BORING!
Yes, I know. What a boring blog subject you are thinking to yourself, trying to stifle a yawn!!
Do I really want to read about how, within the last 7 years since Cicily Bridal opened it’s doors, the retail landscape for bridal in the UK has changed from a slow paced, ‘visit my local wedding shop’ environment to a social media led, keep-up or lose-out, Pinterest addicted beast?
Probably not, but what is important is that boutiques like Cicily Bridal are aware of it and are constantly adapting, evolving and pushing the wedding industry forward to meet the high demands of today’s brides who, in their normal everyday life, if they order online by 8pm they’ll receive it by noon the next day!
When a woman in 2017 decides she wants to get married and embarks on her wedding dress journey, what an alien environment she has just entered! There is no UK version of ASOS for luxury, made-to-order wedding dresses. There isn’t a website that has 647 pages of wedding dresses to scroll through where you can filter for styles that suit pear-shape, hour-glass or apple-shape. There isn’t a luxury UK online store that delivers your wedding dress ‘next-day delivery’ if you pay £9.99.
The wedding dress industry is a unique, luxury, independent and sometimes isolated world that doesn’t and can’t conform to the ruthless, competitive online retail experiences we are used to in our day-to-day shopping.
Image sourced from www.luxebride.co.uk. Photography by Juliet McKee
However, just because the wedding dress industry, where a dress can take 4-6 months to be made for a bride, can’t meet the ‘Amazon’ delivery speeds, there are within it like-minded boutique owners who understand what modern brides expect from a wedding dress boutique in this century. Having a beautiful website that conveys the individuality of the boutique and the experience a bride can expect when she visits is just the beginning. What is the boutique’s social media presence like? Is their Instagram page aspirational? Is their Facebook page engaging? Do their Pinterest boards show that they understand current bridal trends? Above all, does the digital presence of the boutique evoke the luxury experience that a bride expects to receive from her wedding dress search?
Yes in 2017, a bride still needs to visit an actual boutique to try on luxury wedding dresses but before that she will have researched endless websites, Pinterest boards and Instagram feeds to ensure that she has chosen shops to visit that will understand her wedding day aspirations.
It is the acute understanding of this often time-consuming online searching that led 5 wedding industry experts (3 leading UK bridal boutique owners, an ex fashion editor for Brides Magazine and a marketing guru) to collaborate and create LUXE BRIDE. A completely unique website that is focussed on a brides wedding dress search.
“There is increasing seamlessness between our digital, and our bricks and mortar shopping experiences, and Luxe Bride has been designed to promote real life shopping experiences in excellent, independent, expert-led, stylish shops, via a sophisticated Boutique Finder, a style blog and a peer support group.” Emma Meek, Co-Founder – Luxe Bride.
Image sourced from www.luxebride.co.uk
Within the offering of LUXE BRIDE is an online search facility that allows brides to find a boutique which matches not only their geographical location but even filtering down to the boutique styling. There is a strong message within the LUXE BRIDE concept that the boutiques featured have been handpicked for not only their service, professionalism and wedding dress choices but importantly their strong and informative media presence and the modern luxury experience brides can expect to receive.
The LUXE BRIDE website, as well as providing a one-stop-search facility, will also feature current bridal fashion led editorials, real brides stories and interviews with featured boutiques so brides can go ‘behind the scenes’.
Image sourced from www.luxebride.co.uk
In our opinion it is an exciting and timely concept for the bridal industry of 2017 and Cicily Bridal is proud to be a featured boutique on LUXE BRIDE.
Image sourced from www.luxebride.co.uk
