Why weddings?
It was a cold Sunday in January 2014 and I was on my way to my first wedding exhibition in Bristol. I’d finished my teaching job just before Christmas to pursue a happier life and this was my first step in to starting my business - meeting actual brides - just a day before I would have been going back to work had I stayed at my job.
There was no big dream in my life growing up that I’d start a business. And, to be honest, before planning our own wedding, I wouldn’t have considered working in the wedding industry. But I’d loved making things for my own wedding and saw a space that I could fit in to so, when Pete asked me what I wanted to do, I replied, “Start a business making things for people’s weddings because it’s made me so happy.”
The real why came that day in January, when I met my first bride, Leanne.
Leanne had decided she didn’t want to carry flowers for her wedding and had told her mum that she wasn’t going to carry anything. That was until she saw my brooch bouquet. In the five minutes that followed, I’d learned that she wasn’t looking for the usual things you’d expect from a wedding. Her taste in music didn’t match the songs the harpist next to me offered and she had a clear idea of who she was and what she wanted.
That evening, feeling proud of myself for putting myself out there, I came home to find an email from Leanne, asking if we could meet to discuss options for her bouquet. Of all the brides I’d spoken to that day, she’d been the one that I really wanted to work with, because she was finding the same as I did when planning a wedding - that nothing she had in mind fit with what was being offered in the industry at the time, or at least wasn’t getting a lot of attention.
Sitting down with Leanne and Dom a month later, I understood why I wanted to start this business and why what I do matters. Leanne pulled out a few pieces of jewellery that she wanted to include in her bouquet. There was a little ballerina brooch, as she used to dance, and a horse charm as she had always ridden horses. There was also a small elephant that Dom had bought her on their travels and I listened while they told me about their time away and watched how happy they were reminiscing together.
I understood then that it was that feeling that I needed to capture when I handed the finished bouquet back to Leanne. The pieces she’d given me didn’t match the colours she’d chosen for her wedding but I knew I had to make them work, as I couldn’t leave any of the pieces out - the bouquet wouldn’t have been complete if I had.
The finished bouquet was so Leanne. She was over the moon when she saw it, as was Dom with his matching buttonhole. That’s the problem with making examples for things like wedding shows. They don’t capture a personality or a memory. The accessories I make for brides do though, and there is something that sparkles a little brighter in those.
As Elsa Rose transforms, I remind myself of the women I’ve helped and designed things for. Not just the big bouquets, but the smaller pieces that say a thousand words to the bride wearing them. The meaning behind it all, creating a new memory for someone and being able to make something that is really sentimental to them - that’s my why.
Leanne’s bouquet, courtesy of The Lemon House Wedding Photography