Dressing the big bridesmaids

Almost as urgent as getting my dress ordered was sorting out the big bridesmaids' dresses. I wanted to go shopping quickly because it's the end of prom season and I was hoping we might find something suitable and reduced in prom sales. I also suspected that if we couldn't find anything, we might have to order some in, and then they might need altering.


Last weekend (10th August) I went down to my parents' for the shopping trip because both Jenny and sister-in-law are based in that area. We started our hunt in Erdington, where there is a large bridal shop - The Wedding Centre - and a prom dress shop - Lulaann Prom.

The Wedding Centre was a large shop with lots of wedding dresses, a florist, and a reasonable selection of dresses for little bridesmaids/flower girls, but nothing for big ones. We mooched through the little dresses and made a note of a couple that looked nice, had a quick look at the accessories in the displays, asked about wedding shoes (they don't stock any) and then went.

We headed to Lulaann Prom, which is owned by the same people of a bridal shop two doors down, and we had to go into the bridal shop to ask the staff to open the prom dress shop. There were a lot of dresses in there, but half of them weren't really suitable for bridesmaids. We tried on a few different styles, and there were some that could have done at a push, but a combination of the styles not being quite right, the colours not being right, or the dress not being available in the right sizes or only one being available because they were end of line, meant we didn't get anything.

The next stop was in Boldmere, where there were two more shops - Singular Sensation and Red Rose Bridal. We went into Singular Sensation first, as much because I knew they stocked shoes as because I wanted to look at their dresses. The shoe selection didn't have what I was looking for, so we turned our attention to the dresses.

THE colour! But not the dress :-)

One thing I knew for sure before we started our shopping trip was that I really wanted dark green dresses for the big bridesmaids. I had a backup colour, but dark green was what I was aiming for. Singular Sensation was the first (and only, as it turned out) shop we went into that could do the dresses in the exact colour I was looking for. They had a variety of styles available, all very beautiful, and all able to be ordered in in a range of sizes and colours.

Jen and sister-in-law tried on a few different styles, and Jenny, very annoyingly, looked stunning in every single one! Sister-in-law is more curvy than Jenny though, so it was important to find something that would look good on both of them. We narrowed it down to two that we really liked, made a note of them, and moved on over the road to the next stop.

Red Rose Bridal was a much bigger shop, with its wedding dresses and bridal accessories in an upstairs showroom. I went to have a look at their shoes, and one of the first pairs I looked at was almost exactly what I was looking for. Most importantly, as well as being the right style, it had a low heel - pretty essential as far as I'm concerned if I'm going to be wearing them all day, dancing in them, and want to stay comfortable!

We looked at the bridesmaid dresses after I'd chosen the shoes, and there were a few which were quite nice, but nothing really reached out and grabbed me, and again there was the issue of them not being available in the exact style I wanted. The order time would also have been pushing it to get the dresses in in time, and some of the styles had such low backs they would have caused serious underwear issues!


When we got back to Mom and Dad's for lunch we talked through the various dresses and decided on one of the styles from Singular Sensation, so we measured Jenny and sister-in-law and phoned the shop to order. The lady was very helpful, took all the details, and reassured us that the dresses would be in in plenty of time before the wedding. She did have one concern, asking if 'the tall bridesmaid', aka Jenny, was planning on wearing heels, because the dress might come up too short if she was. Jen had already told me she's planning on wearing flats, so I could reassure the lady, but I was very impressed that she'd noticed that detail and had remembered to mention it to me even though it was almost two hours after we'd left the shop, and they had been busy all morning.

I then had to call Red Rose as well, because I'd left my shoes by the till. They were very nice about it. I blame Bride Brain - the wedding equivalent of baby brain!

Singular Sensation
8 Boldmere Road, Sutton Coldfield, B73 5TD
e: info@singularsensation.co.uk
t: 0121 355 8158
w: www.singularsensation.co.uk

Red Rose Bridal
11-13 Boldmere Road, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, B73 5UY
e: redrosebridal@btinternet.com
t: 0121 354 6292
w: www.redrosebridal.com
 

A fantastic shop find

As I've been going around Oswestry over the past few weeks I'd noticed a shop window with a beautiful little girl's dress in the window. It was white with a sash around the waist and gorgeous red satin roses on the skirt.

Now in Oswestry there's a project called Footfall, which uses empty shop windows to create displays of art and other items, usually on a theme. I'd assumed this shop window was part of Footfall, because there was bunting in the window to match the colour scheme, flowers, and other pretty bits of decoration, but there was no name above the shop.

The dress in the window had caught my eye though, so I decided to walk up to have a look at the dress and see if it was an advert for a shop or had any clue as to where I might be able to find something similar. I was delighted when I got there and saw an 'open' sign on the door - it actually is a shop!

When I pushed open the door I started grinning - the first thing I saw was a rack of little white dresses, and on the back wall was a sparkling display of tiaras, hair pins and other pretties suitable for accessorising bridesmaids with.

The lady in the shop was sitting at the counter working on a sewing machine, and she smiled at me when I walked in. I had a mooch around, looking through the racks and investigating the sparklies, and then the lady asked me if I was looking for something in particular. When I told her that I was interested in bridesmaids dresses she produced two catalogues full of beautiful girls' dresses in a variety of colour schemes for me to look through, all very reasonably priced and absolutely gorgeous.

The dresses only take a week or two to come in, and when I said the girls all lived quite a long way away she said that was no problem, and that I could take the dresses away to try on and bring them back to order a different size if needed. She also said that if necessary she could make any alterations that were needed, and was really nice and helpful when she was suggesting possible changes.

Not my bridesmaids, but cute all the same! Pic by shutterpal

I ordered three dresses on the spot - all different but with elements that tie them all together - and then browsed  through the accessories. There were so many lovely things, again, very reasonably priced, and I picked up some hair pins and some flowers, which are lovely and have been tied up with ribbon ready to be carried as bouquets by big and little nieces.

I'm so glad I found the shop, because it's such a lovely place just to mooch around and I'm sure I'll find excuses to go back in there again for hair accessories and an evening bag closer to the wedding date.

PS - The shop also sells eggs!

Kirkham's Sewing Boutique
26 Willow Street, Oswestry, SY11 1AO
e: kirkhamsboutique@yahoo.co.uk 
t: 07546 107172

Buying my dress

The first big purchase of the wedding plans was my dress. Having done quite a bit of research, I knew that most wedding dress shops ask for at least 16 weeks before the wedding to get the dress in and alterations done. Since lovely beardy fiancé only proposed 16 weeks before the wedding, I knew I was cutting it tight and fully expected to be met with looks of disapproval from staff at the shops I went into. That said, I was also fully prepared to walk out of any shop which treated me with disdain because I dared to try to get married on a short time scale and not on their time scale.

The week after we got engaged I had a look around local bridal shops to where I live in Oswestry, Shropshire, and talked to other people, and everyone seemed to have nothing but good things to say about Trisha's. Having heard all these good things, I called them up to make an appointment to pop in to try on some dresses the next Saturday (3rd August), thinking that then I could get some ideas ready for when I went shopping with my bridesmaids the following week (10th August).

I was so excited I couldn't actually wait until the Saturday, and on the Friday I popped over to the shop in my lunch break to have a look around. Trisha herself was in the shop and was more than happy to spend a bit of time talking to me about what I'd be looking for and to show me around the private showrooms where dozens of beautiful dresses were hanging on racks ready to be tried on. Most importantly, when I told her the date of the wedding, she said it wasn't going to be a problem and that it would be perfectly possible to get a dress in that timescale.

On the Saturday I went back with my friend Rachel to give a second opinion on anything I found. Trisha was lovely, and had pulled out a few dresses ready for me to try on after remembering what I'd said the previous day. I was really impressed, and it was one of the ones she suggested that I eventually went for.

When it came to ordering the dress she said that they say it's a 16 week delivery timescale, but then reassured me by saying she wouldn't order in anything unless she was sure it would be in in time for any alterations to be done. She also said that even if it went down to three days before the wedding, they could take care of any last minute changes because they do all the alterations in store.

A few days later I got a call from Trisha again to tell me that the estimated delivery date was going to be 23rd October - a full month before the wedding. She then said I should feel free to pop in or call any time if I had any questions of concerns.

The staff in the shop were lovely, the experience of trying on dresses was really relaxed and fun, I found the perfect dress, and it was well within my budget and actually cheaper than I thought it would be!

Trisha's
57-59 Beatrice Street, Oswestry, Shropshire SY11 1QR
e: trishasbridalwear@hotmail.co.uk
t: 01691 671133
w: trishasbridalwear.co.uk