THE UK’s ONLY MAGAZINE FOR PLUS SIZE BRIDES
ISSUE 5| AUTUMN | 2016 | £3.99
Real Brides
ReaL Weddings of wedding 30+ pages day sparkle
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ESCAPE TO THE
MALDIVES
it’s all about
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Yo m Bo s fro orth s e r d lW Brida r £1200 ove ISSN 2397-3447
9 772397 344005
03
LO C ATION some great
wedding venues
TATTO O S
GLAM &
G LI T T E R
Theatrical bridal shoot f e at u r i n g G e o r g i n a Horne and Nancy W h i t t i n g t o n - C o at e s
CONTENTS
Editor’s Diary P10
P16
1Year
On ...
P27Roz la Kelin LookBook
Win P25
Win
a Dress Competition
In The Spotlight with About a bride
P14
Save Vs Splurge P45
It’s All About Location – Great P72
UK Wedding Venues REAL BRIDES P36 |Hollie & Seb Trezise P46 |Jennie & Russell Brooks P59 |Salina & Stuart John Milne
Style Those Curves P57
The Big Countdown P70
Escape to the maldives P74
A
P75
Gorgeous First, Tattoos, Glam & Glitter
1 Year On GORGEOUS BRIDE | 1 YEAR ON
W
e are officially one! It all started with a blank piece of paper and a dream (sounds a bit like a great fairy tale) to make a difference in a world that had seemingly forgotten about the plus size bride. Gorgeous Bride Magazine was launched a year ago into a sea of nothingness. In the many, many bridal magazines that were available for purchase both, in print and online, images of the larger bride were conspicuous by their absence. The smaller bride could always see images similar to herself, providing inspiration of what she could look like on her big day, while her plus size counterparts could only dream and imagine. There was nowhere for them to go to see images of themselves and we wanted to change that. We wanted to see gorgeous plus size brides being featured in a bridal magazine that was available to everyone. We felt it was important to give plus size women a voice and to show the whole bridal industry that plus size is
16 | AUTUMN 2016
beautiful, too. We launched the year that Milk Model Management announced that they had signed Tess Holliday, making her the largest plus size model to be signed to a mainstream modelling agency. It was also the year Zoe P launched The Curve Fashion Festival – which this year had Tess Holliday and Hayley Hasselhoff as ambassadors.
So much has happened The last 12 months have been a voyage of discovery, of stretching boundaries, making new connections and getting people to sit up and take notice. It has been hard work, tiring and frustrating at times, but it has been worth it. It has been great to hear people acknowledge that we make a difference, to be included in the plus size debate and conversation, to speak on the
1 YEAR ON | GORGEOUS BRIDE issue of body confidence and it’s been wonderful to see our publication sitting alongside other bridal magazines on the shelf in Sainsburys. We have been nominated for our first award in the Plus Size Awards. Our amazing anniversary cover, featuring the latest classy and elegant wedding gown from Bonny Bridal Europe, is our first ever styled shoot for the magazine and after the experience of working with such wonderful professionals, all of our covers will now be handled this way. The team included the stunning Brenna, who was simply a picture of stately beauty. Rivkie Baum did the impossible by finding an almost secret garden amidst the busy Hampstead Heath in North London and styled the shoot to perfection. Lauren’s artistry with the hair and make-up were also worthy of an award. And to cap it all off, Simon Wisbey’s photography skills know no bounds as he managed to present us with a stream of 10/10 shots, making our job all the more difficult in choosing the final cover – thanks, team! In the last 12 months, we have seen lots of changes and excitement in the plus size arena as a whole and the plus size bridal market in particular. There are now more mainstream retailers catering up to size 32, and more specialist plus size bridal boutiques have been opened. We have also seen the growth of the plus size hashtag drawing attention, empowering and supporting the plus size shape and style. Here are some of our favourites: #IAmMe; #BeyondBeauty; #EmpowerAllBodies; #StyleHasNoSize; #PlusIsEqual; #EffYourBeautyStandards In the spirit of looking at where we are one year on we spoke to Joanne and Simon, one of the couples featured in our first edition of the magazine, about what life has been like since their wedding day and
how they have managed to keep the sparkle alive: “As much as our wedding day was amazing and exciting, the real excitement was when we woke up as man and wife to start the rest of our lives together, working hard to build a strong, loving relationship. We put effort into making our marriage work by making sure we laugh, even if it’s at the silly things, we have a terrible sense of humour, but it keeps us laughing. We make sure we make time for each other (no kiddies yet) and try to get out and about as often as we can enjoying our time together whether it’s for a meal out/in or a trip to the coast for the day. It’s the little things that count to us; they matter the most as its helps make everyday life that bit easier for each other. We would love kids, but right now we’re all about spoiling our nephews. We’re planning on moving in the next few months down to the coast and really excited to start our next adventure in life together. The next chapter awaits.”
Moving forward As Joanne says “the next chapter awaits”. Although we can’t tell you exactly what is going to happen, we can assure you that it will definitely be more of flying the flag and providing a voice for the plus size bride.
Come on the journey with us!
READERS’ PAGE | GORGEOUS BRIDE
’ s r e d a e R E W
PAG
e love feedback, especially yours; therefore, we have created the Gorgeous Bride Magazine Readers’ Panel - The Gorgeous Insiders (GI) - which is an elite band of dedicated readers who are willing to tell us what they like (and don’t like!) about our magazine and website. This feedback will help us in planning future issues, enabling us to better serve the needs of the plus size bride-to-be. As a GI, we will send you the latest online edition of Gorgeous Bride Magazine free of charge. We will ask you to read through the magazine then complete an online questionnaire about that quarter’s issue, any comments you have about the issue, ways we
S TWEET U
LIKE US agazine
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usbrideu
@gorgeo
sbridem @gorgeou
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OUSBRID @GORGE
VISIT US gazine.com idema rgeousbr o .g w w w
T
hank you. I am very much looking forward to this issue as I’m in the process of planning my own plus size wedding for the 16th September 2017. I gather a great deal of ideas from your magazine. Finally someone has cleverly realised that not all brides are a size 10 but all brides deserve to look and feel beautiful on that magic day.
Abi Draper x
T
hank you also for sending us the link to the online edition of Gorgeous Bride Magazine. Wonderful!
Tomoko Kiharo
T
hank you very much for this magazine, it is a breath of fresh air and just what I needed as I’m in the middle of planning my own wedding!
Sandra Sutherland
T
hank you so much! The magazine looks great!
Claire Marlow
I
bought a lot of bridal magazines to read on the train to London and I love Gorgeous Bride Magazine. It’s full of lots of useful tips and information.
PianoDJ.co.uk
can improve and suggestions for future issues. And the great news is that from time to time,
Don’t forget to tweet us your thoughts!
we will also send you products to review and you may have the opportunity to attend events on behalf of Gorgeous Bride Magazine. We are currently looking for readers from all parts of the UK; so, if this is something you would like to be part of, please complete the initial recruitment questionnaire at www.gorgeousbridemagazine.com/thegorgeous-insiders/
Enjoy!
TOP TWEETS SO lovely to meet you, I’m LOVING Gorgeous Bride Magazine
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You are amazing! <3 She Might Be Loved
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Oh I love you so much!! Next year we need to work on something together
DONT FORGET TO HAVE YOUR SAY
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AUTUMN 2016 | 19
Broste Copenhagen, Freb Lanterns Set of 3 - Brass £126
Dorothy Perkins Gold Pleated Dress £65
Debenhams Gold clutch bag
www.theeverylastdetail.com Gold roses
New Look Gold Glass Jar Amber Vanilla Candle £3.99
Not On The High Street, Gold Cake balloon by the wedding of my dream £10
Next, Gold glam wine glasses (set of 4) £24
MIDAS P ASTEL INSPIRATION INSPIRATION Written by Nicola Fyffe
Gold is a beautiful colour to feature at your wedding as it works wellFrom in so many different months the year. to In winter, gold is baby pinks andofblues, subtle typically festive and teams perfectly with bold colour palettes yellows and cool minty greens, there is of crimson, deep blue and forest green. Candles in gold lanterns or a pretty pastel colour to suit your mood even gold wine goblets could really bring out the style of your and thereception real magic occurs they are wedding table design. Add awhen pair of gold wedding combined, no matter what the season. shoes to complete your bridal look, and the finish is festive, fun and fabulous. 22 | AUTUMN 2016
Ralph & Russo Eden Pump Gold Satin with Light Gold Leaves £1,650
GLAMOUR PLUS
LOOKBOOK WWW.ROZLAKELIN.COM
26 | AUTUMN 28 SUMMER 2016
REAL BRIDES | GORGEOUS BRIDE
Hollie & Seb
Tr e z i s e
Real Th
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Bridesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Stories
Jennie & Russell
Brooks
Salina & Stuart
John Milne SUMMER 2016 | 35
AND
Hollie
Seb
Trezise
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GORGEOUS BRIDE | REAL BRIDES
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Would you like to feature in
Gorgeous BRIDE Magazine
OU DO Y dding a we is e v a h d th e n n pla ?
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Would you like to be featured as one of our real brides? Then we would love to hear from you! To be considered for future issues, please visit www.gorgeousbridemagazine.com/submit AUTUMN 2016 | 79