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Inspiring Interiors: Natalie Ann Brides

Business2-Dec-2022

Natalie Ann Brides give us a detailed look into the behind-the-scenes of their bridal boutique transformation, and tell us how the process was an experience of highs, lows, and difficult decisions.

Name of store: Natalie Ann Brides
Store Owner: Karen Bleasdale & Natalie McDonald
Number of years trading: 29 years trading
Brands stocked: Martina Liana, Essense Of Australia, Savin London, Mori Lee, Mark Lesley, Rachel Rose, All Who Wander, Madi Lane
Location: We are located in a town called Huyton with Roby. It is situated on a residential shopping parade, right off the end of the M62 which takes you right into Liverpool City Centre

Why did you decided to renovate/redecorate your shop?

We decided to carry out a renovation due to the sheer volume of footfall we had post-Covid. The backlog of postponed brides and new brides meant that we were fully booked every day of the week and every hour of the day. Luckily for us we had just extended and renovated our upstairs rooms prior to Covid so we always had the space and intimate fitting rooms that allowed brides to be separated from other people, giving them their own bubble and space. This meant that more new brides were booking in, as well as us carrying out fittings for all of the many postponed brides.

The footfall was immense, making carpets, flooring, paintwork look and feel tired. It’s also super important to have a fresh, on trend look these social media days. It has to be Instagrammable, and with us having a high volume of following we felt the new look would keep it fresh for our new followers and still very exciting for our current and past followers. As you can imagine in bridal, it’s very hard to keep a good Instagram following because once the bride has got her dress and is married, they can easily un-follow you and start interests elsewhere.

How did you find the process of renovating/re-decorating?

Don’t get me wrong the process was tough, as our diary was still busy and we struggled to get builders. Luckily for us we had the newer updated fitting rooms upstairs from the previous renovation, just before Covid, which meant we could run most of our appointments from these new rooms without disturbing staffs hours and brides appointments. We also have my dad to thank for all the rail moving, drilling, painting, mirror hanging. He is a videographer in the wedding trade so is mainly working weekends at the moment, which meant he could come along with his paintbrush and get stuck in mid week. Bit by bit, room by room we just worked it out around the diary, only having to close the doors for two days throughout the whole of the 6 week renovation.

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

The main aim was to make the downstairs showroom smaller, to create a private, downstairs fitting suite. This would give us five private suites to offer our customers, instead of the original four. We needed to do this ASAP as we were finding that many brides were being added to a Saturday waitlist as we couldn’t get them in to the diary. It’s no good working hard on social media/advertising to get people to book an appointment with you if they can’t get in! We had to act quickly but we also had to wait until our rush of postponed brides were at their lowest. October was the perfect timing, plus the energy crisis hitting did quieten things down a little more so we saw the gap and just went for it.

We were very nervous to totally halve the large showroom to create this new suite. Would we lose rail space? Would the bride come into the smaller space and not be wowed enough? Would it look like we have fewer dresses to offer? After some thought, discussions and bridal feedback, we decided that the new Gen Z bride doesn’t need the showroom space anymore. They don’t need to see all the dresses stacked up next to one another as they’ve already seen their dresses online and have a very good understanding of what they want.

With that being said we opened up the front window space by removing the four mirrors we had placed there for years. The light flooding through was incredible. Why had we never done this before? It allowed the dresses in the window to fall free and look "WOW" instead of hidden and squashed. This has also given us fuel for beautiful seasonal window displays which we have never been able to do before. Already, by doing this we felt confident the smaller showroom space would work with this new light we had just created.

The moment of truth was about to happen and we were about to divide the room in half with a wall. After 29 years of this big huge space, where it all began, carrying out all our brides fittings in here before we had extended upstairs, the memories and laughter and tears were literally about to be changed but for the good. The joiner decided to cancel on us! This happened throughout, with many ideas and plans we had, which is one of the main reasons why we all mucked in and got the jobs done ourselves.

The pressure was on and it was Monday, meaning we had to have the divide done for our busy Saturday ahead. I was obsessed with this new light space we had created and thought why lose that natural light coming into the new fitting suite with a wall. I’m a big believer of things happening for a reason so decided to prop up a few free standing rails with dresses on where the wall divide would be and it worked. The light flooding over the top of the dresses into the new suite and the sound of customer traffic, gave an atmosphere that I feel is important to relax the nerves. So instead of a wall divide it’s a dress divide, which is super cool and creates such a different energy almost like you are entering an adventure into the world of Narnia.

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

Much of the inspiration was pulled from Bridal Week Harrogate. Each stand we visited was bright, yet warm and had lovely relaxing feels, especially the Madi Lane stand. It was quite breath-taking actually! When we came back from Harrogate, we looked at the dark grey paint on our walls and the silver curtains and thought… "out with the old in with the new". I had just redecorated my living room at home and had searched for the perfect pallet. Dulux Nutmeg White, try it its fab.

Is there anything in your interior that makes your boutique stand out?

Our big marble centre piece is a key feature to the main showroom (actually making it smaller again!) but it works. It’s a centre piece to make you feel like you are at home, like when you get home from a busy day and throw your keys and bag on the kitchen table. Honestly that’s what brides are doing. They come in, WOW the room and throw their bag on the table and get their phone out to show us the dresses they have saved. It really does give that sense of security instead of the sense of a shop/office vibe.

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

1 - Know your customer/bride - what do they want - get inside their head and then let your imagination flow, which will lead you to how to utilise your shop space.

2 - Try not to follow too much of the current niche interior trends, as it will require updating more often.

3 - Don’t be scared to take a risk. Like we did by cutting our space in half. Sometimes smaller is better as it’s more inviting and intimate and in the long run allows you more space (if you know what I mean).

See their full renovation story on Instagram: @natalie_ann_brides