Wow what a whirlwind it has been! Let me start by sharing with you that there are several awards opportunities for those of us in the wedding industry nowadays, some of which carry more weight and are more respected than others. We’ve looked at a few of them over the past two years but decided only a few would really represent our core values. One of these was TWIA, The Wedding Industry Awards. They are judged by very well known and extremely well respected names in the industry, who we really aspire to and most importantly, the votes from or own brides and grooms carry some considerable weight in the final result.
So back in September 2017 we entered TWIA for the first time. We couldn’t believe it but we actually made it to the regional finals! As we progressed through the many categories the butterfiles in my tummy were just getting bigger and bigger. We were almost the last category to be announced and the build up had been incredible with some of our wonderful friends winning awards throughout the evening and by the time we reached the ‘Best Bridal Retailer’ category it felt like my heart was beating out of my chest!!
In the end the announcement of the winner came and we were beaten by the amazing Harriet from House of Snow in Bury St Edmunds, a truly lovely lady with a fabulous bridal business.
But spurred on by the fact that we made it to the finals last year, we decided to enter again this year, and so back in September I completed our entry and we let our brides know that they could vote for us and then it was just a case of crossing our fingers and waiting to see what happened.
We were so excited when we received the email to let us know we had made it to the regional finals again for the TWIA 2019 awards! But we were up against Harriet again, and another store who had already won several awards and so my expectations were low!
The night of the awards finally came and I surprised the girls and we travelled down in a stretch limo! None of us had been a in a limo before and so we were on such a high before we even arrived (assisted with a little prosecco obvs!)
We had a couple more gins when we arrived, (just to settle our nerves of course) chatted to a few friends and then it was time to take our seats. I told the girls we’d be ages before it was our category, as we were almost last in 2017…
Damian, the founder of TWIA took to the stage and welcomed us all…and before we knew it he said ‘without further ado, let’s start with the first category, ‘Best Bridal Retailer’!! Oh my goodness! I thought I was going to faint…and then after what seemed like an eternity, he said ‘Pure Brides’!!! WOW!! It was THE best feeling EVER!!
I’m still in a bit of shock and just keep thanking everyone! So THANK YOU!! soo much to all of you who voted for us, we really love you even more than we did before!!
