Lyme Regis, Dorset Wedding Fair

Conscious that in the future I would very much like to be based locally, or at least within South West England, I felt Lyme Regis Wedding Fair would be an invaluable experience in helping me to understand the local bridal fashion industry and local competition.

The fair was set up like most other fairs with a variety of exhibitors displaying examples of their work on stands placed around the room. I was interested to see how many photographers, cake makers and venues were exhibiting compared to bridal shops - I counted only three out of approximately 25 exhibitors. 

I was lucky enough to arrive in time to watch a catwalk during the afternoon. Bearing in mind, as a result of my work placement at Jenny Packham I have been used to viewing dresses worth £3000, I could see the dresses on show were worth much less and were no where near the quality of the Jenny Packham dresses. This is by no means a bad thing, it may simply infer that these are the quality and price of dresses in demand in the area.  Personally, perhaps naïvely, I had my sights set on selling the likes of Jenny Packham etc in my boutique however if there isn’t the local demand then it is unlikely my boutique would be successful. This is an issue I need to research in more detail and an aspect I will need to seriously consider when deciding where to base my boutique and what bridal dresses to sell.