HELP!
I'VE GOT QUESTIONS!

We recommend looking for your dress around a year before your wedding. You need plenty of time to find your perfect dress and put down your deposit so we can place the order with the designer. Then dresses usually take 3-5 months to be made and arrive with us in the boutique (though this can vary), when you'll need to come and collect it from us. Every dress will need alterations so you'll need plenty of time for them to be completed. It is possible to get a dress in less time, but if anything goes wrong in the process (which is rare but can happen!), we don't have any wriggle room to help you solve it.

"But I'm ordering a dress from my measurements, will I even need alterations?" Erm, yeah! Every single bride who has ever walked through our doors has needed some alteration to get that perfect fit. We can't say for SURE that you'll need some, but we'd be very surprised if you didn't. Our dresses are ordered according to your measurements but are still a standard size and length. Even split sizes (which some designers let us do) use standard sizes as a starting point. Typical alterations for our brides include shortening the hem and taking some material out of the shoulders (both because the dresses are made for VERY tall women), resizing the bust (usually made for VERY busty women), adding a bustle (so you can dance the night away), and some little tucks and pulls to get you fitted to perfection.

Unfortunately, we don't currently have our own inhouse seamstress, but we do have some local seamstresses who we work with. Once the dress arrives, it is yours to do what you want with, but we're happy to put you in touch with the seamstresses that we know, and even to host your fittings in the boutique if needed! Alternatively, there are usually plenty of seamstresses in most areas if you're travelling to us, so ask around and see if you can find anyone who friends can recommend - if you struggle, give us a shout and we can always ask around for you!

Accessories vary - some arrive within a week or two, and other may take longer. Some brides like to order their whole bridal look at once because then they have the full picture of what they're going to look like and how much it's all going to cost in total! Other brides are so exhausted after having to choose the right dress that by the time they've made that decision, they're all decisioned out! Don't panic if this is you - we have a longer collection appointment option that gives time to relook at all the accessories once you're in YOUR dress - which will give you a little bit of extra time to save up for the finishing touches too. Otherwise, you can always make a separate accessories appointment at a later date.

NO! We know exactly how tempting this can be, but it's a terrible idea! You've got two options: Order the size you are now. Then when your wedding rolls around, have the dress taken in to fit you if you lose weight. Wedding dresses are designed to be taken in by up to 2 dress sizes, although they aren't necessarily going to look exactly how they did originally! Place your deposit to secure your order and then wait to be measured. We'll give you a date that's around 9 months before your wedding to come back and finalise those measurements. That way you have whatever extra time that gives you to see what your weight is going to do. If you keep losing weight after that - see option 1! Ultimately, it's SO much easier to take a dress down sizes if you lose weight than it is to make a dress bigger if you stay the same size. If you're having/have had weight loss surgery, you're pregnant or there's something else going on that is definitely going to change your size before your wedding, let us know! We'll try to help you make the best decision for you.

Our dresses start from just below £1000 to around £2500 for you to order. All of our dresses are available off-the-rail for a discount as well. We also have a range of Ready to Wear dresses, which are ex-sample gowns. These are our most budget-friendly range, but they are only available in the size and colour that you see on our rails. They start from £99.

The smallest dress we have on our rails is a UK16, and the biggest is a UK36. Keep in mind though, these are bridal sizes which can be really really strange! We have two dresses in the boutique from different designers - one is a 24 and one is a 34 and they fit exactly the same! We can order our dresses in any size from a UK8 to a UK48, so there's something for everybody here!

Yes! It's worth remembering though that with dresses from a UK14-36, there's a huge size range in our boutique, so not EVERY dress is going to fit you. We try really hard to make sure we have enough options that can be tried on by each bride that you don't feel like you're missing out on those dresses that don't quite fit. It's also worth remembering that all our sample dresses are standard sizes, so they aren't going to fit perfectly - every dress needs alterations but we can keep you right about how dresses will fit once they're altered to you.

Don't worry if the dress you want to try on isn't in your size, we're pro's at pinning and clipping you into dresses so you can see how it would fit once it was ordered in for you and altered to fit perfectly. If a dress is too far away from your size, we'll find you a similar option for you to try instead.

We are always cultivating our collection of gowns. Sometimes that involves getting rid of gowns - whether that's because they aren't working well for curvy brides, our samples are getting old, or maybe because we've had to sell one off-the-rail to a last minute bride! We do also get new gowns in all the time! New dresses are available to us from designers twice a year as Spring/Summer collections and Autumn/Winter collections, but because the time it takes to make each dress depends on the designer, we have brand new dresses arriving in the boutique almost year-round. So don't feel like you need to wait until our new dresses have arrived because we always have something on order. And if you find your perfect gown with us, we recommend placing an order as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Yes! We are fully accessible with just a small (approx. 4cm) step into the boutique and another up into the main shop floor. We also have an accessible toilet. If you have any questions about accessibility, drop us a message and we'd be happy to help!

There is free parking available on the high street right outside the boutique for up to an hour. For longer stays there's a car park just round the corner which is free with no time limit - it's called the North Road Car Park. It's only a 3 minute walk on Google Maps, and if you go the right way you'll go right past Willow Cake Shop so why not stop in for a sausage roll and a slice of cake!

Yep! There are lots of places to stay in our market town of Loftus, including the two top floors of The Old Bank where we're based! Alternatively, there are some beautiful holiday homes and BnBs in the nearby seaside towns of Saltburn and Whitby, with lots of beautiful restaurants and things to do to keep you busy if you want to make a weekend of your trip to see us. Middlesbrough is also just a half hour drive away, with plenty of hotels including a Premier Inn and a Travel Lodge. If you need a hand finding somewhere to stay, let us know!

Loftus is a small with a quaint little market place. Our neighbours include ⚡ Willow Cake Shop (the BEST cakes and bakes, if you ask us!) ⚡ Stonehouse Bakery (great sandwiches) ⚡ The Brown Box (who have a selection of drinks and treats, as well as lots of beautiful gifts) ⚡ Wold Pottery (with some fantastic art pieces) ⚡ A few different pubs. We also have the towns of Whitby, Saltburn, Guisborough and Redcar nearby, as well as lots of lovely small villages nestled in the North York Moors just a short drive away!

We stock two designers of multiway bridal dresses. TwoBirds New York are our luxury multiway designer, and are available in 3 sizes which fit from a size UK4-32. We also have our inhouse multiway option which are completely made to measure so fit ANY size and height. (And they actually do!)

The short answer is no. We used to have a collection of traditional bridesmaid dresses but stopped selling them because the bridesmaid market is so competitive, with poor quality online options so readily available at such low prices that it didn't make sense anymore for us to be selling them too. We still have a couple of non-multiway bridesmaid dresses from one of our bridal designers, but we don't have a full collection.

Yes! We have some adorable traditional flower girl dresses, as well as some that match our inhouse multiways if you want your little girls to be in matching or complementary colours.

Yep! We only offer our brides exclusive use of the boutique space because you deserve to explore all the options available without worrying about what that bride over there is doing. It means we can give you our undivided attention, and the boutique usually has a really relaxed, comfortable vibe as we're not trying to juggle two appointments at once. To avoid disappointment, we suggest you book your appointment in advance as you won't be able to come in if we already have an appointment running. Also, one of the best things about working for yourself is being able to work from home, so we can't guarantee we'll even be in the boutique if you arrive for a walk-in appointment. When we don't have appointments, we can facilitate walk-ins, but we suggest you ring ahead to check whether we're available.

We don't charge anything for weekday appointments, but our Saturday appointments have a £25 booking fee. We know it's annoying, it is for us too. We had so many last minute cancellations that was making our wait times SO long that we had no other choice but to add in the charge on to the weekends. The £25 is redeemable on any orders over £300 placed with us within 6 months of your appointment. This means that even if you don't find your bridal dress with us, you'll get your booking fee back on orders of accessories or bridesmaid dresses from us. We can also stack your booking fees, so if you need two Saturday appointments before you choose your dress, the full £50 is redeemable from your order. If you have any questions about our Saturday booking fee, drop us a message!

Our bridal appointments are 1.5hours, to give you plenty of time to try on as many gowns as you want and to narrow them down to YOUR dress. If you're appointment is taking a little longer than expected, we may be able to offer you the extra time if we have no one in after you, or we are always happy to book you a follow up appointment. If you think it's likely that you'll need extra time, or if you're travelling a long way to see us, drop us a message and we can make sure we have some free time after your appointment so you don't feel like you need to rush. We also offer other types of appointments so double check the length of your appointment when you're booking.

You can book your appointment here! https://www.thesilversixpence.co.uk/book-your-appointment

Our appointments always tend to run in a similar way: We'll welcome you into the shop, get you comfortable and have a little chat about your big day! We'll probably ask you about your venue, the time of year you're getting married, the vibe, style and any colours you've already chosen. We'll also ask if you've thought about what kind of dress you might want (and what you don't want!) - no pressure though! Lot's of our brides don't know what they want, and even when they do they often choose something completely different! You'll get chance to have a look through our dresses to see if there's anything that grabs your attention. You don't need to pick out the dresses you want to try on - it's super difficult to do that because our dresses look totally different hung up to how they look on, and we have so many different sizes (which are TOTAL nonsense!) Give us an idea of what you're liking and then trust us! We're the experts! We'll get you to try some dresses on! We'll bring you some dresses that match what you've told us you'd want to try, and some wildcard options that are totally different! As you try more and more dresses, we'll start bringing you dresses that you might not have even looked at on our rails - again, trust us! When you have your favourites, we can try them back on and figure out which one is YOUR dress. We'll help you out with everything we know about alterations, comfort, how long they take to order and the practicalities of wearing them for a full day - then it's up to you! YES TO THE DRESS (yaaay!)

Two guests is a real sweet spot in bridal. Your two favourite people in the world, the ones who you trust and you know will look out for you. That said, we do have seating for up to four guests and we can pull out some more chairs if you want to bring more. We've had up to ten guests in one appointment! But, we'd really encourage you to think about why you want to bring so many people. In our experience, more people means more opinions, means your decision becomes harder and harder. However many guests you bring, you want to be choosing people who: Are kind, supportive and want the best for you. Are going to give their opinions in a considered way - we DON'T do brutal honesty here. Choosing your wedding dress can be such a vulnerable experience, both emotionally and physically, so you need guests who are gently honest, not brutally honest. Are going to let it be about you, and not make it about them. Seriously, we see this all the time and it drives us nuts! It's not "our" wedding or "our" dress - it's yours! Own it! If you're guests are checking all those boxes, bring them along - we'll sort the rest.

Yep! Don't get us wrong, it's LOADS easier if you can leave the little ones at home but we can make it work - be warned though, they're very good at grabbing everyone's attention so it might stop being all about you! We do ask that children are supervised by an adult at all times to make sure they're safe, so if you're bringing a little one you'll have to do dibs in the car to decide who's babysitting.

You can! We suggest waiting until you've found your favourite dresses to take photos, just to keep your guests focused on your dresses and not on their photography skills. It's also really important to remember how you FEEL in the dresses, because we all have a really nasty habit of being awful to ourselves. The last thing we want is for you to be pouring over photos of yourself in the dresses and zooming in your insecurities rather than focusing on how incredible you felt.

There's nothing you NEED to bring with you. If you have anything already chosen out that you might have with you on your wedding day, it can be helpful to have it with you. It's easier to decide if your sisters veil will go with the dress if we can see your sisters veil. Veils, jewellery, hair pieces, bridesmaid dress swatches, even shoes (though we don't suggest you wear them to try on dresses) - if it might have an impact on how you feel about a dress, bring it along. It doesn't really matter what you wear - we suggest starting off with the most basic underwear (we're a fan of no bra, some comfy pants and some chub rub shorts but you do you), and then add extra underwear as you need to. Try and bring your beige pants and a light coloured bra so it's not super distracting. If you want to bring some shapewear, bring it in your bag and then you can add it if you feel like you need it - we try to choose dresses that don't need anything hardcore underneath them. We ask you to please wear deodorant but not too much perfume, and we don't mind a little make up but keep it minimal and swerve the tan for us!