White Gold Bridal

My name is Dorothy from White Gold Bridal, I myself have been in Bridal for well over 25 years, my focus is on my girls, it’s really important that they find a dress that not only do they love but they have to be confident in. I want my girls to feel special, to feel elegant and to feel sophisticated in everything that they wear. 

Whenever they come into White Gold Bridal it’s all about the experience, so Brides get greeted with tea and coffee, strawberries and cupcakes. This is for everyone to get to know each other and really to get everybody settled in and just enjoy the whole experience of White Gold Bridal. 

I do notice when girls come in to see me, some of them are lacking confidence and some have had really bad experiences whenever they have previously tried on dresses. I try and take that pressure off the girls, I want them to enjoy the whole experience of trying on dresses and that’s what White Gold Bridal is all about. I just try to add that little bit of something, I don’t like rushing my girls so therefore as far as appointments go it has to be appointment only, secondly I’ll allow two hours of an appointment for each girl and thirdly I will not cram a lot of appointments into one day. I do not believe in quantity but I do believe in quality and when brides are coming to White Gold Bridal they are coming to see me. I will be looking after them 24/7 and I am with them every single step of the way, just to make sure that everything goes well for them. It is a very special privilege to be part of a bride’s amazing journey and it’s a great honour for me to be able to do that.

The designers that I  actually carry here at White Gold Bridal I’m really really chuffed that actually have them. My focus would be on Eliza Jane Howell from London and those would be your Gatsby dresses they would be your Hollywood glamour your 1920’s 1930’s or almost the Roaring Twenties those beaded dresses are hand done and they’re absolutely fabulous and then I also have Essence of Australia which would be my main designer as well and again you’ve got different silhouettes you’ve got different necklines you’ve got different laces you’ve got mikado gowns you got beautiful crepe fabrics and there are so many variations and styles of dresses across the whole spectrum.

I am finding recently a lot of retailers aren’t actually going across the whole spectrum for sizes and for me when I want my girls to come in store, I want to have a variety of different sizes so there will be sort of 12 14 there could be 22 24 26 28 so right across the spectrum now, obviously you can’t have every single dress and every size that’s totally impossible But what I try to do is carry different dresses for different peoples and different sizes.

And I think the way the bridal industry is at the moment that is really important that you’re able to facilitate that.

I don’t carry a lot of Bridesmaids, what I do carry is SORELLA VITA bridesmaids which would be part of Essence of Australia gowns. you’ve got this lovely sequinned gowns, you’ve got this lovely luxe taffeta gowns, you’ve got chiffons and again the dresses that I have will compliments most of my wedding dresses here. Girls nowadays are having three and four girls, if you budget around about £180 £190 and I think the most expensive dress is about £279 and that’s a sequinned bridesmaid dress so again it’s just down to personal taste. What you want for your girls and equally what’s going to suit the girls I think that’s really important as well.

For the consultations themselves, I would be very much old-school. Years ago it used to be the mummy and the

daughter or the sister but somewhere along the line we’ve sort of lost that and it seems to be a lot of people are coming at the one time. My advice to that is when you’re going looking for your wedding dress, be very select and who you bring with you to try on dresses, realistically three or four may be enough to bring with you. When you go looking for dresses try not to go to every bridal suite in the whole of the north be very select and where you go maybe go to, two places possibly three and leave it at that.

In reference to delivery times of the dresses, obviously it depends on designer because some dresses can be four months some can be six some can be eight so it really really depends on the type of dress that you’re actually looking at.

I always tell girls to allow a good four to eight months delivery on your gown or maybe longer then that keeps you safe because at the end of the day it is a wedding you’re organising it’s not a formal.

Alterations are equally as important as buying the dress, so for me it’s something that is really important whenever a bride buys her dress from me.

I have my own same stress that does all my wedding dresses, when I say that she’s my own seamstress, she’s actually separate from me but I take her of that little detail because a lot of brides now when they are buying their dresses, take their dresses home before the dress is actually adjusted which means those poor girls are left high and dry. Well for me here at White Gold Bridal, I personally make sure that I look after the bride and make sure that everything is in place for her.

So I Personally take care of her alterations, I don’t mean a pay-for it, let’s be honest, but I do take care of that all important detail giving her one less thing to worry about.

For me personally a wedding is really important and I can’t stress this to girls enough, I know sometimes girls decide to get married in a couple of months or so, well I get that. When you’re organising a wedding you need to give yourself the time to organise everything, everything revolves around the dress. It’s like the foundation of a cake, once you buy your dress then you can focus on your bridesmaids then your mother’s outfit or the groom’s outfit, then you can focus on the flowers and the suits, everything revolves around the dress. It’s really really important that you buy your dress first and allow yourself time to be able to get all of these things. 

I don’t like seeing my girls stressed, that’s one thing that really I’ve noticed recently. If you’re organised and you do things in small steps then everything will fall into place perfectly.

I would do a lot of in-house events and the reason that I do this is because I feel sometimes whenever you’re looking at dresses on hangers really you can’t see past what they look like on a hanger so an in-house event for me is really important because the girls get to know then, we can talk about the dresses, we could talk about the silhouettes, we can talk about what the do’s and the don’ts, what can be achieved, what cannot be achieved, what was realistic and for me it the girls can really getting to know me and usually whenever I do that then they can catch on oh yes I see what she’s mean to know about doing such and such a thing and then whenever the girls are with me then I’ll sit down and I can book them in for a private consultation sort of later on down the road. 

I would do a lot of in-house events, I enjoy doing them, yes it can be stressful and yes it can be hard but I just think it’s important for the girls to be able to do not to be afraid to reach out to me.

Well I am learning to be very savvy with Facebook, so most of my appointments do come through Facebook or Instagram or they can check me out on the website as well but a lot of the girls I have my phone with me 24/7 which sometimes is not a good thing because I will reply to girls even whenever I’m at home at night so if they send me a private message through Facebook I certainly could get in touch with them straight away. Usually that’s where the appointments come from so if you want to come and see me for the first time by all means get in touch through Facebook Instagram or whatever other way you want to.