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.....