So where do I begin... lets rewind to a year ago and give
you a brief idea of what I have been up to and when it all began.
March 2012
March 2012 the month all my ideas came together. Having
discovered London wasn’t going to work for me at the moment, I began forming
different plans which led to the Wedding Designer and Dressmaking idea. My
first step I decided was to make a Prom dress before rushing into the
Bridesmaid and Wedding dresses, having had quite a few years of sewing
experience and the skill set behind me, I began creating and making.
The Royal Blue Dress (as featured in my First Blog) is the
first dress I made as part of my new business venture, it is a lovely shot
taffeta and I glued each gem individually by hand – yes it took hours – was it
worth it... Yes. After receiving a lot of interest and positive comments from
people, I decided to take it to a local School Prom Fair (these are like
Wedding exhibitions – but for Prom’s, and are becoming increasingly popular in
the U.K now)
.
The Prom fair was a success with more positive feedback, so
I started to begin my next dress, yes another Prom dress but slightly bigger
less gems and more Tulle (net fabric) to make a real Princess style dress (in
Turquoise), this then takes us into April.
April/May 2012
After saving some money I went out and purchased an Over
locker, to sit alongside my faithful Janome sewing machine. So happy that I
bought it as I do not think I could live without it now.
After finding out about an old friend due to be married, I
built up the courage to see if she would like her Bridesmaid Dresses handmade,
and after a consultation (over a Costa may I add) she decided upon a dress in a
beautiful baby pink Crepe Back Satin with a gorgeous bow on the back for three
lovely Bridesmaids.
Now rolling on a few months later she walked down the aisle
with three beautiful pink dresses following, the photos were louder than words
they all looked wonderful. This takes us round to September, now I know what
you are thinking, where did the other months disappear to... Well between the
Bridesmaid dresses I made, a few other jobs including house sitting,
alterations, Weddings to attend myself and pretty much every weekend booked with
events (whether business or not) I was incredibly busy to say the least.
September 2012
Now all the children go back to school, new Year 11 students
eager to talk to one another about their Prom Dresses, Halloween and Christmas
are on people’s minds and suddenly new Brides are thinking about their wedding
for the following year. September is the month for new designs, in my case
marketing was the most important thing on my mind – how to do it, where to
begin and what to do. I had an idea of where to start, so during that busy
month I took to a pen and paper and jotted anything I could think of to help,
there go October approached.
October 2012
Well there we have it as my ideas progressed so did the
marketing, I booked my very first wedding fair, held at The Holiday Inn in
Portsmouth/Southsea. Although it was a very quiet wedding fair it gave me a
nice insight to how things worked, how I should lay out my table, how to
approach people and generally how the Wedding Fair environment works.
The second wedding fair I attended was at The Inn Lodge
Hotel, Portsmouth, the following week, this was also quiet and many of the
brides were not getting married in 2013 as it is unlucky, I then decided to
give the Wedding Fairs a break until the following year, so then I can
concentrate on making new dresses, students/Proms and any little bits for
Christmas.
November/December 2012
Christmas was approaching rapidly, I had a small Prom fair
in one of the local schools (Horndean Technology College) this was great to see
the Year 11 girl’s reaction to some of the dresses I had made, it was a nice
positive reaction with a lot of the girl’s saying they liked the gems and
styles of the dresses.
I also held a party with my mum at our house for people to
see the dresses I had made and for my mum to sell her jewellery (she makes
Wedding Tiara’s, jewellery and casual jewellery – check it out www.crystaloccasionstiaras.com
)
Christmas is here, 2 weeks off, a nice weekend in London,
and a well needed rest, and so it begins the New Year – 2013.
January 2013
Well I already knew January was going to be busy as just
before Christmas my Nan had asked me to make her an outfit for my cousins
wedding - this was in the third week of January, so not a lot of time to make
it but I did and my Nan looked lovely and got a lot of wonderful comments about
her two piece outfit (Jacket and Skirt).
Well after attending a Christmas Craft Fair at Purbrook Park
School in December, a lady approached me asking if I would like to help with a
fashion show at the school that they were due to hold in March – obviously I
accepted and I found out more information and met up with them in February, not
to mention having a meeting with a new bride to be to discuss some bridesmaid
dresses, she liked a style I had just made but wanted a different colour so I
said “absolutely fine”.
Well this pretty much takes us up to date, so I will leave
it for today and continue this blog once/twice a month and every now and then I
will pop in a few photos of current or future projects.
Thank you for reading J
