How fast can we run?

What a busy week! We're finally opening our bridal designer outlet store this week. Price tags and hangers and moving and jewelry and cleaning...whew! Also this week we've got a Special Occasion Trunk Show with JSS Knits and a bridal trunk show with Alvina Valenta Bridal.

Plus we've got Donnie Brown here at Stardust on Friday and Saturday to sign his new book. We just put the champagne in the frig to chill for Friday. Romanos bakery (a favorite!) is providing us with mini cupcakes for the book signing. D Magazine is co-sponsoring the event with us.

Next week, there's a HUGE out of town wedding that will take four of our staff off-site. More details to come post-wedding. The new bridal show "Unveiled" is next weekend as well and we've got two booths, runway shows and lots of transporting to do.

Today I was asked about our holiday decor plans and I couldn't even think that far ahead--

I haven't even finalized our schedule for the New York bridal market which is in just 3 weeks.

It looks like gown embellishment is back again. We've already seen a lot of beading and embroidery. Lace also remains very strong. We anticipate that a lot of the designers will be bringing their price points down due to the weak economy. Can't wait to see what's new!

Models Everywhere!

There's a new bridal show "Unveiled" in Dallas in October. We're involved in the fashion shows and last Sunday six models flew in and were at both stores for gown selections and fittings. The interesting thing about fashion models "off duty" is how non-glamourous they look. We spent the entire day fitting tall size 2 girls into sample bridal gowns and bridesmaid dresses.

Tuesday night, we attended the AACWP annual bridal fashion show. This show featured bridal trends. When you see a "trend" show, the models are high glam and wearing gowns that are more conceptual than wearable. Fun to look at!

September 25 promises to be very busy -- two trunk shows plus a book signing event. Alvina Valenta Bridal and JSS Knits Special Occasion are the trunk shows.

Donnie Brown (from "Whose Wedding is it Anyway?") will be at Stardust signing his new book "Donnie Brown Events". Champagne, wedding cake samples and hopefully--books!! The books aren't here yet.

The new store is coming along nicely. Lots of problems have been solved--we now have display bars, phone, computer, staff, etc. Waiting for new signage and aiming for a Sept. 25 opening.

End of Summer

This past week started off with a system crash! The stores are networked on the same system and nothing was working. It took about 4 hours to get resolved and we never did find out what was wrong. It's Saturday now and the week has been steady. We're seeing brides with May 2010 wedding dates. Lots of brides and moms are in because of the Labor Day holiday this weekend. Fall trunk shows begin next weekend at both stores. We did a mailing of about 500 postcards plus the website and the wedding magazine email blasts.

Last Friday we had a "green light" party with the folks from AMS Pictures. They're the Dallas company producing the series "Girl Meets Gown" for WEtv and we were celebrating the green light given on 6 more episodes. It airs in 2010. We've got the film crew here every week and while that sounds like a lot of fun, it really is more like a lot of work. But it's interesting and the brides that are featured are wonderful. The party was great except the margaritas were really lame. I think there wasn't any tequila in it!

The new store opens at the end of this month (we hope). Right now, no carpeting, no rods to hold gowns, no computer and no phone. There's lots to be done before those doors can open.