Sweet as Sugalily

When I was thinking about the direction that Tiararama would be taking over the next few years, one thing I was sure about was that I wanted to offer my Tiararama Couture clients not just fabulous designs but also an exceptional experience. I want all my clients to feel special not just during the design process or up to the day they receive their exclusively designed, handcrafted pieces but all the way up to their wedding day and beyond. So I decided that these clients will receive more than just their order! (Unfortunately I have to be a little cryptic....we don't want to spoil any surprises for said clients now do we?)

But one thing is for certain, whatever my clients get it has to be of the highest quality and so when I decided that I needed some more personalised stationery designed for me to give to my clients I wouldn't be happy unless it came from a company that was fresh, funky and above all could design and create a product that was simple, classy, gorgeous and had the whiff of luxury that seems effortless. But where to find such a company?

Back in 2009 I joined Twitter (for those not already following me and would like to click here) and for the life of me I can't remember whether I followed her or she followed me first but I slowly got to know and see the work of Abbey from Sugalily and both impressed me greatly. So when I decided to start looking for said stationery to be honest there was only one choice as far as I was concerned.....I just hoped that they did the kind of thing I was looking for. And so with a certain amount of trepidation I contacted Abbey and explained to her my great master plan for Tiararama and my need and reason for more personalised stationery. Thankfully Abbey was on board straight away and we met on a lovely sunny day in June for lunch to discuss ideas (and have a gossip...well it would be rude not to!).

I was so impressed with Abbey and her ideas....she doesn't just talk the talk...she walks the walk too! She "got" what I was after straight away and made some fabulous suggestions to add more versatility to what I was looking for. I couldn't wait to see what she came up with. And I wasn't disappointed. Abbey's designs were spot on and whenever I wanted to make an amendment it was so easy....it really was a pain free and pleasurable experience (well for me anyway...she might have other thoughts!).

And so it is with great pleasure that I give you the beautiful postcards that Abbey designed for me.
The front of the card is a beautifully intricate, foiled crown which took its inspiration from our sadly missed Jadis crown and the reverse has gorgeous font work. They are printed on fantastic quality stock and the edges have been hand finished with silver. They are amazing quality and I am so impressed. They are an absolute joy to behold!

I know you probably hear this all the time (and sometimes it is too easily said) but honestly when I say I cannot recommend a company enough I mean it and I cannot thank Abbey (and the rest of the girls at Sugalily) enough for all their hard work and effort. They've been bloomin' marvellous and if you are looking for any kind of stationery - whether it be for your wedding, a social occasion or your business you couldn't do any better.

But oh the fabulousness doesn't end there....oh no!

You see via the power of Twitter I also saw that Abbey had designed a wall planner for someone else and I happened to say to her "I got to get me one of those"! Next thing I knew I was sending her images of tiaras, and me and shoes and describing the kind of styling I would like and lo and behold this is what came back

I have well and truly fallen in love with this and can't wait to get it onto the wall in my studio at Tiararama Towers. Again it is fantastic quality as well as being a beautiful creation...it's just such a shame I've got to write all over it! Just hoping we all get the opportunity to order ones for 2012!

Seriously I am so impressed and can safely say that Sugalily will be getting more business from Tiararama in the months and years to come.

For Sugalily's contact details click here

And over the next year I will also be posting about other fabulous people and companies who have and continue to impress me and I think you should all hear about.

So until next time.....

Springing into 2011

It might be snowing and it might be cold outside but at Tiararama Towers we are thinking about Spring. And one of the things I love about Spring time is the opportunity for new beginnings. So when I was thinking about our 2011 Spring Collection I decided that the 3 key pieces in the collection needed to be fresh, beautiful and full of life.

So which are the 3 key pieces of this part of the our collection and what do you need to know about them? Well the three pieces in question are the gorgeous and sumptuous comb FIrst Shoots, the beautifully textured Gardenia tiara and the simple but elegant Daisy Chain double headband. And this is what inspired me to design them.

First Shoots



One of the things I love about going for a walk in spring is walking through a park and looking at the ground and plants and just noticing the tiny green shoots and leaves. It always gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to know that no matter what is going on in your world, the world in all its glory carries on as usual. So when I began drafting for the collection I decided that I wanted a piece to represent this.

One of our most successful design styles for our couture clients from 2009 were large combs which could be worn asymmetrically as a bold statement piece or which could be worn pushed into a french pleat. And I wanted to use this style of design in the new collection simply because of its versatility. So when thinking about themes for spring I remembered a piece that I had designed for a couture client which was a wonderfully textured mix of curled wire finished with freshwater pearls and Swarovski crystal and had been shaped like an ice cream cone (one of the posh waffle ones). As I looked at the images of this design I began to see the concept behind First Shoots. I decided to cut the design in half and elongate it whilst taking the curled wire with freshwater pearls and crystals theme and make a more compacted base than the original as the basis of First Shoots.

This beautifully textured base represents the sleeping earth, waiting for the spring to push new "First Shoots" through into the new season. And these shoots were achieved by pulling curled strands of wire finished with pearls or crystal pulled up about above the more compacted base. Whilst a fully compacted base gave the piece a heavy, dense feel, by simply adding these extended strands it gave it an altogether lighter feel. This piece is beautifully elegant and extremely versatile. Whilst it looks fantastic pushed into the crease of a french pleat, it also looks amazing worn asymmetrically as it was worn on the catwalk at the National Wedding Show at Olympia earlier this year.



It is a beautiful piece with fantastic texture and depth as well as a gorgeous natural sparkle. It is the ideal accompaniment to a multitude of gown styles and with its versatile styling it allows the bride to show off her personality even more.

Gardenia

My favourite type of garden border is one where there is a mix of plants and flowers which interweave with each other so you can see lots of different colours and textures all intermingled and I so look forward to the spring as this is in when the first of these borders appears in our garden. And when it comes to designing pieces I always think that this kind of technique - where colours and textures all intermingle - is ideal for tiaras. I love tiaras to have texture. It gives them more of a personality, and rather than just being a piece of bling, it gives them depth.

Taking the idea of a mixed garden border I decided to design Gardenia, a traditional style tiara (one of the only traditionally styled tiaras in all four of the collections) which was based on layers of branched wire, curled and finished with freshwater pearl or crystal to give a beautiful texture and depth. This almost allows the piece to breathe and allows light to penetrate all around. This gives the piece a wonderful sparkle and adds warmth to the creamy pearls. Although Gardenia is quite busy it has quite a light, delicate feel whilst retaining a rich air as well. It is a wonderfully elegant design which takes a simple idea, adds a twist and creates a piece which is much more interesting and complex. This makes the piece ideal for spring weddings to accompany beautiful gowns in rich, soft fabrics or worn with textured, embroidered bodices. But it will also look fantastic at any time of the year as the varying lights will either enhance the sparkle or add richness to the pearls to suit weddings all year round.

Daisy Chain


You don't need to have a fancy, elaborate design to be a key piece in a collection. In fact simple designs are often the hardest to do as there is nowhere to hide! And Daisy Chain is no exception.

What I love about late spring is that after the lawn has been cut from its winter slumber, the tiny white dots of daisy heads begin to appear. I used to love making daisy chains as a child and now that I'm an auntie I get to make them all over again with my nieces and nephews. And having made one with my nephew and actually looked at it more closely through his fascinated eyes (read into that he asked alot of questions usually starting with "Why....?"), I noticed a beautiful pattern.

When you make a daisy chain the stems always seem to slope down to the flower head and the more I looked at this the more I began to see a headband. So I decided to think about what I love about daisies. Quite simply I love their radiance - they almost have the ability to add sparkle to your lawn. Sowhen I was looking at materials to use in this piece my immediate thought was to use crisp diamante for the centres of the floral motifs and beautiful freshwater pearls for the "petals". Then to provide continuity I used these freshwater pearls for the interconnecting "stems". This gives a lovely rich motif which can be repeated to form an elegant, striking design. And of course what gives this piece such presence is the fact that it is down on a double band. And the fact that it is on a double band allows for an additional amount of interest in as much as the motifs on each band are offset from each other so the sparkle is more evenly distributed.

It is a beautifully simple piece which looks amazing on and has of course spawned a number of spin offs. There is Daisy, the single headband. The Daisy combs - simple combs that use the simple motif and soon there will be Daisy hairpins. The motif can even be made into jewellery. But whichever version of Daisy Chain you choose, you are always guaranteed to wear a piece which is elegant, rich and sparkly whilst maintaining an unfussy feel. And this makes the piece ideal for so many styles of gown and hair style and also makes it ideal for weddings at any time of the year.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about these pieces. Of course there are other pieces in the collection which are stunning in their own way and I would strongly advise you to check out our website at the end of January when there will be a couple of additional pieces making their way into our 2011 Spring Collection. But for now I hope that reading this has made you feel a little warmer in the midst of this cold weather.

So until next time........

You can see our 2011 Collections by clicking here

Requiem for a crown

One of the best things about designing is that every piece you design has a life of its own and it is a life which you bring into the world. They all have an inspiration and a thought process behind how to bring them life and they all have a great deal of care put into their creation. People often giggle when I refer to certain designs as "she" but as with us, although everyone is special, there are those who stand out above the rest. And certain of my designs - those who are referred to as "she" have a character above and beyond just a lovely design.

At Tiararama Towers there are a number of these characterful design samples but one of the most popular, talked about and loved is our very first mega crown, Jadis.


The very first Jadis sample

And so it is with great sadness that I must announce that Jadis is no more.

Designed at the end of 2007 and named after the White Queen in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, she first appeared on our website in April 2008 and stood at an impressive 16cm tall and 20cm wide. Her twisted and curved peaks were set behind and in front of the band to give an extra dimension and depth to her design and each peak alternated between swags of crystal and wire and a more delicate interlaced design where the crystals were looped with wire. In total she had over 500 crystals.

She always attracted alot of attention at consultations, appeared in a few bridal magazines and has always been a bloggers favourite but she was at her best at photoshoots. In fact it was photoshoots that delayed the inevitable for her. Every time I decided that the best thing for her tired frame would be to see her safely to tiara heaven, she was called in for a photoshoot. But on Monday she gave up the ghost. Two years of constantly being prodded, poked and pulled around (as well as being dropped quite a few times) finally took their toll and when I picked her up I realised that there was no way to bring her back to her former glory and so today I began the sad task of dismantling her.

She has been a real tour de force in our design range. She has inspired many brides and spawned many similar designs and we have recreated her to adorn a few gorgeous brides too. And of course although her sample has died, her design lives on and we will still be able to recreate her for future brides. And I can look at her every day as her picture still has a place in a our studio.


Image by Assassynation

So au revoir my lovely (and thanks for the donation of the crystals - these will be put to good use in the creation of other gorgeous designs!) - you may not be sat twinkling away at me but you certainly won't be forgotten.

And in the next installment of news and views at Tiararama Towers, I will be telling you the story behind something new - our Spring Collection.

So until next time......

We've been nominated

"Gardenia" part of our Spring 2011 Collection

I am delighted to announce that Tiararama has been nominated in the Best Bridal Accessories category of the Wedding Ideas Magazine Awards and we would be delighted if you would take the time to vote for us.

If you are kind enough to support us, leave a comment and you will be entered into a draw to win to a bracelet which we will design exclusively for you.

Every vote counts so whether you are an existing client, a past client or someone who simply admires our work, we would be so grateful for your support.

Vote now for the Wedding Ideas Awards - The UK's only wedding industry awards voted for by the readers - click here

The All New Tiararama Show

Snowflake from our 2011 Winter collection

On October 21st 2010 Tiararama Towers was a relative haven of calm following the frenzied weeks in the run up to the launch of our new collections, our new website and the rebrand of our Couture Service to Tiararama Couture. In fact we were still working behind the scenes at gone midnight to make sure everything was as ready as it could be for the morning. But once we had launched I could relax knowing that all our hard work had paid off as all the lovely comments started to flood in from bridal magazines, other wedding suppliers and past, existing and new clients. And we have also had some lovely blog articles written about our launch which we love and we are extremely appreciative of.

You can find our new collections on our website http://www.tiararama.co.uk/ and we will be telling the stories behind each of our collections over the next couple of weeks but in the meantime for your delectation and delight here are some links to the lovely blog pieces written about us so far.

English Wedding - thank you to Claire and her lovely blog English Wedding for her fantastic in depth blog piece on our launch. Check out the rest of her blog for fantastic inspiration for your wedding.
Tiararama Couture Launch

The Wedding Community - thank you to lovely Kim and David for this announcement on your website. Very grateful to have our latest news included on this wonderful wedding resource website for brides.
Tiararama launches its first ever collection of bridal hair accessories for 2011

Victoria James Weddings - thank you to the gorgeous Victoria for this lovely blog post. Victoria is an award winning wedding planner in the Midlands and her support of our launch is greatly appreciated.
Swooning for Tiararama

Plans and Presents - thank you to the lovely Alison for this blog post. Alison is a wedding planner in Glasgow and we do appreciate her support for our launch.
Supplier Spotlight - Tiararama [including 2011 Collection Launch]

I look forward to sharing our new collections with you in more detail over the next few weeks but the collections, website and our rebrand are not the only new things to come to Tiararama Towers. We are also launching our new blog. You can still see some of our old blog posts here but from now on this is the place for all the hot news and articles from Tiararama.

So until next time.....