"It started with a journey to the Echo wedding show back in 2003. I drove past this amazing building standing on its own in the middle of Great George Place. It was call Monarch Interiors at the time and there was a 'for sale' sign outside. I could not believe my luck. I went straight in to take a look around. It was in a bad state of repair but the potential was unbelievable. We had some great finds inside the building including the original banks vault and safe, unfortunately they were both empty!
What we were looking to achieve was a dedicated one stop wedding shop with local, individual, professional businesses offering brides and grooms a unique experience. The next step was finding the right businesses!
I had already built up a very successful business 'Groom' providing bespoke menswear for over 1000 weddings per year, so I already knew a lot of the right people.
When the Liverpool wedding show came up in January, it was the perfect opportunity to approach all the best, local suppliers. I offered them a chance to join us at our first Wedding House show and many of them then chose to join The Wedding House. Some of them are still in the house today. Around the time of our launch, Groom was providing wedding suits for Ricky Tomlinson so I asked him if he would kindly open the Wedding House. This brought us Royle attention and it was an amazing launch, in what is now an imposing building.
For the next 10+ years, The Wedding House ran smoothly but with the advent of social media and more businesses moving online we recognise the need to reinvent ourselves in a moving world and relaunch the house. We recreated the brand to stay up to date in a fast growing industry and meet changes in demand. We took on a full time social media consultant to combine the provision of business space with full marketing and social media support. Our businesses benefit from a network of online and real-time interaction. We have thousands of couples through the door, often couples come to visit one business and end up using many others. The combination of neighbouring businesses, a shared social media internet platform and regular wedding shows enable us to provide a one stop unique experience for wedding suppliers, brides and grooms.
We are now opening up the loft offering smaller businesses a chance to be in the house, almost like a permanent wedding show.
The next stage is to renovate the cellars, turning the old bank vault into The Vault cafe and function room where we will host events and hen parties. When the weather gets warmer, we will open the courtyard at the back for a place to enjoy the sun and a bite to eat.
We would like to thank all of the Brides and Grooms that have driven the wedding house forward!"
- Neil Shaw
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