I did it my way Emma Hartley and her team were away when news of the pandemic broke and the full implications were realised. Here’s how she coped in the months that followed
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e were on a buying trip to Amsterdam when the corona virus situation started to unfold but, apart from taking a bottle of hand sanitiser with us, it was business as usual and we had a fabulous time. Little did I know that two weeks later I would be locking up my shop and saying goodbye to my staff not knowing if and when we would meet again. It felt surreal that, 44 ♦ W E D D I N G T R A D E R ♦ J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 2 0
after 22 years of graft, my business could potentially end this way. I had already sensed a mood change after the Amsterdam trip, as terms like ‘self- isolation’, ‘social distancing’, ‘lockdown’ and ‘R rate’ became part of everyday conversation. I decided to hope for the best whilst planning for a zombie apocalypse. We started contacting brides whose dresses had arrived and asking
