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My Bridal Story: Emily Bridalwear

Business26-Jul-2022

This month, we speak with Emily from Emily Bridalwear, who shares her favourite thing about working in the industry and how she celebrates brides finding their dream dress.

Name of store: Emily Bridalwear

Store owners: Emily Harrison

Location: Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Number of years trading: 14

Brands Stocked: Essense, Martina Liana, All who wander, Lillian West, Justin Alexander, Signature, Blue by Enzoani, Love by Enzoani

Average price point: £1700
Number of staff: 5

Can you give us a little introduction to Emily Bridalwear?

Emily Bridalwear is a 2-floor shop, bursting with wedding dresses and personality. Sitting just off the leafy and affluent Ecclesall road, we are perfectly position for a full day of celebrating for our brides.

We have 3 fittings rooms all private and carefully designed to be light, clutter free and the perfect atmosphere (with air con!) for the bride to not be distracted by too much around her. Everyone comments on how at home they feel, yet still feels special. The feeling is what we work hard on, we create a space that is welcoming and celebratory.

Bridal has changed significantly, and we have evolved too! From its humble beginnings of Laura Ashley styling, shabby chic white and one fitting room, we have tripled in size and our design has grown up too!

We can probably describe ourselves much like any other shop, because on paper we may not stand out. Everyone has beautiful shops, beautiful dresses, great customer service. This is now an expectation and should be a given when it comes to this industry. Standing out is now more than that, it is about creating something that cannot be replicated, the magic that puts the whole business into the sweet spot of generating sales, continuous enquiries and forecasted future growth. That for me is the team, the people that make the magic happen. My glorious, head strong, independent, wonderfully weird and honest, dependable and incredibly passionate group of women. Collectively have one focus in mind, to create connections. We adore working with each other and all love making a bride feel their very best.

Our personalities, our approach and our passion mean we stand out. We aren’t typical bridal stylists; we don’t advertise in the typical way and we don’t run appointments like others. We have brides that travel to us just because of our social media campaigns, our advertising is focused on people, connection and personality rather than wedding dresses, it means that we don’t have to rely on having certain designers to pull in the enquiries, it frees us up from feeling tied to one designer, instead like our working relationships with each other, we work with suppliers because we love their dresses and have a great relationship with them

How did you get into the bridal industry?

16 years ago, I was in a very bad place with my mental health having worked in the public sector with a mix of people all going through the criminal justice system. Seeing first-hand the darkness in life, I really struggled emotionally. Coming to terms with losing what I thought was my career path, because I couldn’t cope with how it affected me, I am an empath so I soaked up all the destruction, the anger, the hurt and felt helpless. For years I lived an empty and unfulfilled life, with anti-depressants numbing everything to allow me to function day to day, I felt trapped. A chance conversation one day switched my thinking, I realised, I had a choice, I didn’t have to carry on with that career, just because I had trained in it, being around sadness and destruction didn’t have to be in my future. That ability to choose, empowered me to look at everything else. Leaning into my emotional side and recognising my desire to make others happy, moving into bridal felt like a really natural shift!

The transfer of skills was ridiculously similar, rather than working towards a court date it’s just a much more exciting date to focus on!

There are of course some brides that make my eyes open and I question if I am working back in probation again, but I feel fulfilled and completely at home being the over-sharer, over-carer and full out emotional person that I am. I love hard on my brides and my team and I adore it that way. I want anyone that comes into this place, to know that they can feel empowered to choose what is right for them, to have something that makes them feel completely themselves and fully supported at every stage be those brides or my staff.

Who would you say is your ideal bride?

This is a bone of contention for me, because I have always struggled with this concept. My ideal bride doesn’t look a certain way or buy from a certain shop. Instead, they have the same values the same appreciation of things. They are the same as us!

Our ideal bride values friendship and family, they are their most comfortable surrounded by loved ones and just want those around them to be happy. They are often selfless and most of their friends describe them as kind and will do anything for them. They don’t take life too seriously and soak up every opportunity to create fun memories

How do you celebrate a bride finding her dress in your boutique? Do you do anything special on social media? How have you adjusted your celebrations with the pandemic?

Celebration is very personal for each of our brides, it can be full of cheers, tears and prosecco. For others it can be calm and relaxed, we follow our brides lead with how they want to be celebrated. We want our bride to feel like our VIP guest, so at no point do we make it transactional or about price at ANY stage. I admire anyone that monetises aspects of the bridal experience and if it works for your business model then carry the hell on. But for us and our approach, it doesn’t work. So, everything is complimentary from the beginning. Each bride gets their Emily Hanger that now has become so notorious, brides actually cheer with delight when they say yes, because they “Get the Hanger”!
We love the traditions that we are creating with our consistent celebrations, so when brides come back with their friends that can reflect fondly on their “Emily Hanger moment”. Even through the pandemic brides received a (sanitised) hanger: Covid didn’t stop us celebrating moments!

What is the best part of your job?

Honestly? Three things, that aren’t all me doing things, but more observing!
1. The screech of YES! it means we’re nailing our sales approach, and with currently hitting 79% conversion, it feels good to know we’re doing it right.
2. Watching my team working together, their relationship with each other and the bond between them is incredible. To watch these incredible women at work, their exceptional skills to styling as well as their whole approach to the business makes me feel very humbled.
3. The one that warms my heart the most, is when a bride’s face transforms when they realise how bloody good they look in a dress. It feels even better when it is one I chose as a wild card! Then it reminds me that for that appointment, I am damn good at what I do!

What’s your favourite industry memory?

I’ve got lots of fond memories of things! When the industry parties were much more common, hated the hangover the next day trying to choose dresses though! I actually can’t really tell you many of those ones, or those involved would kill me! So, I will give you a pre-watershed answer. I was Jeanette Stevens’s (now Director of the label Bridal Collective), first account that she opened for Blue and Enzoani, when it was supplied through Benjamin Roberts. I went with my spreadsheet and the amounts I could afford only being open 8 months, and bought into the labels. It was a risk, but it felt right. Mainly because I trusted Jeanette and together believed in the label that was so new, it had just produced its second collection ever. This was the decision that changed the business, that switched up my confidence and catapulted me into becoming the leading shop in the area. We tripled our sales that year and became the best seller for Blue by Enzoani for two years running, with one changing room. Needless to say, we quickly created a second room!

If you had to give one piece of advice to another store owner, what would it be?

Have your core values and your business mission nailed, and live by them. Also, do your own and compare to the business ones. Feeling unmotivated can often be because you’re not fulfilling one of your fundamental values, so finding out what they are will help you to make the shift. Making decisions that sit with your values and what you want for your business in the future is fundamental. It allows you to do a reality check at every decision, new potential designer, social media strategy, hiring staff, everything.