Supplier Love – Kimberley Rose Bridal Boutique

We are proud to welcome Kim, owner of Kimberley Rose Bridal Boutique to our team of trusted Wedding Partners. We wanted to share Kim’s story with all of our lovely couples currently planning their wedding and find out what makes this wonderful business stand out from the crowd.

We first met Kim through her own wedding planning journey. Kim married Paul at the hotel on Friday 21st July 2017 and opted for a tea party wedding breakfast.

We loved this idea so much that the following year when planning a tea party styled photo shoot, Kim kindly agreed to let us use the china. Isn’t it beautiful? Click here to view our Tea Party blog post with lots more stunning pictures from this shoot.

Image credit – UpArt Photography

Kim provided the stunning gowns for our October 2018 Mini Wedding Collection. Kim not only provided the dresses for our two lovely models, but attended the event where she met brides to be. To view more images from this shoot, click here to read our ‘A Magical Mini Wedding Collection’ blog post.

Image credit: Jay Stone Photography

I have always been interested in the wedding industry, which was furthered by the planning of my own wedding. As a slightly older bride myself, I felt there was a gap in the market for somewhere able to embrace brides of all ages and shapes, offering a personal one to one experience.

When shopping for my own wedding dress, I visited lots of shops and boutiques and felt put down upon. One of the first questions I was asked was about my budget and when I told them, I was pointed towards the sale rail. I left the shop crying and feeling terrible. Once I had chosen my dress and re-visited the shop for a fitting, I was told quite plainly that I would need to lose weight before the wedding. This knocked my self-esteem greatly. I wanted to ensure that I could offer a totally different experience for brides like me, where brides would only cry with tears of joy!

For over 25 years I have worked as a nurse, a customer facing role which is best suited to someone with a caring and friendly nature. I’d had the idea to start my own business in the back of my mind for a little while, which was compounded through planning my own wedding. I felt I had reached a point in my nursing career and that it was the right time to embark on my next journey with the launch of Kimberley Rose Bridal Boutique. A shop became available in the right location and everything fell into place. I feel this role is a natural transition, allowing me to really take care of my brides and make them feel special.

I stock a wide variety of bridal gowns, in a range of shapes and styles. My aim is to ensure that each bride leaves the shop feeling happy, having had a wonderful experience and excited for the journey ahead. My bridal gowns are priced under £500.00, with bridesmaid dresses under £50.00 each. I stock a range of designer dresses, in many cases sourced from boutiques which were closing down. I am able to pass on these great prices to brides, who in many cases, are essentially buying a brand-new dress which has never even been tried on. I also stock pre-loved gowns, offering brides a fantastic choice, at a fantastic price. I cater for women of all sizes and even have a designated curvy corner!

Appointments are available through prior arrangement, which allows me to close the shop and focus 100% on the bride. I am pleased to be able to offer this one to one experience and find it puts brides at ease from the start. I am very flexible and am able to offer appointments at the bride’s convenience including during the evening or at the weekend. We are a family run business, with myself, husband and daughters playing a key role.

I would say that when it comes to choosing your dream dress, it is great to have ideas, but it is best to try and keep an open mind. You will see images of dresses on a model, which is not always an accurate representation of what the dress will look like in person. I encourage my brides to try on lots of different options and find that many leave with something completely different to what they initially had in mind. Also remember that wedding dresses usually come up smaller than high street shops, so don’t be worried if you are a different size than usual.

I love seeing the smile on a bride’s face when she leaves with her perfect wedding dress. I have many brides who visit me and are initially very nervous, especially following a negative experience elsewhere. In one instance, a lovely lady came into the shop six months pregnant and was very close to cancelling her wedding as she couldn’t find a dress to suit her shape. She left the shop with a beaming smile on her face which was lovely for me to see, I felt had played a small part towards her wedding journey.

I would say that it is good to try and remain flexible where possible. Take the time to look around and really get an idea of what you would like. My husband and I took a ‘do it yourself’ approach with aspects of our wedding, which not only meant we kept the cost down, but gave an end result of something completely unique and special.

As a relatively new business, I would like to continue to grow and spread awareness about Kimberley Rose Bridal Boutique. Many brides hear about us through recommendation which is lovely, but it would be great to spread the word. I feel that what we have to offer is really special and is somewhere that I would have loved to visit when trying to find my wedding dress.

It would be nice to move more towards the high street to raise awareness, but that is a little way down the line. I have been involved in several photo shoots such as the Vintage Tea Party at the hotel and would like to continue work with other local suppliers and businesses. I feel it is very important to collaborate with local business where possible.

All of my gowns are listed on the website, which acts as an online catalogue. This is continually updated as I source new dresses, so it is worth keeping an eye on. I am active on social media and post my ’Dress of the Day’ which is popular with brides.

As well as bridal gowns, I also stock a range of prom dresses. As with all of my dresses, these are very well priced and enable each girl to have a beautiful dress at a fantastic price. I also stock accessories such as wedding veils, shoes, jewellery and bolero’s, enabling the bride to source her outfit from one place if she so wishes. I am also happy to hire the crockery as used in my own wedding and the Duke’s styled shoot. I feel I am so much more than a wedding dress shop and am able to provide a service that others may not.

We visited a variety of venues, however upon walking into the Duke, it was clear that this was the venue for us. The period features, cascading staircase and décor were everything we’d hoped for. The team were so friendly and helpful and put us at ease from the initial meeting. We found the packages to be flexible and were able to tailor our chosen package to make our perfect day, complete with a vintage tea party wedding reception! This was very important to us as the china originally belonged to my mum who is no longer with us, we then sourced more so that we had enough for all of our guests. We would highly recommend the Duke to couples looking for their dream venue, we wouldn’t have changed our day for the world!

We hope that you enjoyed hearing from Kim as much as we did. Kimberley Rose Bridal Boutique is a very special business and we look forward to working together in the near future!