Cannot believe that next month we will be celebrating our 1st birthday! It’s gone sooooo quickly and we have met over 250 brides with their mums, bridesmaids, dads and even grooms from all over UK including brides from Kent, Sussex and even Glasgow and Ireland. We love helping brides find the perfect dress for them and it’s so rewarding when we see pictures of you all on your big day.
Anyway, to celebrate this milestone we are holding 2 special bridesmaid offers from the 18th – 20th September. Firstly on Thursday 18th we are holding a bridesmaid event with extra dresses coming in from JLM Occasions with bubbles and nibbles for all. And any dress purchased will receive a free bridesmaid necklace. Then on Friday 19th and Saturday 20th for anyone who purchases a bridal gown will receive a FREE Bridesmaid dress.
So ladies, get all your girls together and book an appointment today to celebrate with us and receive these special offers.
Turner and Pennell Wedding Fair
On Sunday 7th September we are holding a fabulous wedding fair at Saxon Hall in Aviation Way Southend. Bring your mums, bridesmaids and even groom along to meet some of the best wedding suppliers around, from hair and make up artists to DJ’s and photobooths.
Check out this website for more info and pre register
http://turnerpennellweddingfair.co.uk/
POP of Colour!
Recently we took part in a photo shoot at The Lawn in Rochford, Essex and I thought I’d share the results with you.
The Lawn is a family owned and run wedding and events venue that is extremely popular with Essex brides. The beautiful manor house is the perfect backdrop for photos in the immaculate gardens and it’s exclusively yours for the day!
We set up very early in the Bridal dressing room with our 4 models, make up artist Katie, hair stylist Jennie and Bev from p.s with love and her amazing accessories while Matt the photographer was hard at work setting up for each photo.
I think you will agree that the pictures look amazing, and please look out for them in Essex Bride magazine this September.
Photos by Matthew Harrison – mdharrison.co.uk
Hair by Bridal Hair by Jennie – facebook.com/bridalhairbyjennie
Make Up by Katie Poole – Katiepoole.com
Accessories from P.S with love – pswithlove.co.uk
Venue - thelawn.co.uk
Models wearing; Denia, Veronique, Annie, Tori, Natalie
Introducing Eliza & Ethan…
We are delighted to now be stocking these amazing multi wrap dresses by Eliza & Ethan! They are so versatile the possibilities are endless, making your bridesmaids happy and therefore you, the bride happy.
The idea is that each bridesmaid wraps her dress to suit her individual style and shape. So if you have a bridesmaid that has a big bust and wants support, she can use the matching bandeau that comes with the dress and style it to suit her. Got a bridesmaid that wants to cover her arms, this can also be achieved by creating cap sleeves, and what about pregnant bridesmaids?! They can embrace their bump and there will be no heavy alteration costs to you.
They come in 20 colours, one size fits all and can be wrapped in over 25 different ways. Better still they only take 48 hours to be delivered, if in stock, or if not approximately 2 weeks. At only £185 your bridesmaids will thank you over and over as they will be comfortable and will be able to wear them again for a different occasion as they can achieve a completely different look!
Get your girls together and come and have a play! Book now on 01268 776826 or [email protected]
Spotlight on So Sassi
So Sassi is the esprit label from Royal wedding and award winning British designer, Sassi Holford and we are delighted to stock the collection in our store.
The label is designed by a young graduate design team led by Sassi, at their studio in Taunton Somerset. The gowns are also made there and go through a rigorous quality control check at all stages before being sent out to the bride.
We had the pleasure of going to meet Sassi’s team in Somerset before we opened the shop and it was so great to see the attention to detail that goes into the whole process from the designers to the cutters, seamstresses and hand finishers. Her husband Martin, is also part of the team as ‘head of marketing’ and making it a family affair the ‘Missie’ dress from the 2014 collection is actually a design from her then 12 year old daughter MIssie!
As I previously mentioned, Sassi was commissioned to design a wedding dress for Autumn Kelly who married Princess Anne’s son Peter, in 2008. Then in 2013 she won Designer of the year at the Bridal Buyer awards. Two incredible achievements for a self-taught designer! At 17 years old, she offered to make a friend her wedding dress, it couldn’t be that difficult?! Well it was a success, and more and more people asked her to make their dresses.
In the eighties, Sassi’s dresses were stocked in Harrods and Liberties and now they are in Europe and the US. Sassi is a strong believer in less is more and takes inspiration from Grace Kelly’s wedding dress. ‘she did not have an ounce of flesh on show. That principle has always guided me and it has never dated: you don’t need cleavage to look beautiful on your wedding day.’
Having seen the 2015 collection, I can promise you it won’t disappoint. I always say that So Sassi dresses are traditional but with a twist. Gorgeous silhouettes and luxurious fabrics, what more could you possibly want?
Don’t forget our So Sassi 2015 collection preview weekend on Friday 20th & Saturday 21st June (limited spaces on Sunday 22nd June as well). Call now to book your appointment 01268 776826.
Summer Sale
Everyone loves grabbing a bargain in the sales and we have our one day summer sale taking place on Saturday 7th June!
We need to make room in the shop for the new collections that will start arriving soon, so some of our beautiful ex sample gowns will be added to the sale rail. There are various styles and sizes and our seamstress can work wonders changing things on these dresses, even taking them out a size or reducing them by two!
So if you love a bargain or are planning a last minute wedding then why not come along. No appointment needed but just remember once they are gone they are gone forever. Check out our Facebook sale album for the dresses that will be included.
Completing the look
Here at Turner and Pennell we are fully committed to giving you the best experience of finding your perfect dress. Once this is complete you can then look to accessories, the ones that the eye can see and the ones that you cannot. They are just as important in that they can make the dress fit properly and make the bride feel extra special. We are of course talking about the underwear and the shoes.
Shoes are the way to many a girls heart and we have teamed up with the Rainbow club to provide our Brides with shoes designed by award winning shoe designers. The Rainbow Clubs passion and heritage for great design goes beyond expectation and their reputation speaks for itself. Many designs can be dyed to a colour of your choice and there are shoe clips available to customise the shoes for that something different. In a varying array of heel sizes the bride can be comfortable all day long or if desired there are higher heels for the braver souls amongst us. Check our website or visit rainbowclub.co.uk to see all the designs.
With shoes sorted we can then address the issue of underwear. Again we provide a number of underwear options in store designed to make the bride feel ‘special’ for her big day while maintaining comfort and structure underneath the dress. We are now stocking a range of basques in all sizes which will accentuate any curves and perhaps add a few for the slimmer brides out there. You can sample the different styles when trying on dresses, which will help show the beautiful dresses to their full potential. We also stock various garters for that ‘something blue’.
Brides are of course all beautiful on the special day glowing with the happiness of the day. It is our job to just try and help along the way with the little added extras. We are always looking for new ideas and love helping our brides in all aspects of the day.
Designer Preview Days
So excited to give our brides a first look at the 2015 collections for So Sassi and Allure!
The Allure dresses will be with us on the 14th June and the So Sassi on the 21st June!
Get your appointment booked in quick to be the first to see them. 01268 776826
White Gallery & London Bridal Show brings new designers to Turner and Pennell
Each year Bridal retailers descend upon the Bridal trade shows to view and buy the new collections for the next year. This year was a little different from previous years in that the two shows were run over one weekend in London. (Normally we trek up to Harrogate for one show and White Gallery is held later in the year in London.) We have spent the last couple of months researching designers and booking appointments with them to see at these shows.
So we set off early Sunday morning to White Gallery with the aim to seek out only the best designs for our Turner and Pennell brides and we certainly weren’t disappointed. Lace is definitely still ‘in’ however the introduction of soft romantic chiffons and satins were certainly a theme for this year.
After the first day we had seen 6 different designers and we needed time to take them all in and have a think about them all. So we took all our info off to dinner at a swanky Chelsea restaurant and discussed them over a few glasses of bubbly. (I have to mention here that we were sitting two tables away from Jose Mourinho! Although, we did have to ask the table of men the other side of us, who it was haha.)
Day two we set off to Olympia for the London Bridal Show to see even more designers including the fabulous JLM to pick more Bridesmaid dresses in new colours and Lily Bella for some fabulous belts and flower accessories.
By lunchtime we had probably seen close to 150 dresses over the two days and we had some serious decision making to do! So now we are finally in a position to announce that we are delighted to be stocking the amazing Spanish designers La Sposa and beautiful romantic English designers Ivory and Co Bridal Couture. We simply cannot wait for you to see the dresses and as soon as we get the official pictures they will of course be on our Facebook page.
All dresses are due to arrive in store August/September time. Until then our new Alfred Angelo gowns will be arriving late May time.
When to buy your wedding dress
So you have finally received the romantic proposal that you have been waiting for, or in some cases your other half has just said casually ‘Shall we get hitched then?” However the question is popped, you are now planning for one of the most important days of your life, and a big part of that day is ‘the dress’.
Venues are chosen, bridesmaids and best men asked, colour schemes and themes begin to take shape in your mind. There then comes the time for dress shopping. When should that be? Everyone has a different opinion on this. We have brides walking through our doors who haven’t even booked a date but buy their dress in anticipation and other brides who have literally weeks to go until the wedding and are still searching for their dream dress believing that they can just walk in, choose said dress, pay and go.
The dresses in stores are all samples and they come in different styles, sizes, shapes and colours. You try these samples on to give you an idea of what you like and don’t like in a dress and eventually find ‘the one’. Your measurements are then taken and a brand new dress is ordered in for your size. Here at Turner and Pennell we do not ever want our brides to be disappointed and we would always strongly recommend that the dress is chosen and on order a good 6-8 months prior to the wedding. Brides must bear in mind most dresses will need a few alterations even when they arrive in store.
So to avoid disappointment please work out your wedding plan carefully and ensure you are looking with plenty of time. If you are working on a very tight deadline, then we do have a sale rail, which has ex sample gowns that can be taken away on the same day.
Happy shopping!