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.....

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.....