’s wedding was planned to perfection in only eight weeks, which left very little time for a wedding dress to be turned around. So I’ve handed over to our MD, Emma, who is going to tell us all about providing Amanda with her dress, and what this means in terms of boutique wedding dress shopping.
Over to Emma…
Since having Leah on board as Miss Bush’s digital supremo I have done very little blogging. Sometimes I would love to have the luxury of doing nothing but writing & blogging. I could follow my passions; become something of an influencer (or disrupter –as Annabel at Love My Dress calls me.) I would love to explore the freedom to press “publish” without comeback on my business, my clients, my staff or my wider industry. I could let the maverick side of my personality loose on a world. I could F & C bomb my way to notoriety.
However this week Leah has given me a bride to write up, Amanda. Amanda and I had a very short, intense relationship and it actually gives me the opportunity to do some serious flag waving for independent bridal retail, the fabulousness of Jesus Peiro, ethical sourcing and just sheer perfection in wedding planning. It gives me the chance to do a ’10 Things’ list to redress the balance and remind the wider world of the merits of boutique shopping.
Recently my ‘trade’ has come under some severe scrutiny. At the weekend I stood outside a shabby wedding dress shop with the most uninspiring windows I have ever seen. Take-away coffee cups abandoned on the desks, row after row of rather unlovely dresses destined for no one, faded point of sale advertising and a ‘classy’ rococo mirror that sort of missed the point. The whole spectacle, facing a high street of interesting independent shops, was tired to the point of exhaustion. The dresses I could see were entirely generic and could easily be bought at half the price at a multiple retailer. An approximation of them can be ordered for a fraction of the price from a Chinese direct seller. Sadly, I am willing to bet, they can be found at cut price from the increasing number of outlet stores catering to the liquidation market. This is the dying side of bridal retail. I can see why a writer from The Pool dismissed this as not for her. I can see why TopShop thought – is that it? Is this the proposition that a modern bride wants? I can see why Wed2B , backed by gazillionaire Javad Marandi , can serve these shops their arses on a plate with their buying muscle.
The retail bridal trade has moved faster in the last year than ever in the 30 years that Miss Bush has been a brand. Sadly, small shops, which opened with the best of intentions, have been left behind, not because they weren’t lovely people dedicated to their business but because of fast changing marketplace.
In real life our shops are not ‘Say Yes To The Dress’ sets. I have never “closed” a deal in my life. There are no bells rung, no plaques with cheesy sentiments. My team don’t even have a sales target. I have used our social media streams, our relationships with our brides, past, current & future and partnerships with supportive bloggers (Love My Dress, Rock My Wedding, Smashing The Glass, So You’re Getting Married, The Wedding Bazaar, Style and the Bride) and a network of trade collaborators to connect with like minded woman to build a space where we can be ourselves at an extraordinary time of our lives.
Amanda is one of those women; so clever, so driven and so beautiful that I was a little bit in awe. Here is an edited excerpt from my first email exchange with Amanda, which came in on the 14th July last year, 3 weeks before her wedding;
“You may remember me. I came last December and loved the Jesus Peiro dress with the large bow at the front…Believe it or not, I have managed, with the help of a great wedding planner to secure everything in place for the wedding of my dreams (on 4th August ) for 220 people!!!
I want to speak to someone about the possibility of getting a Jesus Peiro dress turned around in time. Unrealistic I know…”
Conventional wisdom or recent slack journalism would have you believe that boutiques don’t have cool dresses, they are a ‘rip off’ and I would have been sent into a tail spin about the timing of the order. All of the above has made me hijack this post for the greater good of boutiques and to redress the balance. Positively. Without resorting to (much) swearing.
10 Things You need to Know About Bridal Boutiques
1. PASSION FOR DESIGN
I pick our dresses with a love and passion for design. When I first put the Jesus Peiro angular collared dress with pockets and box pleats in the shop with the “origami-on-acid” bow the team and I were in love. Did I ever consider if anyone else would love it? Did I even consider it would sell? Great dresses are seductive but buying bravely takes courage.
2. Independent STYLE
If I stocked the boutique with dresses the internet told me that brides want, my shop would be full of extreme plunge front dresses and naked netting straight out of the Strictly Come Dancing costume department. Or, alternatively, the supermodel-at-Coachella version of boho. As an independent I can buy niche specialist dresses catering for a tiny percentage of overall brides. Truly ‘boutique’ wedding dress shopping at its best is where the artisan, small-batch-coffee/craft-gin providers of the wedding world are. Passionate advocates of niche tastes and preferences.
3. A Personal TOUCH
I am my bride. (This is a big claim right? Actually Emma you’re a 50 year old woman with a grey mowhawk…) 30 years of my brand being situated in an affluent outreach of SW London means I ‘know’ my client. I know their postcodes, I know their restaurants, their careers, their choice of handbag, their schools. Hell, I have already met most of their friends and family. I know and love their caterers, their venues, their florists. Instinctively I would choose what they chose. I also know this applies to peers in their own regional location having been in Barcelona with many of us comparing and wondering at each other’s best sellers! Boutique at its best feels like walking into your own wardrobe on a good day.
4. Calm AND COMPOSED
I don’t lose my shit over an email like Amanda’s. Years of experience, trusted suppliers and a committed team means I can say yes. European production and great working relationships allow dresses to be produced in a far more commercial and contemporary timeframe. (Although, Amanda, the stellar guest list and the “what happens if it doesn’t turn up” might have added a touch of additional pressure…)
5. ExpertISE AND SKILL
I have noticed that one or two, (actually, most non-boutique based brands,) pop-ups shops, brands and online providers recommend ‘taking your dress to a local tailor’ for alterations. Yes, they are SO easy to find! Not. Multiply the difficulty in finding a couture grade seamstress by peak wedding season and a shape shifting consumer into an equation from hell! The service side of boutiques, fittings, alterations, steaming, bustling and packing is not as heady and romantic as choosing the dress. It is an essential, highly skilled service and I have the technical back up to fine tune the dress to perfection even if I have to run the gauntlet and tell the lovely team they are coming in on a sunny Friday evening in July. The kind of evening that says drink a lovely icy glass of Provencal Rose in a garden somewhere.
6. DedicatION
I am far from anyone’s vision of a Fairy Godmother, but my day to day occupation is wish fulfilment. On receiving Amanda’s email I could have become extremely unscrupulous. I could have ‘priced the job’ the way Lloyds Cardnet ditched us a client. I could have quoted it out of the water while earnestly assuring the client of my ‘very best intentions.’ Despite being three weeks from order date to wedding date and with the bride clearly having been through the spin-cycle emotionally I delivered a perfect dress, fitted around a busy schedule with no additional rush charges, no next-day premiums, no creative invoicing. Also be aware of the dates; at this point all of British retail was being hurt hard with the Sterling crash after Brexit, yet we stood by our book prices.
7. Sensitivity
“Can you provide emotionally intelligent and thoughtful responses to women in outstandingly challenging personal circumstances?” This sounds like an interview question for a social services job not a bridal boutique. Following Amanda’s email there were a few exchanges back and forth and I found this from me. There is nothing to be gained from adding pressure, false deadlines and emotionally loaded techniques on fellow women who are already juggling serious careers, kids, family politics & a myriad of other concerns along with a party on epic scale. Last summer I saw women actually suffering with the juggling act of wedding planning. Sure this is often an externalisation of other issues but it is not my place to add to it. No dress three weeks before your wedding? Sure it’s urgent but it doesn’t need to be a crisis.
“I would say come down to see me, for your own peace of mind if for nothing else. I can see you are still pinning pictures of dresses so your head is still spinning! You may not even like the dresses on!!! I will stay completely neutral on the subject of spending! I am better at counselling”
8. Local KNOWLEDGE
When we launched the Chapel location for Miss Bush three years ago I pulled in the help and support of some of my very best local suppliers to showcase their talents to national media and famous name designers. Being grounded and local means that we can find the best regional options and in Kalm Kitchen Amanda and I crossed over. Jen, the creative driving force behind the brand has carved out an extraordinary visual style for wedding catering. Kalm Kitchen catered our launch and Amanda and Adam’s wedding, creating unique experiences for our respective guests. Several of my fellow Ripley businesses have brought the same creative inspiration to the regeneration of a village High Street. These are the kind of shopping and cross discipline environments I love to shop in, I love to live in. Supporting, nurturing and promoting local artisans is part of our social responsibility but also fantastically creative.
9. STYLE
I will give a bride a good run for her money when it comes to Pinterest boards, flowers, styling and all design aspects of a wedding. Again I have recently seen many questions over whether this is absolutely necessary. No – of course it isn’t. I understand there is a fine line between being inspired by Pinterest and being dragged to some circle of hell by a board dedicated to plaits. My own wedding had zero styling, our shoots have masses and our events are off the scale. A good boutique will have its own style and believe in it passionately.
10. GRATITUDE
I can’t share all of the circumstances of my 3 weeks with Amanda. I have had holiday romances that were longer and as much as we love to get a thoughtful thank you note, publishing them always seems quite trite. In this case though I will;
“Thanks again for everything and turning my dress around in a heartbeat… I am very grateful for your help and support and that of your team.”
I too am thankful; to Amanda for having faith and trust in us to deliver on our promise. I am truly thankful to Jesus Peiro for creating a modern, fashionable adaptable business model. I am thankful to work in an industry that does not acknowledge gender, sexuality, class or age as an impediment to success. I am thankful to my team; the emphatically un-bitchy sales staff, the creative and dedicated atelier staff, my family who are drafted in on ‘family wages’ and the bean counters that keep me liquid. I am thankful to my social media genius Leah for continuing to give us a voice and a platform gorgeous & engaging enough to fight our corner. I am thankful to Annabel from Love My Dress for her unwavering support to independent retail, creative thinking and robust debate. I am thankful to The Lovely Marshy. I am thankful for the support of peers in the industry.
I am thankful to my brides; those very brilliant women that inspire us who chose to support us and for whom we give up a sunny glass of wine. Big ask…
Finally, I am thankful to lead Miss Bush, who is not me but all of us.
Emma x
Suppliers
Photography: Taylor & Porter
The Dress: Jesus Peiro at Miss Bush
Stylist/Planner: Liz Linkleter Event Planning & Design
Floral Design: Palais
Cake: Lily Vanilli
Church: St Mary’s Church, Worplesdon
Stationery: Pemberly Fox
Calligraphy: Calligraphy for Weddings
Marquee: The Romantic Tent Company
Catering: Kalm Kitchen
Lighting: Stressfree Hire
Bar: The Cocktail Service
Car hire: Barry James and Premier Carriage
Music: Ear Candy Strings / Annabel Williams & The Soul Family / Sliding Vinyl
Kids entertainment: Sharky & George
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Thank you Emma for the amazing write up, and for Amanda and Adam for allowing us to share their stunning images – I am sure many of you will be inspired by their laid back, effortlessly stylish day!
Leah x
