With pandemic restrictions lifted, the wedding season is going ahead at full speed.
Some brides and grooms have waited two years for their big day, causing a backlog of weddings and wedding-related appointments.
Bridal boutique Ivy Lane in Monifieth has been busy helping brides find the perfect wedding dress.
I spent the day with mother and daughter team Yvonne and Rebekah Watson at the shop to find out more about their job.
Searching for the perfect dress
We get ready for our first task of the day, an appointment with Lisa who is on the hunt for a dress for her 2024 wedding.
She comes in with her bridesmaid Sophie who takes a seat in a comfy sofa, ready to see her friend try on a selection of dresses.
Yvonne and Rebekah start by asking the bride-to-be if she has anything in mind. She shows them pictures and describes what she’s after.
The pair start working their magic and pull out dresses from different sections of the room to show off.
After comments like ‘too traditional’, ‘too far’ and ‘too princessy’, they know what to present to Lisa.
The three of them disappear behind a curtain and Sophie and I eagerly await a peek of the bride-to-be.
“Are you nervous?” Yvonne asks. Lisa admits she is.
“Many brides find their appointment nerve-wracking, but it’s supposed to be fun,” Yvonne reassures her.
“Sometimes bridal shops are seen as snooty and a bit frightening. We just try our best to find the right dress for every bride.”
Lisa looks lovely in every dress, and between each one she has a discussion with her bridesmaid and the two “wedding fairies”.
Every now and then, they come out from behind the curtain to put away dresses and pull out new ones.
From drawers and boxes Rebekah finds pins, clips and different kinds of straps to change the look of the dresses.
Just over an hour later, Lisa has narrowed her list of dresses down to two.
She decides to come back later to try them on again with her mum.
Ivy Lane bridal industry secrets
While putting the room back together after the appointment, I try to unearth some of the secrets of the wedding dress industry.
Because like many brides-to-be coming for their appointment, it is also my first time in a bridal boutique.
For years I’ve wondered if the brides buy the actual dress they try on in the store, like you would in a normal clothes shop.
“The dresses are made to order, so we will order a dress in the right size from the designer,” Yvonne explains.
“But sometimes the dress doesn’t sit perfectly on the bride, so we work with a seamstress who comes to the shop to do alterations.”
More often than not, the bride will need to alter the dress. It can range from taking it in an inch around the top to putting in side panels to make it fit properly.
Wedding dresses also change every season. I always imagined them to be timeless, classic staples without much need to follow the latest trends, but clearly I was wrong.
“Some ranges get discontinued after a season, but we never know which ones it’s going to be,” says Rebekah.
“We don’t have one model that’s the most popular, we always sell a range of styles and designs.”
Exclusivity is very important to bridal designers. If a designer supplies a shop too close to Ivy Lane, it means the Maule Street boutique has to find someone else.
Every year, Yvonne and Rebekah attend the Harrogate bridal show where they place orders for next season’s dresses and keep on top of trends.
They also need to order a certain number of dresses from each designer in order to keep stocking their dresses.
‘I hate my dress!’
Its a quiet afternoon in the shop today, until the door opens and a woman steps in. Yvonne greets her and asks what she needs help with.
“I’m getting married at 2pm tomorrow and I hate my dress,” she says.
We drop everything – this is a wedding emergency!
Any dress in store that is the bride’s size, the wedding fairies grab and Amanda tries them all.
Anything that isn’t her current dress seems to be good enough at this point.
After a few attempts, the bride finds a dress she loves. It needs a bit of alteration, but the seamstress can fix the fit before tomorrow’s wedding.
Amanda looks at herself and Yvonne in the mirror.
“I’m saying yes to the dress,” she says, just like on the TV show.
With the seamstress’ address in hand, the bride heads out the door to sort potentially the most important thing for her big day.
“This happens more often than you’d think,” says Yvonne.
“The dress is one of the most important things, because it colours the whole day and your memories of it forever.”
One small part of a big day
Yvonne first opened in Broughty Ferry in 2015 as she is “obsessed with anything bridal”.
The 58-year-old soon needed help and one of her five children, Rebekah, came onboard.
After seven years in the business, Yvonne still says every day is a school day. It certainly has been for me.
Even though the summer months are quieter for Ivy Lane, there’s been a lot of action in the shop.
Having worked in a wedding venue before, I feel like I’ve lifted the veil on another part of the industry.
Behind every beautiful bride there’s a wedding fairy who helped her find the perfect dress for the perfect day.
And they are not scary or snooty, they are caring, funny and very good listeners.
Even if Yvonne and Rebekah are just one small part of wedding planning, they sure do make a big impact on the brides.
Conversation