Viral social media post inspires bridal shop owner to host modelling sessions
The owner of a bridal shop Cinderella’s based in Skipton was inspired to host an event where women of all ages and sizes can try on a wedding dress after one of her friends who has stage four breast cancer modelled 12 of her dresses as part of her bucket list.
Transcript
00:00 My name's Marleese Fuchs, but everybody calls me Molly.
00:04 Originally in 2020, I was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer
00:09 and I created a bucket list, or a living list.
00:13 And the third one on my list was to try on a wedding dress
00:19 because I've been engaged twice, not three times, twice
00:23 and I've never been married.
00:24 And Lucy, who's been here today, she knew Mandy that had this shop
00:33 and she asked Mandy if I could try on wedding dresses.
00:36 So Mandy let me try on wedding dresses.
00:38 My mum came, my sister came, Lucy came, as well as two other people.
00:44 And I got to try on 12 dresses.
00:47 And then after that, Mandy opened it up for other ladies
00:51 that haven't been married, have been married.
00:53 And yeah, I got to try on other dresses every year since that
01:00 and it's been brilliant.
01:02 Now I have jeans on, boots on, I wear sweatshirts.
01:07 I am not a girly girl, but when I get a wedding dress on, I am a girl.
01:11 I love it.
01:13 I'm coming up to 59 and this is so special.
01:18 It is just, it's just like having a wedding without the man.
01:23 Like I say, it's just brilliant.
01:25 Not that I'm against men, but it's lovely.
01:29 It's just really nice and I don't have to pay 20 grand for a wedding.
01:31 I am Mandy Abramson and we are Cinderella's in Skipton.
01:36 We are celebrating 25 years in business this year.
01:39 So we've been going a long, long time and I am the residence seamstress.
01:42 I do all the alterations in store as well.
01:44 Twice a year, we have a little event where we ask the girls to come down,
01:48 do a bit of modelling for me.
01:50 I get great content for social media.
01:52 Everybody really enjoys themselves.
01:54 And we ask anybody who hasn't worn a dress or wants to just simply try one on
01:59 to come down, put on one dress.
02:01 We take a photograph.
02:02 It's very informal, lots of giggling and we put them on social media
02:05 and everybody has an absolute blast.
02:07 And we do it twice a year when we go quiet.
02:10 Yeah, the inspiration came from my friend Molly, who you have met.
02:14 And we did a photo shoot with her because she was ticking things off a bucket list.
02:18 And the comments that we got from the Facebook post were phenomenal.
02:22 We didn't get a lot of, oh, that's a lovely dress.
02:24 We got, you look beautiful coming through.
02:26 And that really gave Molly a boost.
02:28 We thought it was phenomenal.
02:30 But we did get a lot of comments coming through saying,
02:32 I've never worn a wedding dress.
02:33 I would have loved to have done that.
02:35 I'd like to come and try one on.
02:36 So it gave us the inspiration to do this.
02:39 So as I say, twice a year, it doesn't matter what age, shape, size they are.
02:42 It really doesn't matter.
02:43 We're basically doing it to try and boost women's confidence.
02:46 And on all the comments that we see under the posts,
02:49 you never say, that's a lovely dress.
02:51 It is always, you look great.
02:52 And that's exactly what we do it for.
02:54 And we've done it for the last two years.
02:56 So I would say we've done it four or five times now.
02:59 And it's always a great deal of fun.
03:01 I think the youngest we've had so far was a young girl who was 17.
03:05 And I think we've had a lady in her 80s.
03:07 Certainly my friend Chrissie came down.
03:08 She's in her 80s.
03:09 So any age, shape, size doesn't matter.
03:12 And they all go out feeling fabulous and looking great.
03:15 It's brilliant fun.
03:16 We all love it.
03:17 It's such good fun.
03:18 We don't have anybody go out feeling miserable.
03:21 And we get people all the time coming up to me in the street going,
03:24 oh, do you know what?
03:25 I was buzzing all week.
03:26 It's been absolutely great.
03:28 I felt amazing.
03:29 And that's what it's about.
03:30 That's exactly what it's about, a bit of body positivity.
03:32 I'm so fed up of girls coming in going, I don't like my arms.
03:35 I don't like this about myself.
03:37 Why?
03:37 Why are you worried what other people think?
03:39 You shouldn't be.
03:40 Yes.
03:41 We had fun.
03:49 Yeah.
03:49 It's Mandy.
03:52 Thank you, Mandy.
03:52 Thank you, Liza.