The Little Pearl Bridal Boutique - The Final Countdown!

Phew, the gowns are here, with just a couple we are still waiting on, but our designers have kindly lent us some of their samples in for our opening.  It’s so lovely to have such supportive designers, they truly are all great to work with.  It’s certainly been a stressful final week getting ready for the launch evening and our opening day!!  As soon as the carpets were down I was desperate to start hanging the gowns up proudly from their rails and titivating all the accessories!!  My mum loved this part, it must’ve taken her 10 goes to get a garter displayed in the right spot!  Thankfully all the furniture we bought matches and we haven’t sent something back for a few days now, so that must be a good sign?! The curtains however, have not been the most seamless of installations! How can a made to measure curtain by a professional be 5 inches too short?!! We did have another little issue with no chocolate hearts arriving for the little gift bags to give away on the launch evening.  Brett came to the rescue and went and bought us some more!  I’m sure we’ll use another 100 chocolate hearts for something else down the line!! 

I have to say that the boutique is now looking just stunning.  It’s everything I had hoped for and more.  Everyone has been so supportive and helped out where they can to get us to this point.  I’ll be eternally grateful.

The next designer feature who we are thrilled to have here in the boutique is Maria Senvo.

Young design duo, Holly Cuthbert and Ryan Wilkinson found a gap in the bridal market for that modern day bride who is looking for something much more, and that aren’t afraid to step outside the box and embrace their own unique and personal style.  

Their 2015 collection has such impeccable lines and fluid silhouettes that is new, bold and interesting. They wanted to offer something unique, something that their brides would love wearing, something that is trend led, yet would not go out of fashion. And… without a doubt they wanted to encourage our brides to wear the dress and not the other way around."

These gowns are truly amazing to wear!  We just can’t wait to see lots of lucky brides in them soon!! xxx

The Little Pearl Bridal Boutique - Gearing up for launch!

Well this week as certainly been a rollercoaster of emotions this week.  Our eldest boy had to have a little operation this week, so all the focus has been on him obviously!  I can’t believe how well he has sailed through it all though.  Kids are definitely a lot tougher than you give them credit for sometimes!  Mummy and daddy certainly came off worse!  With that now thankfully behind us, we are back in boutique launch mode.  Finally all the VIP invites have been sent out for the launch night, and fizz and treats have been ordered!  Gown deliveries are all set for the next few days, so its like a military operation making sure we have people in the right place to accept all of them!  In the midst of all this as promised I wanted to share some more about another one of our fabulous designers….Enzoani.

Enzoani is loved by so many and is often seen gracing the red carpets, including that of Desperate Housewife Eva Longoria, and choreographer and performer Paula Abdul who proudly wore the stunning Dakota gown to the American Music Awards.  The award winning Twilight Saga also chose Enzoani to be the dream dress of Actress Kristen Stewart in the movie.  With all these celebrity acclaims why wouldn’t you fall in love with an Enzoani gown?!

2014 certainly was a fantastic year for Enzoani, with them winning ‘Best Bridal Manufacturer’ in the Bridal Buyer Awards for the second time running. Managing Director Jeanette Stevens and Sales Director Mark Stevens, also won the 2014 Outstanding Contribution to the Wedding World award.  This husband and wife partnership behind Enzoani in the UK are very passionate about understanding the importance of knowing their customers and brides and adapting in anyway they can to support them.  They love to make personal store visits, and we can’t wait to introduce them to the boutique at our launch event this week!!

Flo and Percy were also delighted to be sponsored and presented with their best hair accessories award by Enzoani at the 2013 and 2014 Wedding Ideas Awards. 

We are so thrilled to be an exclusive stockist of this divine bridal brand and just can’t wait to help our #pearlsgirls find their perfect Enzoani gown  xxx

The Little Pearl Bridal Boutique - Diana Meets Charlotte Balbier!

It’s only a few weeks until we open the doors of our gorgeous boutique and we’ve been busy sending out our launch invitations and taking bookings from brides to be!  So exciting that we are filling up the diary!

We’ve also had the pleasure of attending one of our designers training days at their head office this week - Charlotte Balbier.  It was such a fantastic day!  We certainly were treated to lots of lovely things and given so much valuable advice.  We can’t wait to get started now!  I thought it would be lovely to share with you all a bit more about Charlotte Balbier and her gorgeous collection.

The Charlotte Balbier brand was established in 2003 by Charlotte, who was born into bridal to the award winning British designer Amanda Wyatt, who’s parents also ran a highly successful bridal empire through the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. With this bridal Heritage spanning over 50 years it was inevitable Charlotte would follow their path into bridal fashion.

Working both in fashion and film Charlotte had a passion for all things feminine and bridal but wanted to create something special for the modern bride of today. Over the last decade Charlotte has designed and created gowns for brides all over the world, a Charlotte Balbier bride is a free spirit who is confident in both her fashion and bridal style and who is not afraid to show her feminine side and express her personality through her wedding gown.

All Balbier gowns are beautifully made with the finest fabrics and workman ship.  The laces are all French laces and the crystal beading is Swarovski all because the quality is the best there is and ensure the gowns look and feel amazing.  Many of the laces are exclusive to Charlotte Balbier and they often search out unusual fabrics.  All their gowns are cut and finished by hand so you can imagine how long it takes to bead these stunning gowns!

Charlotte’s inspiration and passion for what she does comes from so many different elements, from walks with her dog Buster Bear to inspiration from her brides, particular at Designer Days (watch this space for one at The Little Pearl!).  Charlotte listens to what brides want from gowns and how it makes them feel.  This is just as important as how it looks.  Charlotte is also a keen follower of fashion and loves to indulge in fabulous clothes!

Charlotte loves to hear from brides themselves if they have any questions to ask and many Balbier Brides share their wedding journeys and pictures from their special day.  Make sure you follow Charlotte over on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest for lots of fabulous wedding inspiration!

This award winning brand is now one of the U.K’s leading British designer brands and we are absolutely thrilled to be one of Charlotte’s exclusive stockists.  

I’ll be sharing stories on all of our designers on the lead up to our opening so make sure you pop back for a read!xx

The Little Pearl Bridal Boutique - Not long now!

So now that I’m officially unemployed, the realisation of what I’m doing is certainly starting to set in!  I’m so excited about what lies ahead, but can’t see how everything is going to get done for our grand opening on Valentines Day!!

First stop this week was a visit to a Wedding Fair at Ripon Castle hosted by The Wedding Affair. 

 

Lisa Hogg, the lady behind The Wedding Affair, kindly invited us along so we could see what it was all about.  I have to say I wasn’t sure whether we should be a covert ‘newly engaged’ couple or just be honest about who we were!! After getting approached by quite a few people asking if we needed a photographer, caterer, signing up for newsletters and goodie bags, I felt I just had to own up or I’d be signing ourselves up for renewing our vows, (now there’s a thought!!).  We did manage get a goodie bag, which had some great treats in and ironically featured our Yorkshire Brides editorial!  I’m so glad we went to have a look round.  The venue was stunning, there was a good mix of exhibitors (including our friends at The Talbot Hotel in Malton and Hayley Baxter Photography), the catwalk show was really well put together and overall it had a great atmosphere.  It will certainly be something we’ll look to being involved in in the future.  We’ve actually been having lots of discussions this week about wedding fairs and its looking like April is going to be a busy month - more details soon!!

After a busy weekend and having some much needed family time, it was back to sourcing things for the boutique and checking how the decorators were getting on!  Thankfully we didn’t get all the predicted snow we thought we would have, so the decorators managed to get rid of the awful black window frames on the outside, to something more in keeping with my colour scheme! The fabulous feature wall paper is now up, although I think I caused them quite a headache with one of the papers!  Apparently it was like sticking cardboard to a wall - but it does look amazing!! 

It was then time for the hanging rails to go up.  What a nifty little tool joiners have to make sure things are straight - I must get one! 

I just hope the rails take the weight of all the beautiful gowns we have.  Tobias gave them a test by swinging like a monkey off them, much to my mum’s horror!!  Thankfully, they will be fine!!

I can’t actually believe I’m saying one of my biggest headaches this week was what desk to order!  I know there are so many more important things going on in the world, but it has to be right!  I finally decided on an oak one, even though I originally wanted mirrored.  It arrived this week and its just not right, so yes, its going back and I’ve ordered a mirrored one.  Just goes to show you should always go with your gut instinct!

We’ve had lots of lovely deliveries this week.  My little boy Tobias thinks its still Christmas as he’s been helping to open some of the packages, carefully of course!! Can’t wait to get these on display.

So excited to start up some new partnerships this week too!  I had a fab meeting with a local business that makes personalised wedding gifts/stationary etc.  I’ve had a quite a few of their pieces for gifts myself and I just love them - I’m sure our brides will too! :) xx