Bridal buyer

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Since I’ve opened I’ve had quite a lot of local

brides plus a few coming from London.

I spend my whole life on the internet, on

Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter.

Cash fl ow is the very hard thing though. I

also had no idea that you can’t just get PDQ

machines. I thought I would be able to get it

from Barclays easily as I banked with them

but bridal businesses are considered risky and

so when the customer’s card goes through the

machine it takes 45 days before I get the money.

The highlights are when brides come in to

buy dresses; it’s a great feeling to see people

loving their gowns. My favourite moment so

far was the fi rst dress sale, which was a lacy

Watters gown. However, I’d priced it wrongly

so I think I only made £20 in the end.

Melita Glaister, owner of The White House

in Alresford, Hampshire, opened her store

in November last year, which stocks labels

including Ritva Westenius, Charlotte

Casadejus, Ellie Lowe, Love Yu and Astral

Sundholm.

W

e were offered the

most beautiful double-

fronted shop in the

centre of town, the

likes of which rarely

come on to the market

in Alresford. We were

Melita Glaister (left) launched

The White House last year with the

support of her right-hand woman

Nell Joly

already running two other shops in the town

and wanted another challenge. Alresford

is a pretty little Georgian town and it had

everything you could need to plan a wedding

• luxury clothing boutiques, a fabulous shoe
  shop, a specialist wine merchant, fl orists,
  caterers, beautiful venues and churches etc:
  but it did not have a bridal shop.
  I did a lot of research online and a straw
  poll with our existing customers, many of
  whom have become friends over the years. The
  feedback was encouraging.
  I wrote a business plan, got hold of Bridal
  Buyer and a clutch of other wedding-related
  magazines and immersed myself in the world
  of weddings.

I booked a reliable and skilled carpenter to

do the renovations and sought advice from a

great friend who is a talented interior designer.

I also wanted to visit a wedding shop and

fi nd out how a bridal appointment worked so

I made a bogus appointment with a reputable

bridal shop and took my daughter along as the

‘ bride’.

The hardest thing I encountered as I was

going along was bumping into the same bridal

shop owner at The White Gallery who had

conducted the previous day’s appointment. She

was, quite understandably, upset and angry. I

apologised wholeheartedly and explained that

in order to experience a good bridal shop, I

needed to be a customer on the receiving end. I

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