Today we have lots to share with you in the run up to the Harrogate show. Last night was our pre-show meeting where everyone who is attending the show got together and had a good look at all the new products we will be showing at BBEH. All of us were so impressed by the talents of our design team who have pulled off what we consider to be our best collection yet, full of newly sourced fabrics and crystals formed into stunning new creations that we are sure you won’t see anywhere else. For more on the new collections keep checking back for sneak peaks in up-coming blogs.
This blog is devoted to the history of our visits to BBEH, which is the biggest and best event in the bridal wear calendar. We are pleased to be celebarting our 25th anniversary this year, making this show extra special for us and our customers.
Although we haven’t always had the size of stands that we have now, we have always tried to make them look beautiful, to show our products off to their greatest potential, as well as creating a memorable experience for those that visit us.
We attended our first show in 1991 when we branched out from floristry into floral headdresses. Some of you may remember that most exhibitors showed in the hotels rather than in the Harrogate International Centre, and we had a window bay of the dining room in the St George Hotel. We were very happy to move into the exhibition centre which improved the look and feel of the show, creating an altogether more professional atmosphere. In March of 1991, founder Elaine brought her son Ben to the show who was just 4 months old and apparently attracted many people onto the stand! Now he is working as a milliner in the company and claims that his first job here was in sales!
Since we moved to Hall M in the exhibition centre, we have stayed put as we love the light and bright atmosphere that it lends. We have expanded as space around us has come available, moving from 8sq m to around 180sq m! We have found that the show has improved over the years with the quality of the items on display much higher than in the early 90s.
We consider ourselves veterans of the show as we have attended so many, and we take the whole process very seriously from the design of the stands to the appearance of ourselves. We bet you won’t have noticed the hidden ‘cupboard’ we have behind one of our stands, which we use as an area where staff can rest when they are tired. We love that our exhibition team work so well together as well as having fun at the show and we make sure that we look after them as best we can.
We absolutely love meeting old and new customers alike and we are genuinely proud of the work we do and the products that we make. We hope that you enjoy coming to see us too!
Richard Designs will be exhibiting at the BBEH on stands M33, M28, M29 and M30.
Other blogs in the BBEH series:
How the new collection is shaping up…[...read more]
Our hat in BBEH prize draw…[...read more]
This week we continue to celebrate the past 25 years of Richard Designs by looking at how the company transformed from local bridal florists to a national bridal wear accessories supplier. I caught up with founder and Managing Director Elaine Dicks to find out more.
How did you go about changing the focus of the business?
What was your inspiration?
Style-wise it was big fluffy dresses, puffy sleeves and 3 tier, heavily embroidered veils. Hats were great and we pressed 100 – 150 a week in the mid 1990s. When they started to go out of fashion, that’s when tiaras started to come in. They were all gold – no one wanted silver, not like today. Gold with clear or AB crystals, white or ivory pearls was what people wanted.
