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My Bridal Story: RAIN Bridalwear

Business3-Apr-2023

Centrally located on Sydney’s North Shore, RAIN Bridalwear offers all brides-to-be an unparalleled experience to selecting your perfect wedding dress. We speak with Jon & Rob to find out more.

Name of Store: RAIN Bridalwear
Co-owners: Jon & Rob
Location: Sydney, Australia
Number of Years Trading: 25+ years in bridal
Brands Stocked: Kenneth Winston

Average Price Point: $3500

Can you give us an introduction to Rain Bridal?

With over 25 years of knowledge and experience in the world of Bridalwear throughout Europe, RAIN Bridalwear has landed in North Sydney. RAIN Bridalwear is renowned for quality bridalwear, with a vast array of beautiful wedding dresses. Brides will be whisked into a world of relaxed opulence and style from the moment you enter our store with wedding dresses to suit all budgets. Brides will have their very own personal, oversized 8m squared dressing room, complete with portable selection rail: our consultants will individually select gowns from a 300-strong wedding gown collection. Photos are allowed, so brides don’t miss those all important insta moments!

What made you get into the bridal industry?

Our journey into bridal started some 25+ years ago, having a bridal store in Chester in the UK and a brand, and things escalated from there. Bridal has taken us all over the world, meeting some amazing people along the way, Special shout out to Alan and Nina from Elizabeth Dickens, who have supported us from day 1 in the UK and who still supply us with stunning bridal veils, and of course the fabulous Ken and Winston from Kenneth Winston. We take the entire collection from every range every season, and our brides simply love them: the service and support that they give us is amazing.

Who would you say is your ideal bride?

Generally, we have a completely different approach to bridal shopping. We have created a very relaxed environment for our customers, debunking the myths around the industry. Our customers are allowed to touch our dresses, select what they want to try, which opens the door to them being more agreeable to our advice and suggestions. Nobody wants to be in an awkward position of being “rail roaded” or over guided from their own vision, so there is a tactful, skilful way of finding your bride her dream gown. An ideal bride for us is a bride who is open to suggestions and wants to experiment with styles and accessories, it makes the whole process an enjoyable one for everyone, which ultimately leads to that “I rocked my frock at RAIN” moment.

How do you celebrate a bride finding her dress in your boutique?

There is always something happening in our store, and always something engaging for our brides to experience. We have coined the phrase “Don’t just buy bridal, experience bridal” and we live by that, All of our brides to be, and their parties are served bubbles in-store, with an array of chocolates for them to enjoy. We went the extra mile and had a custom built Champagne bar installed in-store “Bubbles @ RAIN, which the customers love, (And the staff, after a crazy Saturday). It really has enhanced the fun aspect of the whole experience. We have also just introduced our “Bottomless Boujee Bridal Brunch” where our customers can pre-book a 2-hour deluxe consultation with us, enjoying a platter from “The Boujee Boards” and free flowing bubbles whilst selecting their dream gown. Those all important “Yes” moments are enjoyed by all, raising a glass and celebrating those all important moments, We have oversized Instagram frames for exactly this purpose! We encourage our customers to snap away for those all important moments, and we follow this up by celebrating their special day and sharing them on our social media pages.

What is the best part of your job?

We don’t class bridal as a job, it is a passion, and a passion that has to stay burning if you are to succeed. We have many aspects to our passion, we love to meet our brides and their families, who are from all walks of life and all nationalities, all with a different story to tell. Some joyous, some with sadness, but it really makes you realise that you are a playing a key role in a momentous occasion in someone’s life, and you have this one chance to make this part of their journey fabulous.

What’s your favourite industry memory?

One of my most memorable occasions in-store was when a bride to be walked into the store alone for her consultation. She was greeted at the front desk - as with every customer - but this customer was deaf and silent without voice. This brought some challenges with communication, but ended up with lots of laughter and many tears, she was absolutely adorable, and what a sense of humour! Namely, as Jon and Rob took very quickly to scribbling notes on bits of paper initially, and then had the bright idea of opening a “sign” app. We would enter the text and the “app” would sign it to the customer: easy, right? Nope! This was met with lots of hilarity as we had failed to realise that signing is like language, and has different international meaning, Our bride found our attempts hilarious as we were apparently asking her, “What do you think of the cat?” as we had downloaded a non-Australian version of sign! She left us a very happy bride and her husband to be came into store to thank us for making her so welcome and really making her experience memorable.

Can you tell us three interesting facts about your boutique?

We have a floral art installation on our ceiling, which we designed and created using over 800 flowers by hand.
We have been approached on numerous occasions by tv shows to film in our store.
We currently house, in-store, a “Hollywood” walkthrough, previously owned by none other than Kim Kardashian herself.

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

Keep it real. It is your personality and the environment that you create that will determine the success of your store. Customers can read “fake” a mile off, so treat customers as you wish to be treated yourself. How many times have you yourself simply smiled and left a store because you felt awkward? And it is no different just because it is your store. Not all customers are easy, and they certainly are not always right! As the saying goes, but the only thing you can do is your best to make people as comfortable and welcomed for the time that they are in your environment.