Coronavirus weddings, 'hoping against HOPE to tie the knot in 2020

What's the future hold for weddings in Northern Ireland?
Faith, Hope and Love, so often part of the speech on wedding days.
There was heart ache and joy and the recognition that the N Ireland politicians do have hearts when a terminally-ill bride-to-be's cousin Vivienne persuaded the authorities to grant the couple their wishes and let them marry with six people  attending ( including the bride and groom and registrar) and a video-link to allow other members of their family participate. Restores our Faith in humanity.


As more retailers are being allowed to open what will it mean for bridal shops?
Can we all work together to make things feasible? Before lockdown I asked a bride to use the hand sanitizer on entering my premises and she refused, I still can't believe it!! For my bridal shop to survive will I have to sell off the peg wedding dresses without brides-to-be trying on? Or will I have to have 72 hours between try ons so that no covid-19 still is on the fabric? I have plenty of space and could use different areas to let brides-to-be try on and then leave the dresses sitting for at least 72 hours. I could wear PPE so that I could fit a dress!!

While some brides are happy to re-arrange for later in the year, others are still holding out hope for a summer wedding. "Many brides don't want to change their wedding plans too soon in case lockdown is lifted. But no one knows how long this is going to last."

And brides are feeling the strain too. "Usually when I meet a bride, they are beaming and jumping for joy but having these conversations now is very different. Some of them are very upset and crying, others are very despondent," Hang in there girls we must have HOPE

If fact already Northern Ireland aims to allow small outdoor weddings from 8th June, with fewer than ten people attending. I have already had one of my brides mothers phone me to say they are going to have a smaller wedding and so now they want the bride to have the dress of her dreams and they would like me to be the one to make her her special dress.

With churches, hotels and beauty spots closed down due to the government-imposed restrictions, brides are struggling to find a suitable new venue for a summer wedding should the cermonies be allowed by say the end of August.

Meanwhile, wedding venues, wedding décor businesses, cake makers, musicians and florists - all of which were shut down as non-essential - are having mixed fortunes due to the pandemic.

Will more couples reduce their wedding numbers for them to be allowed to go ahead with a smaller more intimate wedding, the wedding industry is in chaos, can LOVE see us through?

My Lockdown Birthday

Another birthday, time goes in so fast, I don't really do birthdays as it reminds us that we have less time left to do all the things we want to. I remember when I had just finished my degree show and the NI Embroidery Guild asked me to talk at one of their meetings saying there were just not enough hours to my day, I'm still saying the same. You would think with this world pandemic and lockdown I would have managed to do at least some of the things I had never found time to do, but there is always something that happens. I thought my March, April, May would be filled with all the wedding work that was on my to do list but as weddings were cancelled my Dad took ill and passed. Now I have more time to reflect and more time to think about what I do to make good use of my time. Time is precious and we don't always stop and take time to think that none of us know how long we have got on this earth.

Take nature, we watch the dandelions in our garden and the grow and bloom and blossom and with one blow of wind they fly away. Flowers never last long, yet they are so beautiful and amazing how they grow.

Birds seem to chirp and dart around the sky more so during this crisis as we have time to look and listen.

This little picture I have, inspired by nature, is something I have from Mum. The flowers in the foreground are tiny stitches and knots , a representation of our gardens in full bloom. A joy to look at to remind us of summer in the long dark winter nights and be past from generation to generation.

Health and Happiness have to be our wealth.

This is the first birthday I have had since my Mum and Dad have both passed. Things that you have of theirs and memories you have have more significance. This little bag, hand sewed by my Mum is so worn and used that to someone else it might seem of little importance, makes me realise something I embroider now might be kept for years to come with real meaning.

I used toi making wedding dresses which are special for one day maybe its time I did some embroidery pieces that can be enjoyed everyday for far longer.

Virtual Tour of my Shop

With the shutters shut and my shop empty times are strange!!

The Fitting Room

Normally this time of year I'm busy with fittings for my weddings for the year but that's noit happening May 2020.
With the nation anticipating Boris Johnson’s economic road to recovery strategy later this week, I thought it was a good time to discuss how the new normal might look once I can open the shop again.

Brides haven’t stopped searching for their dress or thinking about their weddings.

There are currently three type of brides:

• Brides who are already your customer – these include brides who have postponed their weddings/fittings and brides whose gowns have arrived or been ordered
• Brides who have visited your store and tried on dresses, but not purchased
• Brides who are unaware of your brand

I understand your fears/concerns and I am putting in place the correct measures to guarantee that you are safe when you come to collecting/buying their gown.

While I cannot predict the future, or the ’right’ way to do things, I can be sure that we won’t return to business as usual.

Side entrance

HYGIENE- I want to encourage everyone to be as healthy and safe as possible so I have dispensers at the entrances and exits. I want to encourage everyone to limit interactions with door handles and cash. I hope when you have an appointment that you will be happy to use the hand sanitizers on arrival and that I can only allow "ONE STAR GUEST". As I only have one appointment at a time in my shop so this should reassure you that you will not come into contact with another bride. I will stagger appointments and allow enough time at the end of each visit to clean all soft furnishings, floors and gowns.

Plenty of room for fittings

Maybe I should think about Virtual Experiences, like a Virtual Bridal Appointment, where you might see dresses that I have in my shop. Maybe we could discuss over the phone what it is that you think you are interested in and I then could show you examples.

To start I thought why not take you on a tour of my shop.

"Bee the reason someone smiled today"

"Be the reason someone smiled today" was on the notice board as I sat beside my Dad in AandE at the Ulster Hospital on 4th March 2020 this year. I remember the next day coming into work and doing a post on my Instagram page as it resonated with me. I am always inspired by nature and I remember hearing somewhere that there is a bee that is unique to the Ards Peninsula where I come from that is called the Black Bee. More and more I have been embroidering bees in my work as you can probably see on my posts on social media.

Everytime I embroider an outfit of my own a bee seems to appear on it some where.

For bees the flower is the fountain of life. For flowers the bee is the messenger of love. 

A couple from" God's own country",Valentine & Chris Hodges keep more than 100 hives on the Ards Peninsula. They became increasingly aware of the threats from imported bees and the spread of the varroa mite which was effecting the native black bee, which had almost gone extinct. They have made a haven for the black bee.

                                                  “The busy bee has no time for sorrow”

A lot of my bees in these photos I have worked on black. I have to admit my cashmere jumpers ended up with some bees after a month got in and decided to do some damage!! 

My brides may not all be aware when they see me sporting my ensembles with my bees that the reason the bee is there is because it hides a wee hole!! With me having been in lockdown I have been working on a sampler for the NHS and I have managed to be in my garden and noticed the bees enjoying the April sunshine so yet again a bee has appeared on my work.

This is part on my sampler I am working to raise money for the NHS, please visit my Facebook page (my private page) if you want to be in with your chance of receiving this embroidery sampler to give to someone you would like to say THANK YOU to!!