What happened to January?

I know it is January 28th and there are 3 days left in this month but what I want to know is, why are there only 3 days left in this month? It was only New Year two seconds ago! Actually today I am also asking where did last year go because a year ago today my gorgeous little niece Sophie was born and that only seems like 5 minutes ago! But I digress!

As I get older I think time is flying by faster but then I realise it's only really because I work so hard. I am constantly thinking up new and gorgeous designs, sourcing materials, working on new techniques and ideas and most importantly of all dealing with all my lovely clients and creating their fabulous designs (and all the other stuff that goes hand in hand with running a business!).

And January has been no exception!

We have been working on new and exciting projects this month. Alas they are top secret but they will be worth the wait! All I can say is each little milestone we reach in the development of these plans is so exciting that we are making a big occasion of it here at Tiararama Towers! And of course on top of that we have started drafting our 2012 Summer collection and started making the mock ups of our 2012 Spring collection! I am so looking forward to sharing everything with you all....can you all wait until September? Well I hope you can!

But apart from secret squirrelling we have been creating some gorgeous client pieces, designing some fabulous client pieces and we are also seeing the fruits of our hard labours with our first set of collections. We are seeing fabulous sales for our 2011 collections as well as alot of interest from both potential clients and the press. In fact we are starting to see more of our products in magazines and I will be updating our Press Coverage blog over the next few weeks.

Our work was used in a really cool photoshoot this month by Sarah Vivienne Photography. And by cool I mean cold - very cold. -6 degrees to be precise and that was indoors! I swear I have frost bite in my big toe still! I can't wait to see the images from this shoot and be able to share them with you.

And speaking of photoshoots, these are a fabulous way for you (our readers and potential clients) to see how our work looks on. I love seeing how different stylists use our designs - some use them in ways that even I hadn't thought of! But what we really love is seeing them on our brides. So when we were having one of our planning meetings at Tiararama Towers this month and we were talking about the revisions which we will need to implement on the website for our 2012 collections we decided to add functionality so that you can see alternative images of our collections. And then when I thought about it, I decided that not only did I want to show you our collection pieces on model shoots that we have commissioned but I wanted to show you all the other ways our pieces have been used in other shoots or worn by gorgeous brides. This way you get even more inspiration and if you needed another reason to buy one of our collection pieces (if you need one!) seeing it in action might be what swings your decision!

Now of course we were talking about our 2012 website here but this is 2011. How can I share any images I have already of our 2011 collections? Well we have come up with a simple solution for now. We have added a link onto each product page where we have additional images to share with you. We will be refining this over the next few months and adding more links as we get more images of our collection pieces sent to us (and if you are a Tiararama bride or you have images of one of our designs please do get in touch). We hope you find this function useful and look forward to sharing more images with you soon.

At the moment these pieces all have additional images you can view

From our 2011 Spring Collection
First shoots

See the product page here

From our 2011 Summer Collection
Hydrangeas

See the product page here

Hortensia

See the product page here

From our 2011 Autumn Collection
Autumn

See the product page here

From our 2011 Winter Collection
Snow Queen

See the product page here

Snow Princess

See the product page here

Snow Storm

See the product page here

I can't wait to add more links very soon!

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

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

A few weeks ago I was asked by someone where a blog post I did a while ago about our ever popular Maria headband had gone. Well quite simply it was on our old blog but when I thought about it, it dawned on me that even after all this time Maria is still one of our best sellers. So I decided to dig out the old post, revamp it and put it to you for your delectation and delight. I hope you enjoy!

It is a little known fact that I almost walked down the aisle to "How do you solve a problem like Maria?". I've always loved the wedding scene from The Sound of Music. So when we were trying to decide which piece of music I should walk in to one of the suggestions was The Wedding March from that musical. This march, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the Sound of Music (I don't know what's worse - knowing what I am talking about or not?), incorporates this song. However, we just intended to use the more grandiose orchestral and organ section of the march not realising that the sheet music our organist had finally tracked down started way before this section. So at our wedding rehearsal we got to hear it for the first time and had a panic that he had obtained the wrong music as "How do you solve a problem like Maria? rang out. My Dad rushed up and said "no she wants it to start it at here" and the organist scribbled some notes and started at our chosen section. Problem solved! The thing we still find amusing is that no one (apart from us and my family) knew what the music was and no one believed us when we told them! So why am I telling you this? Well it will make sense in a minute...honestly!

One of the things I get asked a lot by family, friends and customers is "Are you busy?" Well I'm always busy and this time of year I am undoubtedly at my busiest. But this year I am unusually busy. This is of course a great thing and given the current economic climate I am extremely grateful and thankful that our work is still being well received. But there is one element that is helping to contribute to this year's success and that is a very simple design of ours called Maria (are you beginning to see the link yet?).

So to celebrate its success I thought that I would tell you a little something about Maria.

Maria

Maria was designed for an exhibition I did back in 2006 to bridge a gap in my collection and yes it was named as a nod to our favourite singing nun. However it didn't make another public appearance until we relaunched the website (the first time) in April 2008. Then one day in May 2008 I received a call from a customer who had seen our Louise design and loved the textures in it but didn't want it to be as deep as the original design

Louise

We discussed reducing the depth in great detail. We discussed changing the shape, we discussed changing the beading, we discussed changing the materials, we discussed her gown, we discussed her hair, we discussed everything but the kitchen sink and yet she was having a bit of trouble deciding what she wanted. In the end it came down to what did I think would suit her from a professional perspective. I could tell that she was quite a bubbly person but didn't like a lot of fuss. So I asked her to send me a picture of herself so I could gauge the best depth of headband for her and to make sure that the Louise style would actually suit her face shape. Once I saw the customer's short spiky hair with heavy fringe and face shape one design immediately sprang to mind...it wasn't Louise but Maria. And the strange thing was the customer's name was Maria as well! The first thing she said when she saw the design was "I love the texture...can I have that one?" So problem solved for Maria by Maria.

This sale was the first of many and for the last few years Maria has been one of our best selling products. So what is the key to Maria's success?

Essentially it is a thin decorated headband but what makes it special are the textures of the materials. You have the beautiful mix of Swarovski crystal and pearl which provides one level of texture and then the variation of pearl sizes as well as crystal sizes and shapes gives the piece that extra level of texture and interest. Although simple it is an incredibly elegant design and perfect for any bride who believes in the principle of less is more. But what also makes this piece so special is its versatility. It adds subtle texture to plainer gowns, it complements the texture of lace covered gowns, it suits short hair and long hair alike, it can be worn around a bun, it can be customised very easily, it is ideal for bridesmaids and brides alike and it suits all ages. It is also great as a special occasion accessory - not just as a wedding accessory. With all that going for it, it is easy to see why it is such a popular piece. Since it was launched in 2008 we've adapted this design so many times in so many colour ways and materials and we've even made double and triple banded versions! And since we included it in our 2011 Spring Collection, it is again proving to be a real winner!

So if you would like to own your very own Maria - either as it is on the website or customised to suit your own requirements (which may mean the price is higher than advertised if the materials used are more expensive) then simply click here .

And over the next few months I will be telling you about the inspiration behind more of our 2011 collections and showing off some of our new concept pieces which I have designed just because.....

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

Great Expectations

Fear not this is not an epic post along the lines of my last 3! As a reward for sitting through our review of fabulous 2010 (not read it yet? Here you go Part 1, Part Deux and Part 3) I thought it might be nice to tell you all about everything we have planned for 2011.

Well of course it would be nice to tell you about everything we have planned but I won't! We have great expectations for 2011 and if I tell you everything now I won't have anything to surprise you with later on so here are a few teasers for you to ponder.

1. The Tiararama family is expanding (and it is Tiararama that is expanding not me!)

2. Lots of photoshoots

3. Very different design concepts for 2012

4. A big show

5. Lots more chances to see our work

6. And much, much more....

There that was short and sweet wasn't it? Shame my to do list isn't as short but if I didn't love it, I wouldn't be doing it!

So until next time.....

First Shoots 2011 Spring Collection

2010 where did you go? Part 3

Ice Queen from our 2011 Winter Collection and Daisy Chain from our 2011 Spring Collection

So you've sat through parts 1 and 2 of our review of the year and I must say I admire your stamina! And now to the final part of our travels through 2010 - September to December (you may need a cup of tea again!)

September 2010
Well the first half of September was rather pleasant as there was a bit of sightseeing

wine chasing

and quite a bit of this

However it wasn't all sightseeing, wine drinking and ice cream eating (or seafood, cheese, pate and bread eating for that matter!). We were also WIFI hunting so I could keep in touch with the world and I was sat there designing and creating some gorgeous pieces. As well as Ice Queen and Daisy Chain (see the top of the post), I also busy creating


and finishing off hairpins and headchains.

OK so it wasn't a total break from work but it was a gorgeous holiday and was relaxing enough to provide me with the energy to hit work running on our return.

And boy did I need the energy! I came back to website designs, logo designs, stationery designs, press releases, clients and all sorts of other work. It was incredibly exciting as all the hard work of not just the last few months but since January was starting to pay off and I do love it when a plan comes together!

October 2010

October came in with a bang and a big *gulp*! It was launch month for our 2011 Collections, our rebranded design service and our new website and I was to say the least a little nervous. You see this was our first dedicated set of collections that were being launched and like anything new it was quite daunting!

But it was also scary because I was the subject of a photoshoot! I had decided that it was time that I inflicted a picture of myself on the website and in promotional work so I invited the very talented and super lovely Emily Quinton to Tiararama Towers to take my picture. As nervous as I was about this it was a fabulous experience which I loved and the images (and Emily) were just fab!

Now I am often asked now why I always say that I launched my collections and not my collection. Well quite simply I launched 4 in one go....Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. And why did I launch 4 collections? I mean surely I could have launched one and no one would have minded? Maybe they wouldn't but I would. You see each season has a very specific feel and this is reflected in the use of different bead shapes and textures and different beading and wiring techniques. The amount of love and attention that went into achieving the right feel and best sparkle for each season was considerable. And whenever you put alot of love and consideration into anything it really matters to you. So it was with some trepidation that on October 19th (our wedding anniversary celebrations took rather a backseat to work on this occasion) and 20th we pulled all our hard work together and off went our press release and at midnight our new website and collections went live.

The four signature pieces of our 2011 collections:

First Shoots - Spring 2011 collection, Hydrangeas - Summer 2011 collection, Autumn Bouquet - Autumn 2011 collection, Snowflakes - Winter 2011 Collection

And did I need to be worried? Well no! We were (and still are if we're honest) delighted with the amount of love we received from all corners of the industry for our new collections. It was fantastic when the emails and tweets and phonecalls started to come in and I was hearing words like impressive, innovative, classy with a twist, gorgeous, beautiful, intricate, fantabulous (not sure that is a word but hey!) and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocios (yes I do know some strange people!)

I was so pleased that all went well and that the collection was so well received and blown away by those who were so generous in their support of us (and their continued support is a blessing and will never be taken for granted!). After months of hard work and sleepless nights I could at last have a small break to celebrate our successful launch. I was back at work on the Monday!

November 2010
Following on from our successful collection launch and rebrand we began to get more press interest and our new collection was being called in for photoshoots by magazines and photographers. Not only did I have a diary but some of my pieces were starting to need social diaries! In fact in November my appointment room looked quite glum. For months my new collection had started to adorn it but once they started to go out on shoots it looked quite bare at times. In fact as I type we still have a box of pieces out with a magazine!

And whilst this was all going on, apart from our usual client work, I was drafting......our 2012 collection!

And here are some lovely images from one of those shoots by Hannah Duffy Photography
Hydrangeas from our 2011 Summer Collection

and our beautiful Hortensia comb from our 2011 Summer Collection

December 2010

The product call ins continued with some more pieces being called in for quite high profile shoots (fingers crossed on those) and our schedule was full of order making in time for Christmas. And a lovely spot of afternoon tea cemented an idea that I had been thinking about for a while!

It was a very busy time to the end of the year and one which has filled me with the knowledge that 2011 will be an incredible year for us. And if 2010 was busy, it was nothing compared to how busy 2011 will be. This year is the 2nd year of our 3 year business development schedule but it is without doubt the busiest. We have new collections to show you, new ideas and we're at the National Wedding Show again (at Earl's Court in the autumn this time). And we are so looking forward to serving those of you who no wedding business can do without - our lovely brides. We are so looking forward to meeting you and designing the hair accessories of your dreams and we know it will be a good idea!

And speaking of designing the Hair Accessory of your Dreams - watch this space. We will soon be announcing details of our amazing competition to have the hair accessory of your dreams designed and created for you.

But in the meantime I will leave you with a beautiful image of our Ice Queen from a magazine shoot and hope to be able to show you lots more over the next year.

Image courtesy of Asiana Magazine

I hope you have enjoyed reading about our 2010 and hope you will join me this time next year for our 2011 round up.

So until next time.....

2010 where did you go? Part Deux

Snow Princess and Snowflake from our 2011 Winter Collection

Have you recovered from "2010 where did you go? Part 1" yet? Have you got yourself a cup of tea? Are you sitting comfortably? If so, here's the tale of May to August 2010 at Tiararama Towers.

May 2010
May saw us in full wedding season flow. Orders were flying in and we faced something that we hadn't seen before....all of the orders were for weddings within 3 months. Normally we deal with clients over 6 to 18 months but this sudden rush of clients was a bit unusual. Some of the new clients had seen us at the National Wedding Show (fair enough!), some had seen some of our new batches of advertising (fair enough!) and some (most touchly) had waited until they had sorted most of their wedding expenditure to see if they had enough left over to commission us to design for them. It was so touching when I received a phone call one morning from a bride-to-be to see if we still had any availability left for their wedding in 10 weeks time and when I said yes she burst into tears.

This might sound like the ultimate piece of bragging here but for me this phone call hit me like a sledge hammer. You see when you run a business you brag about it, you advertise it and you market it and you hope that at the end of all that hard work you get clients. All businesses want clients. But I had the sudden realisation that not only did I (Tiararama) want clients but also that clients wanted Tiararama. It wasn't just a case of "I like that tiara - I will buy it", it was a case of "I want a tiara designed for me by Tiararama" and that was one of the most special and defining moments of 2010 for me. It might seem silly to you but it fed the joy and happiness in Tiararama Towers for a good few days!

May was also the month that two bridal accessory greats finally met after many years of speaking.....you know who you are!

Creating a storm - Snow Storm and Ice Storm from our 2011 Winter Collection

June 2010
It was in June that the final touches were being put to our soon to be relaunched and rebranded Tiara Designer service. We had been working on the wording and the branding for a few months but it was now that I really began to define the service. You see Tiararama Couture (as it is now called) is more than just a design service - it is a highly personalised experience. You must forgive me for not giving the game away here but my clients only get the best and so to add to the personalisation of our service I commissioned new stationery for our Couture clients. You can read all about this in our blog post Sweet as Sugalily

June was also the month that saw the finishing touches carried out on some of our Autumn Collection. I had a lovely time working with gorgeous freshwater pearls and Swarovski's beautiful golden shadow crystals. This combination gives a glorious glowing warmth to the pieces and embodies all that autumn is meant to be.

Autumn Roses, Autumn Bouquet and Catherine Wheel headchain from our 2011 Autumn Collection

July 2010
This was the month that I started to plan the launch of our new 2011 Collections. It really was time to get my head down to finish the collection, instruct Kevin on the website, commission artwork and make sure my PR were up to speed and briefed. I love and loathe work like this in equal measure. I love coming up with ways to develop and build my business but I hate the fact that it takes me away from my love of designing and creating. I had originally aimed for a late September launch but realised it would be impossible especially as we were off on holiday in September! So the decision was taken to opt for October 14th (did we make it I wonder?!!).

July was also the month that I completed the majority of our 2010 summer season pieces (I had planned it this way so that I allowed myself adequate planning time for the big push) and just as I thought "oh I can really get my teeth into my launch work", the enquiries and orders suddenly went mental again. One commission in particular springs to mind. I was contacted late on a Friday afternoon and asked to design a floral based design. That's fine say I. Then I asked her when the wedding was "next Friday and we're leaving for the venue on Wednesday morning". Something kicks in when you get a call like this. The sensible side says "run away....put the phone down" and the other half says (knowing full well that this will be a job and a half) "not a problem, I will have the drafts to you tomorrow morning and upon approval of the drafts I can start work on Sunday" And then you realise you need to put a stock order in! But thankfully I am blessed with some workaholic suppliers who had everything to me on the Saturday!

And this was what we created for her in 2 days

There is an important message here - don't assume that because we handcraft our designs from scratch that we can't create something for you on a tight timescale. We are always very happy to help. On the other hand, please don't leave everything to the last minute!

August 2010
August was another busy planning month. Sadly that is as exciting as August got. There were lots of new designs being designed for clients and lots of plans coming together but generally it was one of those months where there was a lot of work done but there didn't seem to be much to show for it. Of course without this work there would be nothing to show anyone so it was totally necessary. But we did get some gorgeous images of our work used in a magazine which as it turned out was the first of many!

On the left Snow Storm styled in a completely different way and on the right Myrtle, a beautiful pearl and diamante encrusted headband.
Images from Autumn issue of Asiana Wedding Magazine.

So that is it for part deux! Part 3 is where is gets very, very exciting!

Hope you enjoyed and I'll be posting part 3 in the next few days.

So until next time.....

2010 where did you go? Part 1

Snowflakes from our 2011 Winter Collection & Autumn Bouquet from our 2011 Autumn Collection

As I sit here wishing you all a very happy new year and hoping that you all had a fantastic Christmas, I also find myself thinking "Where did 2010 go?" and then thinking "What exactly did we achieve in 2010?" and then I find I have more material than is seemly for a single post!

So here in brief installments (I fear they won't be!) is a run down of our year in words and pictures.

January 2010
I remember sitting down in January with my brand new diary and my business plan for 2010 and writing in a list of important dates and tasks and thinking "oh dear lord what have I let myself in for?" You see all the imminent tasks seemed to relate to our exhibiting at the National Wedding Show at Olympia in February and we had furniture to assemble and paint, I had props to buy, fabric to source, artwork to finalise and sign off, printing to arrive, design ideas to prepare for the catwalk, materials to order and last but not least I had to make up a shed load of designs to actually exhibit! And of course as well as dealing with the usual start of year rush, we also had the excitement (and sisterly worries) of the imminent arrival of my sister's 2nd baby.

Most days seemed to be split into stand planning, making up pieces, getting annoyed with people and finding myself slipping from my relatively laid back self into my previous life as the phrase "I don't care how you do it, how late you have to work, I want it tomorrow" started being used more and more (there were even times I was shouting it at myself....in my head of course!). My appointment room became the stand, we were tripping up over boxes of printing, stock, completed pieces, props, tins of paint, I was outside spray painting at -2 degrees and my friend came round to make the flowers for the stand decoration. Then of course Tiararama Towers turned into full Auntie mode on January 29th as my gorgeous niece Sophie had been born the day before and there was much present buying to be done!

January was a month of long hours, constant planning and creativity. It was hard work but great fun (yes I am lucky to love my job enough to get a kick out of working hard!)

Alice - one of the designs we took to the National Wedding Show

February 2010

If January was busy, February was hectic! There were alot of people who seemed determined to throw spanners into the smooth running wheels of our exhibition preparation but as quickly as they were being thrown, I was sorting the issues out (mainly by shouting and threatening to speak to managers!). We were busy making up pieces to exhibit and as we had not heard by the week before the show started that any of our pieces were needed for the catwalk we made one very big assumption - an understandable assumption of course and that was that none of our pieces were needed and a sense of calm order fell upon Tiararama Towers. All was going swimmingly and we were to have finished our preparation with plenty of time to spare. There weren't going to be any all night creating sessions, there wasn't going to be any running around like headless chickens and we were quite pleased with ourselves.

Of course how stupid were we to make that assumption? Yes it was the week before the exhibition but that doesn't mean that we weren't going to get an email late on a Monday evening to say "We would like 8 of your designs to be with us next Tuesday". 8 designs meant one thing and one thing only - alot of work! Most of my pieces take days to make so 8 in 8 days was a big call but we weren't going to let that put us off. So whilst we were acting like a swan - graceful on top and paddling manically underneath - we said there would be no problem to get those pieces to them. And of course it wasn't just these 8 pieces we needed to finish! It was all the other pieces that would have been completed in plenty of time for the exhibition as well. In fact we had 14 pieces to finish in 8 days. We didn't sleep much, Kevin had to take over alot of the stand tasks I had planned to do and between us when February 19th arrived, we had a fully laden stand erected at Olympia with 8 pieces on the catwalk.

The show was the biggest exhibition we had ever done and it was incredibly hard work but we got so many new clients and met so many brides who were marrying later in 2011/2012 as well as industry contacts that it can only be described as a success for us. And to cap it all we had the pleasure of seeing some of our work on the catwalk supporting the whole Sottero Midgeley scene - I can't begin to tell you how emotional it is (no matter how many times your work is used on catwalks/on the television) when you see your work displayed in such a way. It is such a fab feeling and it was such an honour. Here are some images for your delectation and delight.

Two versions of First Shoots from our 2011 Spring Collection and Hydrangeas from our 2011 Summer Collection

Two versions of Autumn from our 2011 Autumn Collection and Snow Storm from our 2011 Winter Collection

March 2011

If February was hectic, March was manic!

Following our success at the National Wedding Show we had alot of enquiries and alot of those turned into fabulous clients. We were designing, preparing mood boards for appointments and we also began our usual busy creating period which runs from March to August each year (although autumn and winter weddings are becoming more popular, summer weddings are still way ahead of them!). This was so much busier due to the extra work from the National Wedding Show but we began to work on some incredible designs.

When you design exclusively for your clients the kind of styles you end up designing is eclectic to say the least. But 2010 seemed more varied than usual. We were designing everything from large encrusted crowns, beautiful pearl headbands and wonderfully light wire work tiaras and comb.

2010 was also the year of asymmetry - from asymmetric tiaras to combs and large statement hairpins. In particular floral designs were incredibly popular this year and we created pieces in silk fabrics, hand beaded fabrics (which we hand beaded ourselves) and beaded/encrusted pieces.

Just some of the pieces we created for our clients

April 2010

April was again busy with designing and creating but it was in this month that a few business truths began to rear their ugly head and thankfully a solution miraculously appeared!

In order to run a successful business you can't just rely on having a great product. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes and when you run your own business you often have to become a jack of all trades and very much a master of none. I know I am a qualified accountant and I know I used to work in finance and I know I studied marketing and I know I used to advise small businesses but honestly when you have to apply it to your own business you find yourself becoming really frustrated because you know there aren't enough hours in the day to do everything properly. It is so hard to keep juggling everything but it is a piece of cake compared to a control freak like me admitting that you need help. And I will never admit that but I'm not daft and when you receive a very unexpected email offering help, occasionally you stop and read it.

And this was the case when I received an email from a PR company who rather than giving you all the usual bland (and frankly boring) sales pitch actually sold themselves to me. You see this company wasn't just approaching me because they were targeting anonymous businesses, they contacted me because unbeknownst to me, they actually knew something about me. How could this be? Well remember what I did in February? Whilst at the show my new PR representative had gained first hand experience of us as her sister had visited our stand and was so impressed with us and our products, she decided to see if she could represent us. And after alot of consideration we decided that we should at least have a chat! Even this was a big step for me and thankfully now we have someone else involved in the hard work of getting the good news from Tiararama Towers known in the world!

And it was also at this time that I finalised the key pieces for our 2011 Summer Collection and here are a few images for you.

Hydrangea, Hortensia, Hortense and Hydrangeas from our 2011 Summer Collection

If you are still reading this, may I offer you my congratulations! And I hope that you will be back to read part deux and 3 which will be posted over the next few days.

So until next time.....