Tips to saying YES to the sale dress!

Bridal shop sales can be a saviour, especially if your budget is tight but you still want that gorgeous designer dress! Where else can you find THE dress with upto 70% off?! There can be many negative stigmas around buying a sale dress but we're hear to put your mind at rest, making the search that little bit easier.

We advise that you do a little bit of research before you attend the sale, as being able to tell us what you have in mind will help us find the right dress for you. That could be as simple as just one dress off our website that grabs your eye, or a certain style you're looking for. But even if you have no idea what so ever, we're here to help and would love to be part of the search for your dream dress.

However if you're in love with a dress in the latest bridal magazine, you're probably not going to find it in a sale. The dresses we put in our sale are usually from a previous collection. Often designers discontinue dresses but we still have the sample dress in our shop. So, we hold these sales to give you the last chance of finding your dress, at a discounted price. It also gives us the chance to make room for this seasons beautiful new dresses.

Many brides expect a sample sale to be full of unwanted, dirty gowns which no one else has wanted.

THIS IS NOT THE CASE!

All of our gowns are cleaned and looked after on a regular basis, even just for sale day. And they're not just unwanted dresses! When we choose our collection, we aim to have a wide range of different sizes and styles. So that every girl has the opportunity to try what they want. Once a bride has chosen her dress, we'll take measurements and order the appropriate size for her. The dress she tried on in our shop, will stay in our collection. Therefore, all of our sale dresses aren't unwanted they've just simply helped another girl towards her dream.

All of our sale gown need to be taken home with you on the day but if you wish to use our seamstress services, we'll keep hold of your details and contact you a few months before your wedding to arrange a fitting.

Be prepared to buy, if you're not in a place to purchase your dress right now attending our sale might not be the best option for you. There would be nothing worse than you coming to us on the day, finding THE dress and not being able to buy it. It will only lead to heartbreak as we won't be able to reorder the dress for you and someone else may come along and decide it's their dream dress too.

Finally, don't feel pressured to buy a dress. We want you to have the perfect dress on your big day, not one that you regret buying in all the excitement on a sale day. We wish you all the best in finding your dress and we'll see you on Sunday 7th February 2016!

WAS £1150                                                   WAS £650                                                     WAS £1150 

NOW £550                                                   NOW £250                                                      NOW £499

Top 10 Things Brides Forget on their Big Day!

In all the hustle and bustle of excitement on your wedding it's easy to forget a few important things. To save our brides the stress on their big day we've decided to list the top 10 things that brides tend to forget. We hope this helps to calm your nerves!

1. Wedding Rings - It may seem a very stupid thing to forget your wedding rings on the day but it has been done! To make sure this doesn't happen we suggest that you give one person the job of looking after the rings. This saves the awkward "I thought you had them?!" conversation at the end of the aisle. Another tip we give is that if you're having a young pageboy, don't give him the real rings to carry down the aisle because you're just asking for them to be lost. You could always give him fake rings instead and make sure your best man has the real ones. 

2. Make sure you have the number of the hotel you're staying at. It's always a good idea to give them a ring and let them know what time you'll be checking in, you wouldn't want to turn up in the early hours of the morning and not be able to get in! Give them a quick reminder that it's your wedding night as well, there might be a nice bottle of champagne and some chocolates waiting for you. 

3. Comfortable shoes! - Dancing in heels all night is inevitably going to become painful, so just take something more comfortable to get changed into. Whether that's a customised diamanté pair of converse or simply a pair of flip flops, anything will do.

4. Drink water - even if you're not drinking alcohol on the day it's still a good idea to keep drinking water. As everyone knows a lack of water can cause you headaches and you want to be feeling as good as ever, not having to take painkillers on your day.

4. Know what photographs you want - many brides have specific ideas of what pictures they want as keep sakes but in all the excitement they tend to forget! If you want a specific picture of your dress or a specific pose with your husband, make sure you tell your photographer before the day. This way there's no chance of you missing out on the snaps you wanted. 

5. Put your engagement ring back on - you'll need to take it off to allow you husband to put your wedding band on but after the ceremony you'll want to show them both off together.

6. Check out your ceremony space - you've spent so long planning your flowers and how beautiful you want the church to look that it's not worth not being able to remember what it looked like. So, just take a few moment to admire the beautiful space which you're getting married in. Maybe it's the flowers as you walk down the aisle or how wonderful all your guests look for your big day.

7. Collect sentimental items - don't leave anything you'll wish you'd kept at the ceremony. Keep a few programs and special items for yourself, give them to a family member or friend who could keep hold of them for you until after you get back from your honeymoon. Some brides even wish they'd kept their flowers, maybe you could dry a few out and frame them or put them in a special place.

8. Emergency Kit - We hate to say it, but emergencies happen - spills, paper cuts, ripped hems, and more. Create an emergency (or ask one of your bridesmaids to help you out), that includes a few essentials - stain kit, sewing kit, double-sided tape, plasters, tissues, and dental floss are all important to include.





9. Rain Gear - Mother Nature is unpredictable, so bring a cute umbrella and maybe a pair of rain boots just in case.

10. Gifts for Maids, Mums and Best Man - Your party of friends have been with you through the wedding-planning process thick and thin. Express your thanks by preparing gifts for them! These gifts don't have to be extravagant or anything, but it does mean a lot to the people in your wedding party when you show them that you took the time to put some effort and meaning into making gifts that they will appreciate. Popular gifts for ladies usually consist of beauty products or jewellery, and for the guy? Cuff links, fancy cigars or razors. 

Wedding Planning Timeline

Not all brides wear white!

Something that we haven't previously covered on our #weddingwednesday is unique wedding dresses. Many brides want something a little bit different on their wedding day, whether that's a ballerina length 60's style or simply a dress that's not either white or ivory. The topic of unique wedding dresses got us thinking about celebrities and some of the bizarre and wonderful dresses they've graced the world with.

The first celebrity we came across was Sarah Jessica Parka, who in 1977, said her vows to husband Matthew Broderick in a black wedding dress! Yes, we said black! SJP went to the extreme with her wedding dress, choosing the complete opposite of the conventional white. She clearly loves weddings as much as we do as she's recently started her own brand of bridal shoes, they're simple yet elegant.

However, Sarah Jessica Parker was not the only successful woman to pull off a black wedding dress on her big. In 2013, Shenae Grimes wedded her British model boyfriend Josh Beech, and pulled off a very flattering a stylish black dress! We particularly love the halter neck on Shenae's dress. Teaming her red bouquet of flower with her black dress really makes a statement, which won't be forgotten by her guests or the rest of the world for a long while! 

Clearly some brides like the idea of being completely unconventional by getting married in black but we have also also discovered some celebrity brides that just wanted to add a splash of colour in to their dress to brighten their special day. 

Gwen Stefani is a prime example of one of these celebrity brides, she chose to have a dip dye effect on the bottom of her dress. We hugely admire her courage and determination to stand out on her wedding day! The two chosen colours, Ivory and Pink complement each other well and look beautiful together. Unfortunately, we're not huge fans of the style of dress but we're sure she felt amazing nonetheless. 

Marilyn Monroe was married three times, once as a sixteen-year-old brunette in the 1940s, and twice more at the height of her stardom. You don’t hear much about her wedding outfits, and I think that’s because she never chose to wear a classic wedding dress. Actually she did wear a traditional white wedding gown for her first wedding, but at that point she was still Norma Jean Baker and had a long way to go to become the star she evolved into. Marilyn's most iconic wedding dress was worn on her second special day. She wore a tailored black dress with a fitted coat (complete with white fur collar) and, of course, white silk gloves.

It's not only celebrities that like to be unique, we've seen brave and courageous brides in our little shop too! This is Alex who wanted her own look, the dress started out a red beaded dress and although you can't see it on this picture, we made the back look completely 'Alex' by adding a huge bow from the same fabric and Black lace which trailed all the way down the train of the dress. Also lifting the front and adding Black Tulle underneath. Her head wear was also coutured to suit her look!

We try to provide a wide range of different dress for our brides to try, from the traditional to the extravagant! We do this because every bride is different and many want their personality to be portrayed through their dress, whether that's simplicity or out of the ordinary. We've included a small collection of our dresses below, that we believe to be unique!

We'd love to hear your views here at Especially For You, so please post your comments below!

Something a little bit special

At Especially For You we are always trying to find ways of making the day a little bit more special for you (and you wonder how we came up with our business name!). We already ensure that everything we do for you as a bride is perfect, priding ourselves on our customer service and the time and effort we put into making sure your dream day goes that little bit smoother.

The one thing we could never figure out was how to add a final finishing touch to your dress in order to personalise it a step further (without anyone else having to know). We’ve always sewn little blue ribbon bows onto the inside of the dress if people have asked, some brides have wanted a little pouch in the skirts to hold a string of pearls from their grandmother.  Then, a breakthrough.

Why don’t we add a ribbon label into the dresses with your name, ours and the wedding date? We knew it had to be done carefully, and look professional (not tacky!) because this is a dress that is going to stay with you for a long time, maybe forever, and the last thing we wanted to do was ruin it. We sketched the design out on paper first, trying to work out the dimensions needed for the ribbon not to be noticeable on the outside, because if too big it would be bulky and show through. For that matter, we needed to know where we were going to sew it in the dress. Luckily, Carole had that covered; suggesting the best place would be at the back of the dress just to the side of the fastening up the back. On the sketching front, it took a few attempts to get the scale right, you can easily tell if you look at this attempt and then the real one just below.

After deciding that the ribbon should be about 4" by 1.5", we needed to work out which kind of ribbon to use. As a sewing amateur at the best of times, I had just presumed we would sew straight onto the shiny stuff, and all would be well. Apparently not. A local business has a special sewing machine which can stitch our design onto the first kind of ribbon, and looked at the result. It had all pulled, the ribbon no longer just a rectangular shape. Obviously, with the needles pushing through the ribbon and pulling the threads tight, the ribbon had become misshapen, not really the chic look we were going for.

Obviously the ribbon we used would have to be a bit stiffer, less shiny so that the sewing machine would find it easy to sew our pattern on. Carole came up with an ivory grosgrain ribbon, quite a ridged one which would keep its shape. And it worked, see the results for yourself, I have to say we’re quite proud of ourselves (not that I contributed really – blaming the amateur sewing skill again!).

Do you like what we’ve done with the labels, or is there something we could change about them? We are always open to suggestions, and would love to hear what you think. Comment down below, or tweet us @especiallybride . Thanks for reading, until the next #weddingwednesday.

Emma at Especially For You x 

Wedding Dresses That Changed History

  We've been out of action for a few months now on our blog; January sees the start of our busy months, usually right through to October. To make up for it, this week's Wedding Wednesday is going to be something a bit different. We work in a wedding shop, and talk about our dresses ALL THE TIME, yet we never really talk about what influences the styles of dresses we sell. At the moment, brides are buying a lot of lace dresses, many with straps, sleeves or high necklines. Three guesses at what brought on this mini-obsession with all things lacy! If you really don't want to hear, in any way shape or form, about The Royal Wedding, maybe now would be the time to stop reading. However, we're not going to start with 2011, we are going to go a bit further back in time...

1937 - Wallis Simpson marries the Duke of Windsor  

  The first in this gallery of wedding dresses is the dress of Wallis Simpson, designed by the house of Mainbocher (founded by Main Rousseau Bosher in 1929). A very simple column dress, with an internally structured jacket helped show off Simpson's beautiful figure. Her hair piece was a chic straw hat, decorated with tulle and feather detailing, and for jewellery there was a charm bracelet of crosses (each of the nine crosses had a significant event from the couple's lives together) and a brooch worn at the neck. Although impossible to see from this photograph, the dress was actually a very pale blue colour, which was quite unusual for weddings of this era. Do you know of any brides who had a dress which wasn't white or ivory? We'd love to see a picture if you have one, just put it down in the comments section below.

1947 - Princess Elizabeth marries Philip Mountbatten

In postwar Britain, the pomp and ceremony of a royal wedding were exactly what was needed to lift the spirits of the people. This dress, designed by Norman Hartnell, didn't fail to deliver. With some inspiration coming from the goddess Flora's dress in La Primavera, Hartnell used his expertise in costume design to create a silk satin dress that would 'wow'. There is a floral theme throughout this dress, with intricate patterns running along the neckline and cuffs of the sleeves, and then through the skirt. Unusually, the train is actually attached at the shoulders, and flows down the length of the dress, and four metres along the floor (fit for the venue of the wedding). To complete this dress, over 10,000 seed pearls which were used in the embroidery were imported from America. The ensemble was finished perfectly with the Queen Mary Fringe Tiara, Elizabeth's 'something borrowed' from her mother. On the day of the wedding, the tiara actually snapped; luckily the court jeweller was on hand in case of any difficulties, and the tiara was mended.

1955 - Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainer of Monaco

  Grace Kelly's wedding dress was designed by Helen Rose, also a costume designer, this time for screen at MGM. Although the dress looks quite simple, the structure underneath, in order to get the dress so fitted to Grace Kelly's figure, was extremely complex. The skirt was pleated at the waist and ended with a small train, all made from silk taffeta (underneath which were two petticoats of tulle). At the back of the dress there was a lace insert in a triangular shape, decorated with pretty bows. Then there was the lace bodice, with each piece of lace individually pieced together onto a tulle framework, so the effect was almost of lace appliqué.
  All this detail didn't come cheap, estimates at the cost of the dress put it at $7,200, which doesn't really seem that much, until you convert in into today's money. The total stands at a dizzying $60,000, although MGM decided to give Grace Kelly the dress free, in order to benefit from the additional publicity.

1981 - Lady Diana Spencer marries Prince Charles

Possibly the most memorable wedding dress in living memory was Princess Diana's by David and Elizabeth Emanuel. At only twenty years old, Diana could have easily been swamped by her dress and 40 ft veil (which had sequins all hand embroidered onto the bobbin net), but somehow the designers managed to create a design which flattered and suited her perfectly. The fabric was a paper taffeta, tulle and lace, made into a stunningly romantic dress. The rich cream ivory and the double frill around the neckline only add to this dress's charm and couture feel.

On the front of the bodice, there was a lace panel, edged with a row of pearls which also surround the waist. The sleeves and at the elbow, with large frills to tie in with the neckline of the dress, and lace similar to that of the bodice. It's the tiny details, though, that show the love and care that went into making this dress. On the label at the back of the dress was sewn a tiny gold horseshoe, and a little blue bow was sewn to the waist band.

2011 - Catherine Middleton marries Prince William

  This stunning lace dress was designed by Alexander McQueen's Creative Director Sarah Burton. The dress shows Kate's figure off beautifully; there aren't many people who can pull off box pleats at the waist like this. A classic sweetheart neckline is set off beautifully by the tulle cover and sleeves, covered in dazzling lace appliqué.  Something special about this lace, apart from the fact the needles to make it were replaced every 3 hours, is that it includes the four emblems from the United Kingdom. Somewhere on the dress, there is a daffodil, a shamrock, a rose and a thistle. It's this attention to detail which Sarah Burton is famous for. The train on this dress, although long, is a lot more manageable the Diana's, but still looked stunning as Kate walked down the aisle at Westminster Abbey.
  The bridal collections the season after the royal wedding had obviously drawn some inspiration from this dress. We have seen a vast increase in the number of brides-to-be asking for lace, and the dresses available for us to order have a lot more choice. An element of the luxurious is becoming more affordable, as lace covers and lace appliqué dresses have become more widely available. We love lace here at Especially For You, and hope that this trend continues.

2011 - Kate Moss marries Jamie Hince

The final dress of our blog post today is the dress designed by John Galliano for Kate Moss. It has quite a festival feel to it, with floating fabrics and a ruffle at the hem. The skirt is sequinned with silver and gold, and runs in feather like patterns down through the train. It's the vintage and ethereal qualities which make this dress so unlike any before it, with not so much structure in the bodice as a classic wedding dress. We have seen some of this vintage theme with our brides, with colours such as rose and pale greens becoming quite popular, but we can't decide whether it was just changing times, or the influence of the wedding of the Queen of British Fashion.

  When you think of the most influential wedding dresses, do you think of one that we haven't mentioned? Or did something else influence your choices, like looking through your mother's wedding photos? Are there any dresses you'd like us to see of 'dresses before their time'? Why don't you post a picture into the comments section, or tweet it to us @EspeciallyBride on twitter. We'd also love to hear your comments about our post. Thanks for reading, and come back next #WeddingWednesday !

It's March And We Have Never Been So Busy

This week's Wedding Wednesday will be a bit different from the usual, we want to give you an update on how our little shop in Lancashire is doing. This year, we have a lot of brides with weddings booked for May, and even more in August, which means this time of year is our busiest. In August, we have five weddings on one weekend! FIVE! It's not just now, when everyone in August is buying, that is busy, it'll also be the month before the weddings, when Carole has ten wedding dresses to alter all for two weeks in summer.

It's not just bridal dresses that we're selling a lot of, brides just visiting for bridesmaids dresses has increased dramatically. Some have tried buying on the high street and haven't found the dresses they want, others have heard about our bridesmaid discount on any order for more than two dresses (click here to see our bridesmaid post). Sometimes, brides come in expecting to just (and we say 'just') to buy a bridal dress, and then end up describing their ideal bridesmaid dresses, and the colour they want for them, and we just happen to have something they're looking for. That way, if bridesmaids have come with the bride to help, they can try on a dress, stand next to the bride, and it gives a great overall picture of what the scene would be like on the day.

This is also the time of year for wedding fayres, which are usually on a Sunday, this was the subject of our previous Wedding Wednesday post, if you read it you would have realised how much work we put into wedding fayres and their preparation. It takes up a lot of our time, as Sunday is usually our catch up day, where all the paper work is processed from the week and where Carole spends most of the day completing alterations on the bridal dresses.

As you can see, we are going to be pretty run off our feet for the next couple of months at least, be it wedding fayres, brides alterations, dressing brides on their special day, or a million and one bridesmaid appointments. If you ever want to make an appointment with us, try to ring to book in advance. As we are quite a small shop, we like to have only one bride in at once, and it would be a shame to come all the way here to find we can't squeeze you in. We do have a fully refundable £20 booking fee for appointments, which we can take over the phone. This is refunded at the end of your appointment, or if you cancel the appointment with at least 24 hours notice.

Thanks for reading, feel free to comment below if you have any questions, we'll try our best to answer them.