Archive for the ‘The TBP Shop’ Category
National Bridal Show
Once again, The Brides’ Project will have a booth at the Spring Show and we invite everyone to stop by on your way to the cake samples. Say hello and ask questions while you’re checking out vendors and the fashion shows. Brides-to-be are free! All info can be found on their website:
http://spring.nationalbridalshow.com/
See you there!
January 27 – 29, 2012
Location:
Direct Energy Centre, Exhibition Place
Show Times:
Friday: 5pm – 9pm
Saturday: 10am – 8pm
Sunday: 10am – 6pm
Tadashi Shoji, donated by a bride
2011 was a banner year for The Brides’ Project in terms of reaching — and exceeding — our goals, and 2012 is going to be even BIGGER!
In 2011 our goal was $60,000, and we (read: YOU) blew that number out of the water and raised over $80,000! This is phenomenal! We have some thanking to do…
First of all we’d like to thank our biggest dress donors, the salons who donate their stock to us. Most of our dresses are brand-new, and brides get fantastic deals here. Our latest salon donor is Sharon at Blushing Brides out of Peterborough, who donated the dress below as well as others.
from Blushing Brides, Peterborough
from Blushing Brides, Peterborough
We’d also like to thank brides who have donated their dresses to us, purchased their dresses from us, and especially those who have done both! We understand there are many choices out there for wedding dresses, and letting go of a wedding dress is not always easy. We promise to take care of your dress, and volunteers at TBP go a long way to find your dress a home in the spirit of which it was donated. Because Toronto is such a fantastically cosmopolitan city, our inventory comes to us from all over the world, which makes shopping here out of the ordinary — not merely because we are a socially-conscious full-service bridal salon.
The proceeds of our dress sales are donated on a quarterly basis and we are very public in our donations, whether it’s the Canadian Cancer Society, Camp Quality, the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, Prostate Cancer Canada, Terry Fox Foundation, or other related organizations. We want to be clear why we’re a volunteer-run organization: to raise money for cancer charities. This is a win for brides, too, since that means there is no commission-related pressure to buy. We are not fashionistas, we are friendly volunteers, and we are here to match a bride with her dress (and her dress budget!).
Make an appointment to browse our dress selection which is constantly changing, or visit our booth at the upcoming National Bridal Show, January 27-29 at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto. We look forward to seeing you in the shop, and being a small part of your Big Day!
Hello Lovely Brides and Friends of The Brides’ Project!
Just a heads up about our upcoming holiday hours of operation if you are planning to make an appointment soon:
Wednesday, December 21: 4-9pm
Saturday, December 24: CLOSED
Sunday, December 25: CLOSED
Wednesday, December 28: 4-9
Saturday, December 31: 10am-6pm
Sunday, January 1: CLOSED
Wednesday, January 4: 4-9pm
We understand that the holidays may be the *best* time for some of you to shop with us, especially for those coming from out-of-town, so we will be open additional hours BY APPOINTMENT ONLY during the holiday season.
Holiday hours will *not* be captured in the appointment form, so please bear this in mind when you are filling out the form. If you would like to request an appointment time outwith our holiday hours, please put the request in the “Additional Information” field and we will do our best to accommodate you.
In the meantime (we don’t like to put people on hold, but it gets kinda busy ’round here), we have some seasonal entertainment courtesy of our resident kitties to put you in the holiday mood!
Can you believe that it’s “Back to School” time already?! It’s a little scary that summer is already drawing to a close. On that note, it’s the last weekend that many people flee the city in favour of a country respite, including our staff and clientele.
Our weekend hours will be:
Saturday September 3rd: 10-5pm
Sunday September 4th: CLOSED
Regular weekend hours resume the following week.
Wishing everyone a safe and happy long weekend!
On the weekend of July 30/31st, we will be open our regular hours on Saturday July 30th (10-5pm) but CLOSED ON SUNDAY.
Regular hours resume the following week.
From all our volunteers, we wish you a fun and playful long weekend… whether celebrating Caribana or off to the cottage!
Just a heads up that long weekends all summer are very very slow here, so we’ll be closed on the Sunday but open on the Saturday. That means that we’ll be open for regular business hours on Saturday May 21st, but closed on Sunday May 22nd.
Happy Victoria Day! We hope it’s a good weather day for everyone going out of town and/or opening cottages!
Helen and Vanessa
Well, we try to describe it as best we can on our “For Brides … What to Expect” page, but it’s even better to get the perspective from a client. Especially a client with a camera!
Lizz came armed and ready with the bride… her sister Monica. We’re happy to report that neither were sent to the boiler room, and we had a terrific time helping Monica say “YES!” to her beautiful Brides’ Project dress.
Read more here!
[This post will remain "sticky" at the top of the page until Christmas -- scroll down for the latest updates.]
Who wouldn’t thunk it that Christmas is right around the corner! EGADS! Sure snuck up on us 
And… Christmas and New Year’s are amongst the busiest times of the year for new engagements. Is it going to be you?
Since both holidays fall on Saturdays, we’ve added some extra hours, also keeping in mind that we enjoy visits from many brides from out of town. Here are the hours we’ll be open. Just indicate on the appointment form in the space for extra comments if you want a time slot that is not part of our regular schedule.
Wed Dec 22nd 1-9pm. Appointments are available for 1pm, 2:30pm, 4-4:30pm, 6pm and 7:30pm.
Thurs Dec 23rs 1-9pm. Same as above, by appointment only.
Sat Dec 25th, Dec 26th CLOSED.
Wednesday Dec 29th 1-9pm. Same appointments as above.
Saturday Jan 1 CLOSED.
Sunday Jan 2 12-5pm, by appointment only.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
We will be closed to allow our staff to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families on Sunday October 10th.
Normal business hours of 10am to 5pm apply for Saturday October 9th.
We’d also like to congratulate the many 10/10/10 brides out there celebrating their special day!!!
Hello lovely brides! Since so many people take this last opportunity to escape the city before fall, we will be CLOSED ON SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 5th.
Regular hours of 10am to 5pm apply for Saturday September 4th.
Since our volunteers, friends and supporters will all be enjoying Relay for Life on Friday June 11th to Saturday June 12th, the TBP store will be CLOSED on Saturday June 12th. We’re open for regular hours on Sunday (12-5pm). Come out and support us at the Relay!
Our hours, they are a-changin’… but only for the holiday weekend!
Sat, May 22 – open regular hours, 10am-5pm
Sun, May 23 – CLOSED
As of right now (Monday, May 17, 7:45pm) there are only a few spots left on Saturday, so act fast and make an appointment.
Thanks to all our lovely visitors today… I had a wonderful time meeting, greeting, shopping and chatting with everyone! Martha, Megan, Dominika, Roxanne, Rachel, Kelly, Caroline and Fiona with their friends/family/fiances made it another day that was memorable and fun as a volunteer as well. Everyone was just fabulous, and enjoyed being here too! Every week we receive lovely notes that our brides have enjoyed their experience here … even though we make ‘em work and help out when they’re here to keep our shop nice and take care of our dresses!
Here’s a cute picture from Kelly and her friends during her visit today… (Thanks so much Shannon for sending this in!) She looks so sweet frolicking in this sugar plum fairy piece… and hmmm… aside from the one peeking around the side, how many others were hiding behind her?!
Brides come here from far and wide… on Thursday we had a visit from Genevieve from Montreal, several brides from Ottawa, London, Hamilton etc., and as Liz commented, who came all the way from Omaha to shop here, “I LOVE LOVE LOVE The Bride’s Project, what a great experience! I’ve never had a more fun and enjoyable shopping experience… and it was for a good cause! Thank you so much for all that you do, I am truly inspired by you.” Thank YOU Liz, and everyone else who makes a day here an absolute joy. You equally inspire us to keep it fun and enjoyable while raising money for cancer charities
Once the front door’s locked, Charlie’s nose is on full alert.
And Douglas will clean up a bit before settling into his watch.
Your dresses are safe with us!
On behalf of all our wonderful volunteers here at The Brides’ Project, we’d like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season!
Our holiday hours are as follows:
Wednesday December 23rd: 12pm – 8pm (extended hours)
Saturday December 26th – CLOSED
Sunday December 27th: 12pm – 5pm
Regular Wed/Sat/Sun hours resume on December 30th and can be extended as needed to accommodate all those holiday engagements and brides visiting family from out of town as well!
Our dear Marianne had a beautiful wedding – a picture perfect fall wedding with all the colours! She found her dream dress… the Baltico… here at The Brides’ Project, and added a few personal touches of her own including a corset back with some bronze ribbon!
Marianne was such a delight to have here… and we’ll take any excuse to have her come back to visit. Today she wrote to say that she’s donating her dress back… with all that added great karma of TWO weddings!!! It will be arriving on Saturday Nov 7th. The furry wrap is also from The Brides’ Project, and we have plenty available.
The dress was originally donated by a lovely woman named Jodi, whose recent wedding at Palais Royale — judging from the photos – exuded good karma! Check out the pics below! As we anticipated, it lasted less than a couple of weeks in the shop, before Marianne scooped it up!
Photographer: Bard – Living Face Photography
Thank you BOTH for continuing the tradition, and giving this gown a true history of giving back!
The dress is an ivory San Patrick Baltico in a size 14. A description:
Dupioni silk strapless gown with ruching at bust line. Slim fit through waistline with slight gather along side of slim skirt. Beaded lace applique accents.
It won’t last long in the shop – make an appointment if you’d like to try it on!
We so greatly appreciate the high demand for our appointment time slots, and lately it’s been a little bit of a challenge to meet everyone’s requests! To avoid disappointment, book your appointments as early as possible (2 weeks ahead if you can!). Helen is more than happy to add hours as she is able.
We will also be open from 5-8pm on Friday November 6th. On the appointment form, just specify you’d like the Friday in the ‘extra information’ field.
If you already have an appointment, please make sure to notify us as soon as possible if you need to reschedule or can’t make it – that way we can offer your spot to another bride who may otherwise be disappointed. Even last minute spots can be made available this way. We greatly appreciate your cooperation and patience as we try to fit everyone in!
I just wanted to thank our lovely weekend clients … we had an amazing group of brides, bridesmaids, mums, etc., everyone was great about helping us keep the shop neat, and we had ZERO no-shows!!! It makes a huge difference ladies… not just for other clients, but also for our volunteers who are so generous in putting in their time here. Thank you for making OUR experience here fun and enjoyable as well!!! Congrats to all the brides who found dresses, and for those still looking… keep posted! We do get new dresses all the time, and would love to have you capture one of the peaches that ends up on our doorstep
We look forward to the upcoming week and all the great brides coming to visit
Just a reminder that this weekend is a long one, and we’ll be open Saturday, September 5 but not Sunday the 6th. We’re taking this one off!
We’ll be open again on Wednesday, September 9.
Please note that we will be closed at 3pm on Sunday August 16th and are only accepting appointments for the 12:00 and 1:30 time slots. A few spots still remain so fill out the appointment form if you need to come see us. Thanks!
(416) 469-6777
(734) 418-3332