Welcome to 1840 by Wed & Prosper

How did it all start?

The idea of a new bridal boutique came to me at 3am (when all the best ideas come!) last September. As a wedding planner and owner of Wed & Prosper most of my brides were shopping off Island, yet there are so many weddings here and even more brides from off Island choosing the Isle of Wight to get married - so why were they going elsewhere? I had to find out.

Research, research and more research was the key,

I trawled the internet, spoke to brides, spoke to seamstresses, designers and local suppliers gaining as much information as I could, what was needed and what did brides want.

29 Atelier rail at London Bridal Week 2023

It became apparent that brides wanted their dress

shopping to be an experience, something to be

excited about and to form part of their wedding journey. They wanted to feel special and they wanted to see all those gowns we see in photoshoots on Instagram. So that is what we set out to do.

I booked to visit Bridal Week London 2023, really just to go and scope out what it was and get some inspiration. To be allowed to attend you have to be in the wedding industry, having Wed & Prosper meant we were in! So I invited Tash, who at that stage had been helping formulate my business plan, Amber a bridal seamstress, Rachel of Wed & Prosper and another friend who would become our Bridal Stylist. We spent time talking to various designers and within an hour of talking to some they were messaging asking to partner with me and I came away feeling very positive.

It dawned on me I needed to bring forward my idea, research was showing the demand was there and that designers wanted to be stocked here on our beautiful Island. Tash had fallen in love with bridal as much as me and we decided we would set up in business together, so we set about formulating a plan!

Queen Victoria in her white wedding dress in February 1840

Who would we stock? Where would our boutique be? And what would we be called?! Referring to the latter we knew we had to include Wed & Prosper in the name, a trusted brand in the wedding industry on the island. After weeks of names going back and forth and nothing feeling right, another 3am idea sprung up after I resorted to Google (the font of all knowledge!). I looked at the history of wedding dresses and it showed the white wedding dress became a trend after Queen Victoria married in 1840; the obvious link to the Isle of Wight meant it was the one!

Next up money! We spent a long time researching grants and loans to work out if we could find a way to feasibly afford to set this up and then we came across the Isle of Wight Lottery Loan. After a very lengthy process and a Dragons Den-like meeting, we were absolutely ecstatic to be granted an interest-free loan which enabled us to get the cash we needed for the upfront costs of setting up the business.

Finally we could look at designers. We wanted to be true to ourselves and the brand we were creating, ensuring we listened to feedback from brides and our mission which was to bring new designers to the Isle of Wight who offered designs and styles that weren’t available here. We then had to choose the dresses themselves, making sure we covered various styles. Styles which would ensure we were an inclusive boutique offering gowns for all shapes and sizes and dresses we loved so we felt passionate about our stock and would love selling them and seeing brides wearing them - another part of the plan ticked off.

The final piece of the puzzle was our location, and Instagram helped with that one when an advert popped up from Gully Howard and it showed a property next to Osborne House, it was a sign for 1840, we booked a viewing and said yes straight away!

So that’s how the 1840 story started and we are so excited to see where it takes us and to see who becomes an #1840bride!

Thanks for reading!

Carrie x