Thank our lucky stars…🤩

Hello lovely followers! Another week gone by.

Hope you are all well. How are you feeling about restrictions being lifted a little: excited, nervous, relieved… anxious?? 😬🤔😕😯

Yes?? Me too!!

My week has been pretty fully occupied with liaising with my wonderful assistant manager, Marie. We’ve been considering how we can put in place a Covid-secure risk assessment whilst still delivering an exemplary service. It’s been difficult, as our USP is hands on design and our studio is full of beautiful items: dresses, veils, jewellery, floral crowns, capes, belts and sparkly things galore! They all just reach out to you to be stroked, touched and tried on, but in our ” new normal” (I f@@ckjng hate that term 😬😡) you now have to act like your super strict draconian parent is watching… “Look but do not touch” I hear my Granny’s voice in my head… “Look with your eyes not your fingers…”

So, we have scratched our heads and asked ourselves: what if this, what if that, how can we do this, how about that?? We feel we have come up with the best solution we can offer our wonderful clients whilst still keeping all safe in this trying time.

We will be opening via phone or messenger to do virtual consultations from 15th June. We’ll be looking after our existing brides in the studio throughout July and we will invite new brides from 4th July also.

We will be able to accommodate new brides on Tues, Thurs and Saturday initially (we do still have some availability in August) We will still offer our 90 min personal appointment and the bride will be allowed to bring 2 guests (fortunately, since our Studio is absolutely huge, we can accommodate two guests and maintain social distancing – there had to be a silver lining right??)

Bexbrides Ltd. Covid-secure policy:

🖤 Marie and I will be working together in what’s known as a “fixed pair” (none of our other staff will be working in the boutique initially). We will look a little like cute welders in our visors. You and any guest(s) will be required to wear disposable masks, which we will provide.

🖤 You will be asked to make a declaration regarding your exposure to Covid 19 in the last 14 days, and make an assurance to advise us should you or your guest(s) become knowingly exposed or develop symptoms in the subsequent 7 days after your visit (and we will advise you in a similar manner should Marie or I become knowingly exposed or develop symptoms.)

🖤 We will require you to sanitise before during and after your appointment. All documentation will be provided electronically.

🖤 Any dresses tried on will be quarantined for 72 hours and all surfaces/ touch points will be sanitised after each appointment.

🖤 Before your appointment we will have a detailed discussion about your style and what you are looking for in a dress, as we would do under normal circumstances. We will select dresses for you and can pull additional ones during the appointment. You and your guests will be unable to browse through the rails, but we will happily show you everything that would be suitable for your desired style, size and budget.

🖤 Your guest(s) will need to remain seated and maintain social distancing, unless they are a member of your household.

🖤 For brides wishing to bring more than 2 guests we have good news😍 – we have free parking and are situated in 14 acres of beautiful grounds, so we can accommodate up to 4 guests per appointment. In this case, we would divide your appointment into sections and your guests would be invited to enter in relays, with a 5 min gap between to allow us to sanitise touch points. This would be factored into the total 90 minutes maximum appointment time). However, WE ARE AFRAID WE CANNOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES ACCOMMODATE MORE THAN 2 GUESTS PLUS BRIDE IN THE BUILDING AT THE SAME TIME: PLEASE DO NOT ASK US TO.😢 We also apologise that we are unable until the guidelines from BBSA change allow any children under 16 either, for the time being.

🖤 A copy of our full risk assessment can be supplied upon request.

I hope you can all appreciate how hard this has been for us; it goes against every atom in my being and to how we at Bexbrides work, but (as ever) we are putting our clients and their safety and satisfaction first.

We are normally hands on, touchy-feely, hugs all round; we often allowed our “90 min appointments” to run between 2 to 3 hours if there is no other bride booked in. We will now have to strictly limit appointments to 90 mins and our close-up time will be limited to 15 mins at a time. Whenever possible we will be maintaining 2m distance.

I hope this is an acceptable compromise for all our lovely clients, whilst working within the parameters. By following the guidelines as closely as we can we will all remain safe, but still provide a fun, joyful stress-free dress buying experience.

Of course, brides are welcome to share the experience with others via any social sharing applications they might wish to use (the studio can access the 4G network, – it can be patchy but is usually OK). Photography has always been permitted so they can share images with their wider gang that way as well.

So that was a fun part of this week… not ! However you might be wondering about the title of this weeks blog… Thank our lucky stars.

Well, when I wasn’t being a health and safety executive and virologist and battling with Covid-secure guidelines, I was being Bex the designer (which is what I much prefer!), making and posting Etsy orders to far-flung corners of the earth like Helston in Cornwall and Jackson, Mississippi.