Jade Richardson-Gage, the owner of Engaged Bridal Studio, on Horsley Hill Square in South Shields, has given an insight into how the first seven months of running her business has gone.
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00:00So I got married back in 2017 and I was looking for an off-the-peg designer dress. I had quite
00:07expensive taste but not the budget for that taste. So I was looking around all of the big
00:15outlets, the big factory outlets, and when I went I just felt that it wasn't a very personalised
00:21experience. There was other brides getting dressed at the same time, there was other family members
00:26that could see me trying dresses on, and I just wanted that boutique experience. I found a boutique
00:34up in Moorbeth that was just a pop-up shop off the peg, ran by a designer from a Newcastle store,
00:43and when I went in I just knew, like I just got the feeling in that shop that I just knew
00:49that was what was my vision straight from there really. The ladies were just so lovely,
00:55there were such a lovely range of dresses and they were all designer dresses but all under
01:00£1,000 at that shop. I just thought that's what we need more of, we need to have that
01:08boutique experience but without that designer price tag sometimes. So that was kind of the
01:17the dream started back in 2017, and then from then really after my wedding it was just
01:26kind of get the plans in motion, what can I do, how can I do it. I'm new to the whole industry so
01:32I did a lot of planning. I went to go and open in 2020 when I was on maternity leave but obviously
01:40with everything happening the wedding dress industry, well the wedding industry sorry,
01:44just collapsed. So I thought right okay it's not my time, I know it will happen but it's not my
01:49time at the moment. So yeah 2023 got the push, I was on maternity again and family, friends,
02:00my husband just said if you don't do it now it's not going to happen, go for it. And yeah it was
02:07like a whirlwind kind of six months. From the open day that was just absolutely incredible and
02:13had so many people in the studio, like you couldn't move around at one point, everyone
02:17came it was so so amazing for the local support. From then I've pretty much had most weekends fully
02:25booked because we are appointment only so I can give the bridal experience and the private time
02:31with you and the bride and our family. We're run on appointments and I've had such like huge
02:39interest for appointments and it's just been absolutely amazing. I'm loving it, I'm literally
02:46living the dream. I'm starting to get some of my brides have turned into from engaged brides
02:52to real brides. So they're now starting to recommend their friends and family members
02:58who are getting engaged. So I feel like that is a huge win because knowing that I've given someone
03:04such a good experience and they've absolutely loved the time here and love the dress they've
03:08left with. To then pass that on to someone else to recommend them to come here that's what that's
03:13what I live for and that's what I want. Yeah so five star reviews, they're all on the Facebook
03:20pages but yeah feedback's been incredible. Just before I started I contacted quite a few local
03:27businesses, wedding industry, all in the wedding industry so local wedding dress shops, local venues,
03:34florists and just asked for kind of advice and information and I just thought I could pay that
03:39back. So with the success of the open evening I just thought this is what I want. I want lots of
03:47people in here, I want to hold events to make it a space where people can celebrate each
03:55other, celebrate local businesses. So I started with a small event, well it was supposed to be
04:01small in January and had lots of local suppliers and it was such a huge success that we repeated
04:08that and only a few weeks ago at the beginning of June I held another one-stop bridal event
04:14and we had a photographer, florist, loads of different makeup artists and loads of different
04:23suppliers, local suppliers as well to try and keep it local within South Tyneside, to try and keep it
04:29local within the North East and that was such a massive success so I'm definitely planning on
04:37planning on doing more of them. I think that'll be something that we could do a few times a year
04:44to just celebrate weddings in the North East, celebrate weddings in South Tyneside and bring
04:50suppliers together because sometimes if you're just in your own studio as a photographer or a
04:57florist or in a wedding dress shop like this you can be working alone quite a lot so I think that
05:04if we build links, collaborate and there's lots of fun things happening from that. We're
05:09going to be having a photo shoot, finding a local venue that's up and coming and we're
05:15going to have a photo shoot there so yeah kind of watch this space on that because there's lots
05:20happening. This is the start, this is the start of the dream, this is the start of Engage Bridal and
05:25from here I want to be the destination where people find out they're getting married
05:32and they say right we're going to book a venue, then we're going to look for wedding
05:36dresses, we'll need to go to Engage so this is just the start of building the reputation
05:43and building brides and getting more people in, getting the word out there that we're here
05:50and then yeah expansion further down the line but not just yet, so expansion so I can
05:57have more dresses because I'm like obsessed with getting wedding dresses in. But that's
06:02all the plans for the next five years possibly in the future franchises but at the moment I'm
06:09happy with having exclusive wedding dresses so we don't have prom dresses, we don't have
06:15bridesmaids dresses, I wanted to keep it very very niche, we're going to have just wedding
06:21dresses for now. It's not to say that in the future we won't but for now it's wedding dress only.
06:26Anything else you'd like to add?
06:29I just want to say how amazing it's been and thank you so much for the support,
06:33thank you for the support of all the local people, all the local suppliers,
06:38thank you to the Gazette as well for the support that you've had, that you've given me
06:43but yeah thank you and if anyone is looking for an off the peg wedding dress let me know.