Bride-to-be Heather came into our shop last winter and selected a romantic, flowing, lace gown that she intended to change up and make her own. She added a black sash and thus her color theme was in the works.  Gorgeous Heather put together a beautiful black, white with a hint of Tiffany Blue wedding that all came together like a dream on October 18, 2008.  Or, maybe the dream started when she received her Tiffany engagement ring and really had quite an inspiration!

I saw some elements of Heather’s wedding that aren’t so common… from white feather wreaths hanging on very old world church doors to her sewing vintage hankies together to make a very characteristic ring bearer pillow.  Our brides seem to really LOVE shoes..and with tiffany blue kicks like Heather’s how could you not! Heather also proves to all the non-believers that flower girls CAN wear black and they look fabulous!

 Heather sent us a very sweet note that I just have to share.. it totally puts into words all the reasons we have the shop that we do and why we do what we do!  Heather sent us: “I just wanted to share a couple of pictures of my dress from our wedding on October 18, 2008 in Keller.  I can not thank you enough for your store.  It was my favorite experience in the entire year of wedding planning.  You were so incredibly nice and your store is just beautiful.  I still can’t believe I was able to get a dress this fabulous in my price range and not compromise on service or style.   I recommend your store on The Knot all the time, Good Luck!”

Katie selected a gorgous gown with gold threading that was border line copper in hue. The fit was amazing and very very breathtaking when it made it’s way from hanger to being on Katie.  She has a presence and an almost regal like posture that made it a definite “wow” moment when she came out of the fitting room wearing her gown!

I’m not sure if she started planning the wedding details before or after the gown, but what a perfect match the gown was to all that she put together! Planning a wedding so far away obviously didn’t intimidate her at all and she totally made it her own with every little detail, from the gorgeous retro-look of pairing a golden yellow cardigan with her gown, to her bridesmaids wearing golden gowns that truly popped….to cotton candy and extremely unique chairs and tablescapes… check out the blog of Cyndee Wanyonyi’s, photographer, for more great pics of Katie and Wil’s wedding: http://ashkiphoto.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html

Congratulations, Katie! 

 

 

We met Sonya at one of the Dallas Bridal Shows and we all just loved talking with her.  She is one of the sweetest brides we’ve ever worked with.  We were so happy when she came to the shop to look for her dream gown.   She was kind enough to send us these amazing bridal portraits (as soon as we find out the name of the photographer, we’ll post it here to give them credit!  These shots were taken in Dallas and we think they are some of the best we’ve ever seen!)

Sonya’s gown literally fit her like a glove off the rack.  Can you believe all the alterations she needed was a bustle!  Sometimes it really does work that way!  The dress fit like a made to measure gown!  We got a kick out of her trying on the gown and then having her identical twin (Tanya, also a bride to be!) try it on, so she could see it from all angles and distances.  This gown was absolutely made for Sonya and was a perfect fit for her venue, The Tribute, on Lake Lewisville.  Sonya and her beau were married on October 26, 2008. 

Congratulations, Sonya! 

Back in April, we received a call from Columbia Pictures asking if we would be interested in partnering up with them on the MADE OF HONOR movie starring Patrick Dempsey.  We were so humbled to hear that they loved our website and the events we’ve done in the past and wanted to do some kind of launch party with us as their Dallas partner. 

The catch…any event we worked on had to happen within a 2 week period.  Holy smokes, right?  Not too much time to organize, let alone get invites out and rsvps.  But, miracles are possible and together with our fabulous and very creative circle of friends in the wedding industry, we hustled and threw together a great MADE OF HONOR 411 Survival Party. D’Vine Wine of Plano offered up space and together, we threw a kicking launch party for the movie for about 200 brides and their girlfriends, complete with lots of wine, food, and tons of party gifts.

Columbia Pictures really was impressed with our 411 Surival Party, so much so that they sent Circle Park Bridal a fabulous letter about how the party was the featured in the Studio’s board meeting as the best executive launch for the film! (You bet we have that letter framed and hanging in our store!)

We thought this would have been our one time claim to fame working with a movie studio, but this month we received a call to be an official Dallas launch partner for the movie BRIDE WARS with Kate Hudson and Anne Hathoway, to be released on January 9th, this time with 20th Century Fox.  We are working on the details of the launch, but it will be exciting and unusual… check our website for updates on this one!

Here’s the BRIDE WARS movie trailer: http://www.bridewars.com/#/home

We often have brides come to our shop that have their wedding in less than a month.  They’re not procrastinators…instead they have just fallen victim to the whole craziness that is called special order bridal gowns.  A bride selects her dream gown, spends six months intensely planning her whole wedding around the dress, from the perfect shoes and hair pieces, bridesmaids and flower girl dresses that match her gown, cake icing and invitations that mimic her lace or beading, etc.

 

Imagine her immense disappointment when either the wrong style, color or size gown arrives after she’s waited so long for it’s big arrival!  She’s heartbroken and when she should be relaxing and enjoying all the fruits of her great planning labor, in the last month before the big day, she now has to run around like a fool trying to find a perfect off the rack gown. 

 

How to avoid this fiasco from the get-go?  Buy off the rack from the start!

 

The biggest reason for purchasing a gown off the rack is for peace of mind!  Special order gowns usually take from four to six months for delivery.  Since most bridal gowns are manufactured outside of the US, the gowns are shipped by boat and then cleared through Customs. Distributors must inspect the gowns and ship them to the bridal shops. Obviously with so many steps, many delays can and do happen!

 

Bridal shops won’t know until the gown arrives in their shop if it is the correct size, color, and style or if the gown made it through the shipping process in mint condition.  If the gown’s not perfect, bridal shops must go through hoops to get another gown sent and often times, paying a rush fee is not enough to get a gown to a bride in time for her wedding day.

 

Having possession of your gown is ideal for many reasons.  When you buy off the rack, you can take your gown with you when you select jewelry and shoes. You can set alterations and bridal portrait appointments. There will be no last minute surprises. 

 

You know the fabric’s texture, the exact color, the fit, and you will have a good idea of how much alterations will cost. You are able to show your gown to family and friends.  You will not incur rush fees for shipping or last minute alterations.  You can look at your gown daily and use it as a source of inspiration for designing your décor, invitations, etc.  Most importantly, you can breathe a sigh of relief knowing in the crazy world of wedding planning, one thing is in your control!

 

Another bride that you’ll find on our website is Kristina.  Anyone that’s been in the shop knows how passionate I am about the decor.. black, white a hint of fuschia, all in a retro style. When we first opened, I had a mannequin dressed in a gown that totally exuded the style of the shop. I see tons of gowns but this gown I absolutely loved, it spoke to me and I vowed to never put a price tag on it.  I wanted to be able to look at it everyday, forever! 

So one day last fall, Kristina came in the shop as a bridesmaid, a sweet helpful friend who gave a lot of assistance to the bride and never once mentioned that she, herself, was also getting married.  The day following their visit, Kristina came back the shop, declared that she had a dream about the gown on the mannequin and wanted to try it on.  I hesitated but figured it was a dream and if it fit, it was meant to be.  Kristina took the one gown in the fitting room, came out and like a glass slipper for Cinderella, the gown was a perfect fit (it hadn’t even zippered all the way up on the mannequin!)  Kristina not only looked amazing in the gown, but it was a perfect fit for her personality, as well.

And that is how Kristina came to be the proud owner of my favorite gown. Kristina knew how attached I was to the gown.. I did tear up when it left the shop.. but I knew it couldn’t have a better home than with Kristina! Kristina was so kind to not only send me photos of her wedding, but also introduced me to Amy her photographer of Daisy Photography (www.daisyphotostudio.com) Amy brought to the shop two huge blown up pics of Kristina so I can now still look at the gown at the shop all day, every day! 

 

Meet Allison. She’s not only a real bride, but she’s a head to toe Circle Park Bridal bride!  Allison is one of our favorite retro, glam girls! She came to Circle Park Bridal in the fall of 2007, very shortly after we first opened. Her focus was a simple gown because she is a diehard shoe fanatic and was destined to shorten her gown to a tea length and let her shoes have a major role on her wedding day.  Allison and her gorgeous beau, Marc, were married on July 17, 2008 and totally rocked the Wynn, Las Vegas!

 

Allison was so sweet to send us bridal and wedding photos and were were just in awe at how fun they were! They were the perfect Old Hollywood couple and totally captured the essence of our shop!  Allison also was wearing a Circle Park birdcage veil accented with Swarovski crystals, a huge feather fascinator and some Circle Park bling jewelry.  We were excited to ask Allison to be our covergirl for multiple print media ads and she happily obliged.  Congratulations, Allison and Marc, and thank you so much for letting us share the photos of your special day!

Circle Park Bridal Shop will be celebrating our one year anniversary on September 5th!!!  It’s hard to believe only one year ago we were putting the final touches on the shop and wondering how such a different type of bridal shop… a ”strictly off the rack bridal boutique” would be received.  

It was then, and still is, so important to me that people “get” Circle Park. In a nutshell, I believe that no matter what a bride’s budget, the day she shops for her wedding gown should be an incredible experience that she will always remember. A bridal shop should be a beautiful, fun, warm place, welcoming to everyone.

This past year has been a whole lot of work but definitely a dream come true because DFW brides did “get it” and totally embraced our out of the box concept.  We have had the sweetest, most fun loving brides and guests shop with us and we have enjoyed the experience as much as they did! The brides cry.  The sisters and bridesmaids cry. The moms cry. The dads cry.  My staff cries. We use more tissues for happy tears than anywhere else in the DFW area! 

Over the year, we’ve have brides from all walks of life spend time with us… from a bride with 500 guests in Dubai to a bride eloping in Vegas.  We realize some of our brides are working on a very, very tight budget and others are buying Jimmy Choos with the money they save.  

We’ve been so blessed to have brides find our shop from all over the world.  One bride took a bus here all the way from Mexico because when she saw our website and just knew this was where she would find her dream gown.  And she did!  We’ve had brides from Turkey, England, Romania, Ukraine, Canada, India… we are in awe of how lucky we are to work with brides from so many places!

Anyone who knows me knows that I love love love doing events and Circle Park really did a lot of fun promotions in the last twelve months. Some of my favorites was holding Dallas’ first “Running of the Brides”, partnering with Columbia Pictures to host a launch party for MADE OF HONOR, having a Halloween “Ghoul’s Night Out” and some wacky stuff at Oktoberfest 2007. 

But with that said, of our advertising and promotions, absolutely nothing comes close to comparing to the word of mouth referrals that we have received from our brides and their families and friends.  Over sixty percent of our brides are referred to us by brides that have shopped at our store.   Or, referred by the bride’s moms…moms of brides always seem to know other moms of brides.  Thank you for being the apostles and spreading the word about Circle Park Bridal!

I have lots to pass on and lots to share, but I am going to hold back for a bit to be sure I am putting the most important thing that needs to be said in this first blog… my gratitude!  Thank you to the many brides that have allowed us to be part of your special day.   We look forward to being in DFW for a very long time and many years from now, helping your children select their dream gowns! 

Thank you to the many wedding professionals who have also embraced our shop’s concept and thank you to my wonderful staff who are so genuinely excited to work with our brides each day.  A huge thank you to my fabulous web designer, Layce, who understood my vision and created a website that truly exudes the fun and excitement our shop is all about!

And of course, thank you to my wonderful husband of fifteen years, Mark… who helped me renovate the shop all summer long last year, has done countless errands for the shop (poor thing has even dressed mannequins for me) but above all, was the first to believe in my dream of creating Circle Park Bridal! 

One year behind us and so much more to come!