Wow what a mad week it has been since becoming the winner at the prestigious Bridal Buyer Award on Monday!

It really has been a whirlwind of emotions. If you have seen our video on social media I’m sure you can tell just how shocked I was when our name was called out. (go to our Facebook page now to see in full)

Monday got off to a fab start at the annual Harrogate Bridal Show where we got to see the brand new 2018 collections from all our fabulous designers. We were lucky enough to choose lots of beautiful veils and accessories from the guys at Richard Designs and we also had a good catch up with the Pronovias team and the fabulous designers Jane and Chris from LouLou Bridal. The team never fail to thrill us, there were so many stunning new designers which we fell head over heels in love with so watch this space for pic of these little beauties. To end the day we went to see our very glamourous new designer who did not disappoint! We had chance to see our brand new gowns in person as the brand are Italian so last time we saw them they were just images. They are AMAZING! We can’t hold in our excitement to launch these next month.

THE BRIDAL BUYER AWARDS

The awards started with a wonderful drinks reception at 7:15pm where we met up with our pals Diana and Brett from Little Pearl Bridal. Everyone at the black tie event looked amazing, it’s so nice to be able to get glammed up for the night instead of being in my mummys pj’s. (not that I don’t love my pj’s that is!!)

The evening was hosted by the hilarious comedian Anna Morris who played the character of Georgina the Bride. Georgina depicted a complete bridezilla all our worst nightmares but boy was she funny!

We were lucky enough to be up for two awards this year, ‘Best Newcomer’ & ‘ Best in Store Design’ obviously we felt extremely honoured to even be shortlisted for the awards besides such amazing boutiques across the UK & Ireland.

First up was the award for ‘Best Newcomer’ the winner was announced and huge congratulations to our fellow Pronovias stockist, ‘House of Snow in Essex’

Then we came on to the award for ‘Best in store Design’ and there it was the sponsor announced the winners were: DOTTY BRIDAL!!!!

I honestly was absolutely gobsmacked I think from the video you can see me turn to my husband and say, “did they say us?” They did we WON!!! I managed to drag my dad up on stage to collect the award with me as this was only right as he has done ALL the work to the boutique single handedly, literally I was pregnant at the time!

I am still 1 week on completely bewildered, I can’t believe it! I have hardly been able to sleep this last week as I keep reliving the moment the sponsor said the words ‘Dotty Bridal!’ Â

So who were the judges? Well the judges this year were Bradey Taylor who is the Global Head of Visual Merchandising and Store Design at Mulberry!! Phil Pond from Scarlet Opus and Antony Behiels who is the Director of Shop and Display Equipment Association (SDEA).

I can’t quite believe that these amazingly talented and successful individuals chose us as winners I am so honoured and incredibly humble. Through the judging process we have been mystery shopped, judged on our written entry and scored on our ability to meet the predetermined criteria set out by the panel.

The design of the boutique came from myself and Anna (our boutique manager) we had so many amazing quirky ideas and really wanted to ensure the boutique was unique. We wanted to stray away from the norm and to ensure the boutique had a homely welcoming feel. We dreamt of it being luxurious but not pretentious, high end but not obnoxious and we really hope that this is how our brides portray Dotty Bridal and our service.

All our crazy ideas were brought to life when I handed the designs to my amazing dad, Andrew and he single-handedly created the award winning boutique that you see today.

I can never thank my dad enough for everything he has done for us and the boutique. He really is one in a million and is a huge part of team Dotty!

Thank you so much to everyone who has paid a part in making Dotty the success it is today, here’s to Dotty Bridal and AWARDS winning Bridal Boutique!

 

Love Shannon xxx

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