The Newest Bridal Stylist

Hello,

My name is Tanya Douglas, and I'm the newest stylist and bridal consultant here at Solutions Bridal. In joining the team, I bring a creative, designers' eye for style. I've recently graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in Landscape Architecture. I've painted for almost 14 years, and have worked in creative environments with clients and diverse design teams.

Upon coming into the shop, I would like to take a few minutes to talk and get to know you, and also to find out more about the type of wedding you are planning. This allows me to be able to choose a dress for you that fits your personality - something that you will feel great in on your wedding day. I'm happy to suggest any design changes that we can make to "a dress" to make it "The Dress". You may want to change the neckline, or you may want to add more beading or take beading away, and you might even want to consider shortening a dress to a "tea length". Accessories can also change the entire look and feel of your wedding ensemble. A different veil, hair piece, sash, or shoes can alter the character of a dress to fit your personality perfectly. There are so many options!

My favorite dress in the shop right now is a dress by Anne Barge. It's my favorite because it's a wedding gown with pockets! the pockets are part of the folds in the skirt and are formed with how the fabric is cut. It is unique, and it would even look great hemmed as a "tea length".

You can learn more about me and review my design portfolio at tanyaldouglas.com. If you go directly to tanyaldouglas.com/About, you can view my bibliography and some of my favorite personal photos.

I look forward to meeting you and helping choose "The Dress" for you. Come and see me at Solutions Bridal Designer House.

Tanya

We ADORE this New Company!!

So the cat is out of the bag today... Avie Weddings and Events has now become Adore Weddings and Events. Their name change would not be complete without a complete rebranding, which we were so excited to be a part of! Three Solutions Bridal Consultants- Lauren, Hilary and myself, are the faces of the new Adore marketing campaign!! And best of all, during our photoshoot we got to show off a few of the gorgeous Solutions Bridal gowns!

Adore's brand new blog was released today as well as three pictures of us that we couldn't wait to share with everyone!! More pictures and info about the new company will be available later this week when their full website is launched.

Check out the photos below, and then visit the live version here.

Raving Reviews...

I just stumbled upon a loving review of our Solutions Bridal Orlando location. Check out what this friend of a bride-to-be had to say:

Saint Paul, MN
9/2/2009 I am not a bride, but the friend of a bride-to-be. We were headed to the Collection when we drove by Solutions Bridal (we are not originally from Orlando, so we were rather ignorant about the available bridal shops). After our scheduled appointment at Collection, we dropped by Solutions without an appointment. They invited us right in.

This shop is exactly what you picture a bridal shop to be. The floor is wide, and there is a large platform at one end of the store with several mirrors so the brides-to-be can see themselves in all their glory. The floor is very spacious, so it is easy to browse through the dresses. We were not very familiar with a lot of the designers, having focused on Vera Wang and Monique Lhuillier (I know, I know), but we found an amazing selection of dresses we loved. It is not true that all the dresses are the Cinderella sort. Many are, but this is not my friend's taste, nor mine, and Solutions had plenty of options to satisfy someone who wants a more simple and tasteful look.

The salespeople were very helpful. I asked for champagne and promptly received it (it was only on my fourth glass that I started to suspect it was nonalcoholic). All of the sample dresses were in very good condition. They gave my friend a bustier and some heels to help with her trying-on. They even put up with me circling the store, rifling through the dresses, throwing back glass after glass of (unfortunately nonalcoholic) champagne, and giving out loud opinions on every dress my friend tried on (and several the other brides tried on as well).

In the end, we found the dress. My friend looked amazing. This bridal shop is like one you see in the movies--the atmosphere was just so perfect. It really was such an amazing shopping experience. My friend's total wedding dress shopping time: 4 hours, 13 minutes. And the dress turned out to be about 3 thou cheaper than the Vera Wang she had originally had her heart set on--can't get better than that!

I should mention that this is a boutique store with a small selection of designers, but this is exactly what a bridal shop should be.

Source

Come Join The Team

The Winter Park salon is looking to add two new bridal consultants to the team! To be a bridal consultant you must be passionate about all things wedding and fashion. Our salon has won numerous awards for customer service. We constantly strive to be the most innovative team providing honest style advice to all of our brides. Wedding industry related or customer service experience is preferred, but not a requirement. We will teach you all the tricks to the trade anyways!

The hours are 25 per week, but will increase to 30-35 hours in January. At 25 hours you are considered full-time and all of the company benefits apply. Only serious applicants please. We are looking to hire someone that can be a part of the team for at least a year.

If you think you have what it takes, please send your resume to tali@solutionsbridal.com. No phone inquires will be accepted.

The Gainesville Girls!!

With so many different schedules, it's hard to get all the Solutions girls in the one place for photographs, so the expo was the perfect place to get a couple quick snapshots of the whole crew!! We owe a huge thanks to Lindsey of Pure: Photography by Lindsey Tropf for catching these moments on film! :O)

Check these out:

All of the girls with Newell & Baby Ansley:

A couple pics of us holding Britt since she is leaving the store:

Last Saturday Chad Pilster from Pilster Photography joined all of us here at Solutions Bridal for a night to remember! While helping Brides try on their wedding dresses and get ready for their special day, Chad Pilster shot some of the most amazing photographs that truly capture the magic of our event. The overwhelming sense of happiness and excitement filled the room as the girls tried on numerous gowns. Mr. Pilster captured their excitement with each individual shot. All of us at Solutions Bridal send out a big thank you to Pilster Photography for such an amazing experience. For any Florida Brides looking for a wonderful photographer to capture the true emotions of your wedding day, Pilster Photography is defiantly the way to go! -Brittany E.

Drab to Fab

Every season Solutions Bridal does a "Ditch and Switch". We remove our old bridesmaid dresses as we introduce the new. Several of the dresses can't be simply donated because they have "sample" marked on the back of them. Luckly, Solutions Bridal's Assistant Manager, Alicia Zutter, is a go-green designer that takes an innovative approach on ready to wear clothing. Her clothing line, ALICIA Zutter Couture, represents old bridesmaid dress fabrics transformed into fashion forward pieces.

Her line is all about feminine romantic looks with an edgy twist. As you look through her line, you can find touches of organza ruffles and rosettes done in exquisite jewel tones. Known as an expert stylist to her brides, Alicia takes design and accessory pairing to high regard. All of her patterns are originals and just need to be tailored to the body for the best fit. Alicia takes pride in using recycled fabrics, such as old bridesmaid dresses, and making them into pieces every girls swoons over.

In the picture above the lady on the left is wearing one of ALICIA Zutter Couture's Mother of the Bride gowns. Alicia is shown on the right showcasing her designs as well. Make sure to check the blog soon for more fashion news from ALICIA Zutter Couture!

I GOT MARRIED!

Just in case you couldn't tell from the title, I'm married and so excited about it! I have been dying to show everyone our fab wedding pics that were just posted on Kara Pennington's blog a few days ago. Check them out... I'm obsessed {and happily married to the most wonderful man in the world!} :O)

Andrew and I tied the knot on August 1st at the Baughman Center in Gainesville, FL. Our ceremony was lovely. :O)

My romantic, asymmetrical hairstyle was done by Jessie at Scissors salon, and I LOVED my makeup, which was done by Laura Meffen of Merle Norman Cosmetics.

My mom's beautiful carnation pink gown is one of Solutions' favorite Wtoo chiffon bridesmaid dresses!! The middle picture of these three shows my matron of honor and sister, Melanie of La Dolce Vita Studio, and my great friend and day-of coordinator, Amanda of Swoon Over It. Love!


Andrew's groomsmen were absolute rockstars the WHOLE week! And I must admit, they're lookin' good here! :O)

This was not Andrew's original boutonniere... he had to take the officiant's when his orchid din't make it through the first round of pictures. Thank goodness Joan Prange (our awesome florist) gave us a few extra groomsmen bouts just in case!


We met during our senior year of undergrad at UF, so we both knew we wanted to tie the University of Florida into our wedding without doing an orange+blue theme, which is why we chose the Baughman Center as our venue. {There is some weird rumor that you have to reserve the Baughman Center three years in advance to have your wedding there. Totally untrue! However, we do recommend calling and finding out about availability a year in advance if possible.} The gorgeous University of Florida Baughman Center:



We had a post ceremony, pre reception bridal party photo shoot at Sharab Lounge in downtown Gainesville. Totally worth having the 2 hours intermission between the ceremony and reception. :O)

Loving my Bel Aire cage veil!!!

Thank you Joan Prange for making me the most GORGEOUS pink bouquet I have ever seen! And, ahem, finding peonies in AUGUST. ;O) Check out those hot pink shoes!!!



Of course we choreographed our first dance!!!

Posh Pastry blew me out of the water with our cake!!! Flowers by Joan Prange.

The night wouldn't be complete without the bride and groom CROWD SURFING!

By far my favorite picture from the wedding!! Here I am wearing my reception/after party dress from Jim Hjelm.

This picture is the manifestation of 14 months of hard work! I love looking at everything and how well it came together!! :O)
Thank you for reading!
Thank you Kara & Jeremy for the fab pictures!
Thank you fellow Solutions Consultants for being a part of our special day!
I hope you enjoyed this small glimpse into our wedding day. Visit my blog to see full recaps from the entire day!! :O)

Future Bride-To-Be Has Arrived...Baby Fox

Newell Fox, owner of Solutions Bridal, had a little baby girl this May 2009. Powers Photography captured Ansley with her glowing parents. We are so excited for the whole Fox family. Make sure to tell him congrats!

The Seven Stylist

The Solutions staff is the heartbeat of the company. We are a small group of seven girls with seven different personalities. Luckily, all the personalities mesh extremely well. The staff includes two wedding planners, one florist, two future fashion designers and two girls that are just into the white dresses. Who couldn't be? Yes, we do try on the wedding dresses. We have to see what they look like on verse the hanger. Well, at least that's what we tell the owner, Newell . . . ha ha. Check out the photo of the staff at the Florida Bridal Expo. Graceful Strands did a great job of having our hair represent our different personalities. The Lazaro bridesmaid dresses helped as well.