#WeddingWednesday - Invitation Only

And so to our wedding invites. Ever since Rich proposed I had my heart set on ordering our wedding invites from Becky Lord Design. I've been following her on Instagram for ages, impressed by her visual aesthetic, use of colour and all round friendly tone. Her Fetti wedding stationary was one of the first pictures to make it on to my secret Wedding Pinterest board.

We ordered her stationary pack from Etsy so we could see the samples of her House Collection wedding stationary before we made a final decision. When it arrived I felt like I had been sent a gift: beautifully presented, the wedding stationary samples were wrapped in tissue paper and a free pencil with heart soaring inspirational wording was included to boot. How's that for business branding?!

With some wedding related decisions it's been instant: the church for instance, having fish & chips at our wedding breakfast was another swift choice. But other decisions have felt really hard to make - even though Fetti had been my original choice, we deliberated over Writer and Bodoni for 3 hours one Sunday morning. The hardest thing about organising our wedding has been keeping a fixed idea about what our wedding means to us - everyone has an opinion, is quick to tell you what they did, and in the nicest possible way tell you what you shouldn't do. So that's why I dithered from my original wedding invite decision: were we more of a Writer wedding? What would the Bodoni set say about our nuptials? Then at the bottom of the wedding stationary pack we uncovered The Huxley: a simple, rustic, come as you are kind of invite. Was that 'us'?

To clear my head I sat down one morning and did a moodboard for our wedding - pictures of what the venue will look like, swatches of material from Rich's suit and my dress, a picture of the wedding car I'll be transported to the service in. Nope - Fetti it was but with a change of colour palette. After what seemed like a gazillion emails from me starting in February and running into May, Becky, with endless patience, mocked up a Fetti invite and BOOM - it matched the feeling of our wedding:

chic and elegant yet informal and friendly

There is now less than 4 months until I become 'Mrs Brown' and I cannot wait to send out our invites when they arrive this Friday!! 

Speed Shopping

I recently changed my Personal Shopping service. "That's not exactly news" you may think but believe me, it is. Personal Shopping used to take a whole day, it was draining, for both myself and the client and I wanted to find a better way. Then Katie booked me and the better way was found. 

Katie HATES shopping. Hates, detests, would probably rather rip her own finger nails out than hit the shops. Last summer, the first time she booked me, she needed an outfit for a wedding, a outfit for the Hen Do and some clothes for her job but like I said, hates shopping so a 6 hour shopping trip wasn't going to cut it. I created a SPEED SHOPPING trip lasting 3 hours but promised her we'd get everything. It was a tall order but we pulled it off. 

This year Katie requested a dress for the wedding evening do and wanted to re-style the coral dress for the day. The process became quicker and slicker:

• I set up a Pinterest board in advance for us both to pin on. This interactive tool allowed us to comment on both colour schemes and clothing types before we hit the shops. And it was as easy as texting to do on our phones.

We were re-using a coral lace dress from the previous year so I suggested teaming it with blue. 

• We were scheduled to shop from 5pm-8pm so I headed into Leeds a couple of hours before and sent her photos of the items I was considering for her so she could comment on them straight away. 

This Karen Millen dress for the evening do was inspired - Katie has a long body so the proportions fit her perfectly. Plus she can throw a jacket over the top and wear it for work AND put a jumper over the top turning it into a skirt.

We visited the shops in an order that meant no walking back on ourselves to save time and even though I'd thrown in some curveballs to push the boundaries (all hail the jumpsuit), we were done in 1.5 hours - shoes, bag, jewellery and dress. 

Interested? Please check out my website for more details. 

Slopping my creative juices

For nearly 3 years I got away with being The Wardrobe Angel doing hardly any outfit posts. Weird, right? I turned up at client’s houses, and was greeted with "you look great” or “I love your necklace/skirt/bag (delete as appropriate)” or “where did you get that?” But I always shied away from taking the joy of these compliments and transferring them into outfit posts.

I was adamant when I set up The Wardrobe Angel that I wouldn't do those wanky selfies, those boasting posts of “look what I'm wearing today.”  In the face of all this fast fashion consumption, weekly style trends and outfit of the day (#ootd) Instagram shots, I felt how I dressed was going against the grain: I do more with less, I create different ways to wear, some of my wardrobe is nearly 10 years old, I rarely go shopping.

But then I met the wonderful coach Jennifer Potter of Simply JP coaching and in 10 minutes she had me reaching for my phone to capture my outfit. She asked me point blank “what makes you different?” And I answered “I'm where fashion meets style meets sustainability.” Not hard at all. She then asked me what was holding me back. Simples. “Me” Another quick fire question “Why?”

She had me right there – confidence. Until this month I have had a huge lack of confidence putting ‘my style’ out there. So Jen offered me a lifeline and I took it – she suggested making the outfit posts about the clothes rather than me to inspire other people so when they looked at what I was posting they would think “Ah ha! I’ve got a skirt like that – I’m going to style it like The Wardrobe Angel today.”

And since then it’s been like a dam breaking and I've been slopping my creative fashion juices all over the style steaks on Instagram, Facebook, and this here blog (check out the Outfits page next door.)

I can’t recommend Jen highly enough – please check out her website by clicking here to find out how she can help you too.

Getting for bang for your wedding buck

Weddings are big business: the dress, the flowers, the food, the drink, the rings, the honeymoon....  Over 230,000 people walk down the aisle in the UK each year to the tune of £18,000 (the average cost of a wedding in the UK.)* Jaw-droppingly expensive! With all the "love" (read: money spent) it's really easy to see why people sell their wedding dresses (typically the most expensive item in the wedding) after the main event. But what about taking it one step further? People nowadays are more creatively involved in their own weddings sourcing table decorations, props, signs, suitcases (the 'in' thing in which guests leave cards in) but along with planning the wedding and sourcing all these individual props people also have lives to lead and often, little time to lead them in.

And here's where SELL MY WEDDING comes in, like a knight in a shining wedding dress and saves the day (read: money). Not only can you sell items from your wedding on here, recouping your costs, but you can also buy items for your wedding on here, making your wedding more affordable. The self-styled online wedding marketplace has over 500 completed transactions every year which just shows how successful it is.

Photography by Ally Byrom

Here's why I love SELL MY WEDDING and have already recommended it to clients and friends:

• It's fairly priced: registration to sell is only £10. You can list an unlimited number of wedding items, there are no individual listing fees, no sales commission and items won't expire until they have been sold. 
• You can Pin to Pinterest from the site - a great source of inspiration and fun when planning your own wedding deciding what you do and don't want.
• It's authentic.

After the glow of a wedding has faded you must look at the photobooth props you bought and think "am I ever going to use these again?" And that's where the authenticity and heritage of this site comes in: Rebecca Aspin set up SELL MY WEDDING after discovering bits and bobs from her wedding 3 years after the event and realised she would never use them again. That resonated hugely with me: I set up The Wardrobe Angel after my own personal experience of rapidly downsizing my own wardrobe.

Rebecca in her wedding dress shot by Simon Kench

When is the best time to sell your wedding dress?

"Straight away," says Rebecca, "with a dress sell it as soon as you can - it will still be in the shops and on-trend which will make it attractive to buyers to get it at a lower price. You can also sell bridesmaid dresses and we recently added a HIRE function so you can rent pieces for a day, rather than buy them outright."

And what make of dress sells the best?

"Jenny Packham. They retail at £3000 but sell for £1500 on Sell My Wedding."

Ally Byrom Photography

What's the best day to become a seller?

"On a Sunday. We have up to 1000 unique visitors per day."

What's selling well this month?

"DIY stuff - things people have made that other people don't have time or the creativity to make for themselves. Reception decor - particularly bunting, signs and paper lanterns along with centrepieces and vases. Vintage crockery is also very popular alongside vintage props such as suitcases and old fashioned sweetie scoops."

Photography by Ally Byrom

As mentioned there is no commission - all the sellers money is theirs (unlike with eBay) so it's win-win!

Check out SELL MY WEDDING here!

*Telegraph 2013

Baukjen, you beauty

My phone pinged with a message yesterday morning. As I looked at the screen I smiled an ear to ear grin. This was the kind of message that makes my job as The Wardrobe Angel feel AWESOME. It was a photo message from a client of her wearing one of the dresses I had recommended to her on her follow up Shopping List. It was early and she was dressed to give a presentation that day.  She felt “AMAZING.”

This is what makes me different from other image consultants and stylists, one of my USP’s if you will (the other is eBay but we’ll cover that in another post). It’s all very well saying to clients “this style of dress will really suit you” or “you need some find some trousers in this style” when odds are the client has neither time nor shopping fervour to go out and find them. A lot of my clients are pushed for time and/or have never had much success with shopping and that’s why they have called me in the first place.  They want answers:  how to organise their wardrobe and style themselves, how to save time getting dressed and make money from the items they no longer wear. What they don’t want are more futile shopping trips and wasted money on ‘meh’ purchases. 

After I have sorted a wardrobe and ascertained the ‘gaps’, I put my knowledge and expertise to work to fill them for the client. That’s why I included the Shopping List as part of the Sort, Style and Sell service (click here for more information). I do all the leg work – checking sizing, availability, seeing if I can get them a discount. Then I send them the Shopping List via email. This is done in tandem alongside a Pinterest board so they can see how their new wardrobe will fit together.

So back to the dress which made my client feel “AMAZING.” Which one was it? The Baukjen Jersey Drape dress. It is double layered so it “holds and contours the figure” which translates as YOU DON’T NEED SHAPEWEAR. My client vouched for this, the rest of her message said 

“The material is thick and wraps around, sucking me in. I have a presentation this morning and it feels great!”

Job well done, Baukjen!

A (male) client has their say...

"So here I am…In the last 2 years I have been made redundant, become director of my own company and after a long wait, received full custody of my 14yr old daughter. As you can imagine, it has been a real time of change. Surprisingly, the biggest challenge has been to discover my brand. I have always dressed for the occasion, I find that I cannot truly relax and be myself if I do not feel comfortable in what I wear. Enter the Wardrobe Angel…How do I combine my love of skating and the outdoors with being a business man? I am turning 40 and I don’t seem to feel comfortable in my style!

Stephanie arrived at my house at 9.30am and over a quick cuppa discussed my homework. Stephanie had put together a Pinterest board for me, containing images of different outfits, styles and fashion tips. I had a good look and gave her some feedback on what I liked and didn't like. This on its own was a great help, the images were of men my age and showed me that “business dress” did not have to be the corporate suit: it could be expressive, comfortable and still look professional. We finished our cuppa and dove into my wardrobe… I was so nervous at this point you would not believe, even though I had given Stephanie permission to be blunt (gulp!).

Stephanie was amazing, kind, encouraging and knowledgeable. We spent the morning going through my clothes with a fine tooth comb, ditching the “strong no’s” and keeping the “definitely’s”. I learned about pattern size, what shirts I should be wearing, textures and best of all accessorising…yes, 40 yr. old men can accessorise! I felt great, better than I had felt in years!! At first I felt a little silly but with some gentle coaching from Stephanie, I started to enjoy myself and get into it.  Stephanie took away all of the “strong no’s” to donate to charity and left me with a wardrobe full of potential and the new me.

Stephanie continues to inspire me by updating my Pinterest board with new suggestions and my gorgeous girlfriend has arranged for Stephanie to be my personal shopper for the day as a birthday present. I can’t wait!! Everyone should experience the Wardrobe Angel and I mean everyone!!"

Sugar Free ... I'm trying....

I was updating my Pinterest board Tea and Food when I found loads of Tina Yelle's gorgeous looking food pins which lead me to her healthy blog about sugar-free foods. I have been obsessed with sugar-free for a while now but articles around sugar and it's dangers have been circulating for a while.

Easy Chocolate Avocado Pudding from Tina Yelle A Healthy Baking Blog

Years ago Elle magazine featured an article in the Beauty pages entitled "Kick that sugar habit, sweetie". The main thrust of the piece was that sugar is bad for your complexion: increasing lines, dehydrating your pores and making you age. Me and my sweet tooth though "pah!" and off I went to buy some more Haribo. But when I started running and training for mega miles I started to take a bit more care of my diet which eventually lead me to give up dairy and wheat and now sugar (it is SO HARD though - I have launched myself off the wagon many a time...)

Tina gave up sugar when she was having gall bladder attacks due to an Auto Immune Disorder. Both excessive consumption of sugar and gluten are linked to gall bladder disease so taking her health into her own hands she began to give up sugar. Now Tina is a Mom to 3 boys and they found it hard to adjust to the family's new healthy lifestyle but Tina persevered.

Coconut-Butter Cup from Tina Yelle a Healthy Baking Blog

Tina and I had a Skype chat and this is what I discovered, amongst other things:

• She has always been a good baker.
• She did a lot of research before baking for the blog - working with previously unknown substances such as coconut and almond flour.
• She is now writing a sugar-free cupcake book

Her blog is lovingly designed and easy to navigate and so not preachy preachy in a way that some dietary blogs can be. It is Tina's hard work and passion for a healthier life which permeates through all her recipes. And her journey really isn't about the weight loss - an awesome side effect of giving up sugar nonetheless - it really is about living a healthier life. 

Sugar Free Mango Ice Pops from Tina Yelle A Healthy Baking Blog

Her recipes are easy, simple ways to create foods you already eat without consuming sugar.

Check out her Healthy Baking blog here. Follow her on Twitter here.