We have just finished our Christmas window display and have spent the morning reflecting on another eventful year at My little Wedding Shop. We have been lucky enough to work with more amazing Brides, Mother of the Brides, Mother of the Grooms and Bridesmaids and it’s been a pleasure to create such wonderful outfits. So, without further ado, make yourselves comfortable as we present our annual sum-up!
JANUARY
We decided to start the year with a spot of decorating and remodel the boutique. We love how quaint our shop is but we struggle a little with space in the boutique so we tried to make the most of the space we already have! We now have 2 dress rails full of our Jane&Edward Couture Collection designs plus a wall display especially made for our Harriet Wilde shoes. I think you’ll agree that the shop feels transformed and really spacious!
Thank you for all the compliments!
FEBRUARY
Some of you may have met Shirley who helps out at the big shows we do (and who I also refer to as ‘Mum’). Shirley is the reason I started sewing in the first place and she was thrilled to receive a sewing machine for her birthday last year so she could get back into her sewing hobby.
‘Sew’ we have started a new tradition of sewing days (sorry for the pun)! The first project needed to have a deadline and fortunately for me, my mum loves to dress up just as much as I do. So we decided to create costumes for a magical night out at The Hogs Head in Ludlow…can you guess the theme?!
The Harry Potter evening was put on by Ludlow Assembly Rooms, Ludlow Library and the Blue Boar and they had all really gone to town with the details!
We had such a great time and mums costume went down wonderfully on the night, there was quite a lot of posing for photos going on too, so well worth the effort.
MARCH
As many of you know, we had an unfortunate start to our year. Our boutique was broken into and a few of our collection dresses were stolen. As upsetting as it was, we don’t want to dwell on it. It made us realise how supportive our brides and community are when we need it most. We received numerous cards, flowers and well wishes from our customers and some from people who have never even been into the boutique but wanted to show their support and solidarity.
We can’t thank everyone enough for showing their support in our time of need. Thankfully wonderful businesses such as Bridgnorth Cliff Railway, SM Carpentry & Crafts, Shropshire Architectural Salvage and Chippie Chap Carpentry Partners came to our aid to help us put our little boutique back together.
We have taken it as an opportunity to take another look at our previous designs that were taken and as always, it’s been a pleasure remaking the designs that we know and love. Making the best out of a bad situation!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
MAY
We exhibited at the Unconventional Wedding Festival at Stanford Hall in May where we decided to showcase our new Jane&Edward Stardust&Silver Collection. We enjoyed a wonderful weekend meeting new brides and hearing unconventional design ideas.
We also received some wonderful compliments about our new collection as we designed them to fit with the ‘unconventional’ theme with some new splashes of colour and adaptable dresses that change in the evening to create multiple looks.
Photography: Nick Brightman
We exhibited in the Vintage section of the festival and we had a double decker bar bus as the main feature of the section. Such a fun weekend and we feel privileged to have met some amazing and creative wedding suppliers too.
Photography: Lumiere Photography
JULY
In July we had our annual Jane&Edward collection photoshoot and we were thrilled to be welcomed back to the wonderful wedding venue Davenport House. As there were so many picturesque locations around the venue, it didn’t take long for us to plan each scene with a little help from our photographer Stephanie Butt, who knew the exact feel that we wanted from the shoot.
It was one of our highlights from the year, as it is every year, collaborating with such a creative group of women who are always inspiring. There was no question that Omie Megan was the perfect Make Up Artist for the occasion once again and Jennifer from Ferinnje Hair and Beauty who we met this year created the most amazing styles for our model Jennifer’s gorgeous hair!
Thank goodness the rains stayed away and we had a day of glorious sunshine, the perfect backdrop to any occasion. This has been one of our favourite shoots and the images are simply brilliant! We are always made to feel so welcome at Davenport House, the team there are just fab and we are thrilled that we will see our dresses there on more than one occasion in 2020!
IMAGERY STEPHANIE BUTT PHOTOGRAPHY
AUGUST
I am very excited to say that I am in a book!
Local photographer Kathy O’Connor teamed up with Shropshire Archives to document working people in Bridgnorth and I was one of 100 people chosen to be a part of this little slice of history! The chosen photo was in an exhibition over the Summer and we made the cut into the book too!
All of the images have been added to the Shropshire Archives for future generations to peruse. It was a fun project to be a part of and it is great to see so many other faces from our fab town included.
The project and book are:
A Slice of Working Lives in Our Times
100 Faces & Workplaces 2019-2020
NOVEMBER
In November we celebrated our 8th Birthday! We still can’t believe how quickly the last 8 years has gone and how many wonderful brides-to- be we have met! To celebrate our Birthday, we designed a celebratory dress to, well, celebrate the occasion. We have named the dress ‘Champagne Moments’ and we bet that you can’t guess the colour…
We wanted the dress to be quite simple and full of movement so we designed it to have a full circle chiffon skirt with an overlap at the front to create even more movement. The bodice is made of champagne crepe backed satin with lace straps that overlap onto the neckline and centre back. With an added addition of glass beads on the lace and a bespoke matching belt, it’s the perfect dress for those champagne moments…
You can find out more about this on our special birthday blog and we even put together a little film of the dress in the making!
I know we are starting to sound like a broken record but the main highlights of our year are meeting our brides-to-be and hearing all of your amazing dress ideas. All the wedding plans we hear of are so innovative and personal and we love designing each and every outfit to match each wedding day.
Here’s to another year of meeting new brides-to-be, non-stop inspiration and lots of sparkle (obviously).
From George and I, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We hope you all have enjoyed 2019 as much as we have and here’s to an even more fun-filled 2020.
2020?! Can you believe it…