Last Eco blog post of the month. We finish the year with another unique way of upcycing great things for your wedding. Up north, two ladies got together to create Bridal Market. Their vision has enabled groups of like minded wedding vendors to get together and sell their wares. Let me hand over to Katherine to tell you more!

What is The Bridal Market?

The Bridal Market Ltd is a unique concept within the wedding industry. We offer newlyweds to sell their luxury preloved wedding items and attire to brides to be face to face at our Bridal Market wedding fairs, in our store in Otley and online through our website www.thebridalmarket.co.uk

We stock beautiful preloved and ex sample designer wedding dresses to enable brides to be to find their dream dress without the nightmare price tag.  The Bridal Market is all about saving brides money whilst on their wedding planning journey. We can help with every aspect of wedding planning from decor to dresses and we actively encourage brides to hire their items through us so they don’t have to try and resell their goods after their big day.

Where did the idea come from?

When planning my own wedding, I was put off attending traditional wedding fairs as they all felt very impersonal and very much sales orientated and less about a brides’ experience.  Needless to say, I didn’t go to many after my substandard experience.  I sourced my own suppliers, saved a fortune and made all of the decor myself. That’s when the idea of The Bridal Market clicked for me.

After meeting Gaynor, we quickly discovered a mutual passion for the wedding industry and both shared the same vision in creating a company that would help ease the stress of the wedding planning process for the budget conscious bride.  We do want to point out however, we are not a ‘budget’ business. Every bride has a budget, whether it’s £1,000 or £50,000. There’s always a cap on the money available to spend. The Bridal Market’s aim is to change people’s perceptions on how and where to spend their allocated budget and utilise preloved and handmade items from independent, local suppliers to save money without scrimping on quality.

Who are the faces behind the name?

Gaynor Hughes and myself, Katherine Cocksedge are the pair behind The Bridal Market Ltd.  Gaynor, formerly of Secret Wedding Sale, like me, had spotted a gap in the market to provide luxury preloved and designer items without the designer price tag.  Working independently at first, we both knew we hit on an untapped market and developed our separate businesses to bring our love of preloved to the masses.

By joining forces, we have been able to develop and grow our brand and as a result our Bridal Market preloved & handmade wedding fairs have grown from strength to strength.  Primarily based in Yorkshire, we have a full calendar of events planned for 2017 which sees us move into unfamiliar territory in South Yorkshire and Lancashire.

What makes you ecofriendly?

What could be more eco friendly than embracing the preloved revolution?  The Bridal Market prides itself on not only saving brides money throughout the wedding planning process but also upcycling and reusing beautiful pieces that may have otherwise been discarded.  Gone are the days when secondhand meant second rate and more brides are embracing the chance to have beautiful items at their wedding that have previously only been used for a matter of hours at most.

Bridal Market wedding fairs are literally treasure troves of other brides’ preloved goodies and you can really pick up a bargain. Whole weddings go on sale at these events with everything from dresses to decor available (and everything inbetween…think tiaras, veils, shoes, accessories, table plans, vintage china – the list is endless)  Every event is held in a unique, non traditional venue and as you never know what items will be available until the day – you can really grab some amazing pieces for a fraction of the RRP.

What are you top tips to couples planning their day?

Our tops tips to any couple planning their big day would be;

1)  Your wedding day is YOUR day, keep your individuality and try (we know it’s hard) to stick to the decisions you make as a couple and not influenced by others offering their opinions.  If you want to break with tradition and not have some text book aspects of a standard wedding, then do it! The last thing you want is to look back in years to come and have any regrets or wish you’d done things differently.  If you make a decision and are happy, simply stick to it. Others’ will have an opinion regardless…so go with what makes you you.

2) If you’ve not thought of incorporating preloved into your wedding then we would urge you to at least consider it.  As we’ve said before, your wedding day should be about you as a couple and celebrating your individuality.  Buying preloved is a way to achieve this with minimal expenditure.  Think about it, if you’re shopping on the high street along with the thousands of other couples who are currently planning their weddings, what are the chances that you’ll manage to achieve anything different?  The last thing you want to do is blend into the background and just be a carbon copy of all those other weddings out there.  By using preloved items, decor, accessories or even choosing a preloved/ex sample wedding dress you can almost guarantee that you will have a different wedding to the norm.  Just because another couple or bride has used these things before you, they will have probably used them in an entirely different way to you.  Not only that, you can save so much money it’s almost unbelievable.

When we say we love preloved, we really do mean it and we’re out to share our passion with the world.

Bridal Market Fair
Photos by Scott Smith Photography

What is your selling point to suppliers being part of The Bridal Market?

By joining The Bridal Market as a supplier, you are guaranteed access to brides and couples who veer away from the mainstream and are looking for something a little bit different.  By being part of our Bridal Market network of suppliers you will be automatically listed on our website as well as being promoted through or retail store and at our monthly wedding fairs.  To target the budget conscious bride we urge our suppliers to offer discounts and special offers to our brides as then we are able to offer the full wedding planning experience for a fraction of the cost a bride would pay at a conventional corporate wedding fair/wedding planning service.

What are you selling points to Couples?

The Bridal Market is all about championing individuality.  We would much rather you had the day of your dreams than think you had to conform to social stereotypes and what is considered ‘normal’.  We LOVE that by using preloved items and attire in your big day that you are able to have your dream day without starting off married life in debt as more and more couples are unfortunately doing these days.  If you want to see more about how The Bridal Market can help turn your wedding day dreams into a reality visit our website at www.thebridalmarket.co.uk or contact us so we can answer any questions you may have.

A big thanks to Katherine for sharing this with us and we hope you can support this fantastic business by visiting their site or attending a fair. The first of 2017 is:

Preloved & Handmade Wedding Fair – Leeds Kirkgate Market –  Saturday 7th Jan 2017 – 10am to 4pm

To find out more follow them on their social media links too!

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram