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Inspiring Interiors: Adella Bridal

Business27-Jun-2023

After recently acquiring the chapel next door, Adella Bridal has expanded their boutique to offer the full luxury bridal experience. We chat with founder Amy to find out more.

Name of store: Adella
Store owner: Amy Marlow-King
Number of years trading: 4.5 years (5 on October 1st, 2023)
Brands stocked: Jesus Peiro, Made with Love, Mia Lavi, Vera Wang, Theia Couture, Maddison James & Adella.
Location: Norfolk. Situated just 10 mins from Norwich in the stunning Ketteringham Hall.

Tell us a little bit about your boutique, company history and where you are based.

We are based inside the beautiful Ketteringham Hall, which is a private stately home just outside of Norwich. It’s so peaceful and our brides absolutely love it here. It feels so calm, and we give brides exclusive use, so it’s really a magical place to come for them! We have a tearoom onsite which most of our brides go to for afternoon tea, and really make a day of it especially if they are travelling a long way.
We love our home so much but were rapidly outgrowing our space - and we had literally no storage space! We had long waiting lists for weekend appointments, but didn’t want to add another fitting room and lose the experience we offer of only one bride at a time. As our lease was coming up for renewal, we did look at some other locations and some were lovely, but we just couldn’t imagine moving - it’s definitely our forever home. I had always had my eye on the chapel next door since we opened, it had always been a dream. It’s just such an incredible space with 11m high ceilings and I had envisaged turning it into a space to showcase our accessories. My background is fashion and accessories design, so we really went all out! So, when it became available last year it felt like now or never. I couldn’t turn it down!

Where did you find your inspiration for the interior design of your shop?

I wanted to keep it looking very high-end and luxurious, so we kept to our creams and gold palates that are our signature style. It feels very calming and timeless. As our new space is in the original chapel, we took inspiration from this - we have huge arched windows, so when we added the door to connect the spaces, we made this into an arched chapel door. We also kept the original fireplace and turned this into our bar area which looks incredible!

What was your process in designing your shops interior? Which bits did you enjoy, and which bits did you find hard?

Our building is listed, which makes everything more challenging - we had to get permission for certain things which takes time. The biggest change we were not able to do in time for our opening due to planning and listed building consent - we are hoping to add that later in the year so watch this space! We also did this in secret, deciding not to share the journey until it was finished. We also tried to keep the shop open as much as we could whilst the work was going on, which meant everything took longer. There were moments when brides were in, and we would have to tell the builders to keep the noise down until after they had left!
The hardest bit was making it all feel like one space. For a long time, they felt like two separate spaces and I wanted it to feel like a flowing space and for brides to know it was ‘Adella’. We used the same colours and gold features from our original space through into the chapel, and we gave the Atelier side a little refresh to bring it all up to date. The best was when the door was knocked through and we could see it all together for the first time - it just felt huge! We are now over double the size we were. I’m such a creative person and I loved playing around with the design inside. This kept evolving as we went along until we got it right, and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.

What are the key features of the new interior? Are there any interior staples, and how do they capture a bride’s attention?

Our high ceilings make it feel so bright and airy. Brides always comment how lovely it is to see the dress in such bright light - we also bring brides out in every dress to walk around as they have the atelier space to themselves and we often get comments on how nice it is to be able to walk around in the dress and see how it moves. I would say, if you have space, let brides walk around rather than just staying in a fitting area. It really makes a difference.

Tell us all about your newest additions - how did you celebrate on launch day?

We have gone all out on accessories - we now have a huge range of footwear, stocking Freya Rose and Rainbow Club. We have everything from lingerie to gifting for the bridal party! We have also added MOB and occasion wear, and expanded our bridesmaid offering. We have our very own Adella collection of Accessories as well as stocking some other incredible ranges too!
To celebrate our launch, we had a private party for friends and family that had supported us, and invited local supplier friends along to celebrate. I am so pleased we decided to keep it a secret and not share anything until it was finished as we loved seeing everyone’s reactions! We then had a separate opening weekend for brides.

How does the design of your boutique carry over to your website and social channels?

We keep to our brand colours and font on everything we do to make everything feel uniformed - we have also incorporated the Arch from our new space into our branding to carry this through.

Finally, can you give us your tops three tips for creating a stunning interior?

- Make a mood board to stick to a theme, and tie everything together.
- Use any original features of your spaces and incorporate them in to make it unique.
- Invest in good lighting if you don’t have much natural light!