The original piece is an open letter to http://hindsightbride.com/2011/10/10/open-letter-wedding-bloggers/#axzz1aZoniYIL
by a Wedding Photographer. It is an excellently well written piece. There are oodles of comments both for and against the point he/she is making.
Annabel from one of my favourite blogs "Love my dress" has written an excellent reply.
http://www.lovemydress.net/blog/2011/10/dear-wedding-photographers.html
Now this really got me thinking as I , being in the Wedding Industry and earning my living from it, have to unfortunately advertise ( until I become so famous it is no longer neccesary lol) In order to advertise at a reasonable cost you need to have editorial peices and photo shoots published. In order for a peice about you, or shoot to make it's way through the zillions of submissions piling up in editors email in boxes you have to have either an amzing angle or fit perfectlu into what is considered trendy. I go twice a year to The national Bridal Exhibition at Harrogate to do my buying of jewellery and accesories and to seek inspiration. To be honest I both LOVE the show and also despair. You see racks and racks of the same dress!! Of course this season there were copies of kate Middletons dress. Now it is a difficult one this- as a designer do I design what is popular ( and already exists by the railfull) or do I go for something a little different?? I myself tend not to shop in high street stores i buy from charity shops. I may buy something that is a current trend- but because i like it not because it is trendy. ( My current passion is scarves lol!!- lots and lots of them) My clients come to me for several reasons, a lot come to use my "Save the Day" service in order to salvage their ebay disaster dress, or just to have their gown they have bought elsewhere altered at a reasonable cost. They may indeed just come to me to hire a hoop or have the dress cleaned before or after the wedding. Customers who come to me to have a dress made come for two reasons - well three actually. One- they can not find what they want on the high street in the right size and know that custom made will work out more cost effective in the long run.. Two they can not find what they want at all. Three thay can find it but way out of their budget.
Many of my clients are sent via previous clients reccomendation. Some find an image of my work in the media and track me down- two of this weeks clients travvelled in excess of three hours to see me.
I absolutely love my job- it is my passion. My children and husband love to see the way it makes me feel. I always build a strong rapport with every client , I often get invited to their weddings and in many cases remain freinds long after the dressmaking process is over. All my clients are different, some have small weddings some huge. some have spent over £1000 on a dress they bring me to alter, some have spent £89 on ebay. AND let me tell you the dress budget in no way reflects the rest of the budget- I have a current £89 ebay dress client ( whose dress now i have altered it to fit!!- added accesories, shoes and a matching coat- now looks amazing!!) her wedding is huge at a top priced venue- the dress was just not as important to her as having an extra 50 guests there.Anyway as i was saying all my clients are different and every wedding in their eyes is perfect. I myself am so happy to have been a part of that day wether i designed the entire theme or just ensured the dress had the correct hoop under it! Strangely even though I have done full on medieval weddings, burlesque ( avec fishnets and tiny top hats) vintage 1930's , 1950's . Lime green brides, red brides etc non of my work is featured in any blogs ( apart from each photographers own) Non of my brides have been in any national magazines or any of the mainstream wedding blogs. Now after reading The Love my dress response and the original piece, it set me thinking........??? Why is this??? Is it because my dresses were not exceptional?? ( if I say so myself no!) was the photography underpar???- NO!! were the venues boring?? No were the details too few or uninteresting?? No!! So why????? I tell you why cos non of my brides to my knowledge have ever submitted their big day to a blog. Some of them did not even follow blogs!! or belong to a forum of other brides to be- shock horror!! Why is this- do they think they are a different??- answer yes- many say I just do not want to be the same as all the stuff in magazines etc. Some think that they must be diffrent and that maybe there wedding would not be the type of thing that would be featured. Now a lot of editors and bloggers tell me that if they featured normal weddings no one would be interested. However are we now getting to the stage where a wedding with - what was it the poster hated-
- mason jars
- burlap
- wild flowers
- vintage suitcases
- stuffed initials
- feathers
- distant mountains
- tea-length dresses
- hand-made signs
- and fields
I think it is more about the type of person who submits a wedding to a blog in order to submit, you must want to be on it and in order to want to be on it you must like it and in that case by default you will probably have had the kind of wedding already popular on that type of blog. Maybe I should start my own blog for all those Medieval, Victorian, Burlesque etc clients out there. The question is how many are there?? Enough for me to earn a living and surely they do not all find me there must be more out there. But as they either are not submitting their blogs or they are being turned away, we will never know. ......Dare to be different!!! ( and call me lol!!! www.bexbrides.co.uk)
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