The Bold, The Beautiful and THAT Flamingo Headpiece - Nikki's Story

Where do I begin with this beautiful human?

Once again, I’ve been lost for words about my beautiful client, Nikki, and I hope that I can do the journey we went on together to make her incredible headpiece justice!

I first reached out to Nikki when I saw she had opened a new bridal boutique in Weston. Curve Bridal was a safe place for women of all shapes and sizes to come and feel beautiful, without the judgement received at so many bridal boutiques.

I remember stepping over the threshold of her shop and feeling at home straight away. Her boutique was warm and welcoming, and she was wearing slippers so I knew she was a kindred spirit!

When Nikki got engaged to Joey, she asked if I could create a headpiece for her. We sat down and talked through all the plans for their big day: getting married at Bristol zoo with tropical themed florals, lots of colour and personality.

She told me how owls held some significance in her family and, as we looked at the dresses she was deciding on, we talked about including peachy coral colours to fit with the underlays of the dresses.

I started a design with an owl brooch as a centrepiece, first in silver and then in gold. Neither seemed quite right for this colourful person. Little did I know that a better idea was just around the corner.

The original idea for Nikki’s vine started with an owl brooch and peachy colours, a complete contrast to the finished piece!

Nikki’s mum gifted her a flamingo brooch. It had pink crystals and AB crystals that shimmered like rainbows and instantly things fell into place.

“Do you think we could use this instead?” she asked me?

I was only too happy to!

As the flamingo was quite substantial, I fitted a hair pin to the back of it so that it could be anchored into Nikki’s hair. This girl was going to party hard, so that headpiece needed to stay put!

We sat together and looked at my crystal chart, Nikki picking out the colours she loved. She chose a colour for each of her bridesmaids based on their favourite colours so they could each have a pin too.

I used a mix of silver, gold and rose gold wire as a base for the headpiece to match Nikki’s ring and my first challenge was grouping coloured crystals with different coloured wires so that the vine had some structure. We used three different shades of green to replicate the foliage in Nikki’s florals, so I paired each with a different wire colour to get the most impact from the colours.

I think this was one of the biggest challenges I’ve ever had, and I loved every minute of it! I started the vine one way and then, part-way through, realised it didn’t have quite the impact I’d hoped, so started again.

Unfortunately, thanks to lockdown, Nikki and Joey had to postpone their wedding and Bristol Zoo sadly closed down, moving most of their animals to the nearby Wild Place.

All was not lost though, and this beautiful couple finally got the day they dreamed of, surrounded by friends and family and a whole load of colour.

Nikki decided to close her bridal shop to pursue her career in hairdressing, and I’m pleased to say that she has kept her bright pink hair. It was a pleasure working with you, Nikki; thank you for bringing so much colour to my studio! I’ll never forget you. 🧡