Could the Coronavirus affect your wedding?

The development of coronavirus is ongoing. It’s believed to have originated In China where, according to the BBC 78,159 people have been infected as of 26 February, with 2,717 of them dying. The virus - causing severe lung disease - has since spread to 27 countries including the UK, with 15 Brits being diagnosed so far. This has understandably had the world on high alert, and the latest effect concerns wedding dresses

Many bridal retailers in the UK import their dresses from China, where the outbreak is said to have started and where many factories have been forced to close. Closure means no production and no production means no wedding dresses. 

Labour MP Chris Bryant spoke out about the issue and said that shops in the UK are already finding it difficult to keep their businesses going, since spring is peak wedding dress shopping season.

“Having married many women in my time when I was a vicar, I am aware that this is very time sensitive,” he said. “And there is a real danger to many of these businesses that they are going to suffer enormous financial loss, let alone to the families.”

Meanwhile, the British Bridal Suppliers Association (BBSA) is advising brands to reconsider their standard delivery times as a pre-emption to suspended deliveries and to avoid customer disappointment.

This news is shocking for brides but keep calm there are vintage wedding dresses and dress makers like me that can help don’t stress there are worse things to worry about. Stay healthy and keep calm. 

The Future in Bridal Design

For bridal retailers, window displays have always been an effective way to attract potential customers – even for those boutiques who don’t accept walk-ins. They are usually the first point of visual contact that a consumer has with a boutique and the starting point of the retail experience.

However, with the new Millennial bride and rise of social media, has the virtual shop window made the physical one less effective? I spoke with several bride's from across the country to hear their opinions on the topic.

“I think over the last 10 years retail has changed dramatically. There is definitely more of a focus now on online. Social media has very much become a go-to place for customers to conduct research and plan and, because of this, I think window displays are useful but they can’t be solely relied upon,” says one girl.

“Although it is nice to have, our shop window display isn’t our main way of attracting customers. We are very lucky that our main way of enticing brides is through word of mouth, and we are extremely grateful to our current and past brides who spread the word for us.” say I, Joanne. I really appreciate it when girls take the time to recommend me to others.

Sometimes I make time to take my dresses out of the shop and put them on display at wedding fairs but its a lot of hard work and probably doesn't do the dresses any good. So my latest thoughts are that photographing the dresses and putting images online hopefully is the best way to promote them. It seems more brides are so influenced by the internet that this is the best place to focus on at present.

Learn from all your experiences if life and use your intelligence. 

But Brides be wise!! OMG I just had a man on the phone who wanted to write me 10 google views to improve my business. I told him that I thought what he was doing was dishonest & despicable!! His reply was ‘ it’s just business’! What is happening everyone seems to be lying and cheating & no one cares. 

Girls who have had a Jo Ferg experience please write a google review for me. He said I had no reviews, I have 18 google reviews. I didn’t want to say anymore to him but if we could add a few it would possibly help other potential customers. Point taken my promotion tactics aren’t great. Moral of the day learn from all your experiences. 

When you go to book anything for your wedding stop and think ‘ Am I wise??’ DON’T let people rush or pressurise you!!

Do your research and study reviews!!! Genuine reviews!! WORD OF MOUTH IS BEST!!!

As one of my brides wrote to me in response to my post about the bogus review man ( who I don’t think was Google, just some marketing man!! )

“Google don’t make lovely wedding dresses and look after brides with such personal professional attention- I believe ratings and recommendations don’t apply so much when your wonderful business is personal... I’m not sure I agree with that gentleman’s tactics either. "wordofmouth x”