After the lockdowns, bridal retailers had to change the way they worked. Gone were the drinks, the hugs. The facial expressions were hidden behind masks and it was the end of ‘The Bride Tribe’.
Before Covid, brides would arrange their appointments and gather together their bride tribe for a day of wedding dress shopping. It was normal for brides to plan 3 or 4 appointments in a day of all the bridal boutiques in their area and along with their ‘tribe’ they would make the most of the whole experience. After all – choosing your wedding dress should be a day to remember. But then things changed.
When we were able to reopen our doors we were ecstatic, we had so missed being surrounded by brides and our gorgeous collection of gowns. It was amazing to be open again even with the new, more restricted guidelines. No longer were we able to have a shop full of brides, bridesmaids, mothers, sisters, mother in laws, daughters ( and the occasional father ). Brides were having to come with one guest, because of this they were choosing to bring just their mum, or their sister, or best friend. The appointments became more intimate and more emotional and whilst we missed the excitement and energy of big groups it was nice to have just the opinion and feedback on a one to one basis. We also found brides were choosing just one shop to visit and so many found their dress in that first appointment, it was a very welcomed boost to small businesses that had been shut for so long.
Since September we are noticing the trend for the bride tribe is slowly returning, brides are often coming to us after having visited 3 or 4 other local boutiques, or that instead of finding a dress and saying YES they need to book a second appointment before deciding, we are slowly returning to the pre-pandemic ways of shopping.
This made us wonder, is the decision harder when you have more opinions ? What if you LOVE a dress but a member of the bride tribe doesn’t, would that influence your choice ?
How did you buy your dress ? were you in a tribe or did you come with one ‘VIP’ ? We would love to hear your experiences.
Cat Cooper and her bride tribe – February 2020