New Year's Eve - It has been a great year!

Its hard to believe another year has come and gone! Tomorrow is my favorite day of the year. It is so exciting to see 365 brand new days stretching in front of us with no mistakes in them yet! Each day is full of opportunities and new experiences just waiting to happen.

This year has seen us double the size of the shop for the third time in as many years. Even through the tough economic times, we have managed to survive and to grow. We have grown to a team of 5 now! We have come so far since my opening day when I had 21 dresses in my basement!

When we moved into this fabulous space at 10 W. Main Street, Greenfield, IN, we were happy to have one dressing room. We knew there would be a time when we would need more but had no idea the need would be such a big issue. Hannah, my event designer and shop manager had the brilliant idea to convert an ugly, unused space in our "back room" into two new dressing areas! Her vision is extraordinary! She told me what she needed and then she created something fabulous out of nothing! We now have two new, wonderful dressing rooms at a cost of less than $60.00! Team members like her are a gift from God!

Most recently we have added Lisa as our lead seamstress for our custom line of wedding gowns and Mother of the Bride line. Once we have the new line established, she will also be introducing a line of gorgeous little girls dresses with lots of smocking and matching jackets. This will be a welcomed addition to our enchanted little place. Starting next Thursday we will be adding Nicole to our team as well. She is a gifted sales person who will be helping out in the shop as well as going out to do sales calls at local reception venues. She will also be doing much of the technical stuff such as updating the website and keeping up with all the changes on facebook, etc. Dana is still with us as our lead wedding gown alterations expert. Her work is absolute perfection and her character is even better. Hannah came on board this past summer after she graduated with a degree in interior design. She heads up our event design projects, does tablescapes and provides all types of table linens for any type of event you can imagine! She is also the shop manager so she keeps track of the finances and assists with all of our clients when they come into the shop. See, I told you I was tremendously blessed! My prayer for the coming year is that we can produce enough business that I can afford to keep paying them even though I will never be able to pay them what they are actually worth.

No Such Thing as Too Much Bling!

We had such a great day at the shop today! It was window changing day. I will post photos of the Christmas season window we had all of December as well as photos of the new display tomorrow. The Holiday window was really beautiful but it was definitely time for a change. The new window has lots of ice blue, lots of cheerful colors and - as always - lots of sparkle!

Military balls are the biggest upcoming events for us right now. We have had 4 absolutely stunning women in looking for the perfect formal dress. All I have to say is this: As a country, we are the luckiest people on earth to have the military personnel we have; however, at least four of these heroes are going to consider themselves the luckiest men alive when they see their wives in the dresses they haven chosen. WOW!

Wedding season is also off to a promising start. Our calendar is filling up with bridal appointments. Our walk-in traffic has also started to increase. Our surprise bride of the day today actually lives in Boston, MA and is getting married in Morocco! So, we have had brides from Chicago, Florida, Minnesota, France, the African mission fields, and now Boston as well as all parts of Indiana. We have sent gowns to Las Vegas, Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, Hawaii, Chicago, the Bahamas, Bora Bora and now Morocco. I LOVE my job!!!!

OK, here is today's wedding trivia question. Who was the first known person to wear a white wedding gown and when did she wear it?

I will fill in the answers and interesting details tomorrow. Here is wishing you happy thoughts until then.

Welcome to our little corner of the internet, where we will discuss brides, weddings, wedding gowns, party dresses, traditions, breaking traditions and helping you find your unique style. I hope you enjoy your stay. Please feel comfortable to make comments and come back often to see what is new.

The year 2010 is rapidly drawing to an end. On the morning news this morning I saw the annual report put out by Google which lists the top 10 searched for items for the entire year. The results were absolutely shocking to me. Nine of the top ten searches were on "celebrities"! The only item that was not a "famous person" was the BP oil spill. How can that be? How can we as a society be so star struck that we pour over every bit of gossip and news these people can produce? Why do we have such a fascination with trying to be like them -to dress like them, wear our hair like them, visit the places they have visited and even say the things they have said? I cannot understand this whole concept. Every person on this earth is unique. Each person has special things about them that no one else on the planet has. Why don't we celebrate who we are?

This is the concept on which we have built Unique Boutique and Bridal. You are special. You have your own unique personality and your own personal dreams. We are going to ask you to celebrate those things. You have a unique body shape which we are also going to ask you to celebrate. We will help you find the perfect dress from our hand selected commercial gowns or - better yet- we will custom design and create a gown just for you! No one else, just for you!

Your wedding is so important and so is the gown you wear. This is what you are going to wear as you stand with the person you are pledging to spend the rest of your life with. This is what you are going to wear as you stand before God, your family and your friends as you take those sacred vows. This is what you are going to wear the very first moment you become husband and wife. It needs to be special and it needs to be YOU!

Come back tomorrow as we investigate the history of the wedding gown. Believe it or not, wearing a white dress is a fairly new tradition and it is OK to break from this tradition if you want to. The most important thing is for you to let the real you shine through!