A Merseyside bridal shop has been helping women find their dream dresses for almost 30 years.
Located off Pilch Lane in Huyton, Natalie Ann Brides first opened its doors back in 1994, but the family business has a longer history working in the industry. Owned by mum-of-three Karen Bleasdale and named after her daughter Natalie Ann McDonald, Karen started designing and creating gowns for brides-to-be in the family home before expanding and opening a bridal shop.
Over the years, Karen has made around a thousand wedding dresses by hand for brides special days. Natalie came on board with the business 14 years ago and has since been helping to run the shop and their social media, which now boasts over 20,000 followers on Instagram alone.
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Karen, 60, told the ECHO: "We did used to own and run a childrenswear manufacturing company as well so I designed and manufactured childrenswear for about seven or eight years. I went on maternity leave and then we sold the business and I worked from home then making wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses for anybody who wanted them.
"It was 1994 and I'd been doing quite a lot of weddings from home and this premises became available and I just went for it. I t actually was a hardware fancy good store, but it was in the 90s and we did it all in lemon and blue.
"It had the half wallpaper and borders on and blue carpet. It was literally the ground floor store, we had outside toilets and then we expanded every couple of years."
As a child, Natalie, now 38, remembers coming into the shop and trying on outfits, as well as the accessories they used to offer from bridal hats to frilly umbrellas. She told the ECHO: "I remember as a little girl, I was probably only eight at the time, we had brides knocking on our home front door for their fitting, so I've always been around it myself with my mum.
"I used to go to Malvern school which is a walk away and at 3.30pm I’d walk around when I was old enough to come into the shop and I used to try on the tiaras and every now and then try on the bridesmaid dresses."
Up until ten years ago, Karen would design and create the gowns and said she must have made around a thousand wedding dresses over the years, not including bridesmaid or communion dresses. She said since the shop opened in the early 1990s, wedding dress trends have continued to change.
Karen said: "Back then it had been the big princess dresses, the bo-peep style with puffy sleeves. A line also started becoming more popular when we first opened and princess line and as lot more straighter dresses."
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Back in the day, Natalie said brides-to-be would also bring a physical printed out photo for inspiration before the age of camera phones, but that trends are ever changing. She said: "I remember when I first started here 14 years ago and my mum created her own signature bridesmaid range. One of them just flew off the peg but they were made to measure, so she would make one sample and it was in fuchsia pink, that was the colour at the time.
"It had a fuchsia flower one shoulder and every bride that came in wanted that for her wedding so I think the whole of Liverpool were in her bridesmaid design in fuchsia pink. There would be multiple orders so mum would be making those dresses all day, we went through a lot of pink cotton."
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When Natalie joined the business, the team decided to take the plunge and modernise Natalie Ann Brides, going manufactural and focusing on just bridal and bridesmaid dresses. Natalie said it's "the best thing they ever did" and that the business has grown alongside trends and the age of social media.
She said: "My mum got breast cancer ten years ago and she was making dresses from early hours in the morning to late at night so we decided to pull the plug on it and we went manufactural all the way and its to be honest its the best thing we've ever done. The hospital was amazing and she had a full recovery.
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"That made us look and search for good manufacturers and designers and we ended up building up a repour with our designers. I genuinely love dealing with the brides and seeing how happy they are with the results.
"It gives me goose bumps still to this day. Mu mum is more of a chatter and she likes to meet and chat with the mums and brides and the families. We love to see their faces when we know we’ve nailed it."
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Over the years, the business has seen brides travel from all over Merseyside and come from Warrington, Wigan and Ormskirk. More recently, brides have travelled from Manchester, London, Glasgow and the Isle of Man to get their dream dress from Natalie Ann Brides.
The business has also expanded to have two private fitting rooms above the shop and this year, Karen and Natalie are celebrating their first successful million pound turnover. Natalie said: "Our key to success is sticking at is sheer hard work and kindness to all our customers.
"You look outside our front door and you think it’s just a little bridal shop but actually it’s something else. We call it our hidden treasure, when you come in we get bigger and bigger and we keep going up and up."
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