a meandering journey
Bev’s Accessory Shop has been a meandering journey over 15 years.
It all started with a decision to get out of school catering in 2000. I had always made cakes for family and friends and decided to make this a full time job. We set up a professional kitchen in our house and Sakura Cakes was born.
Our success soon outgrew our kitchen, so we took on a bricks and mortar shop from which to bake. Wedding cakes became our main focus and through marketing at wedding fairs we grew a network of contacts in the wedding business. We moved our premises next to a lady called Grace who sold ‘everything but the gown’. Frustrated trying to source things for her own wedding, Grace founded her shop to meet the missing gap in the market. The advantage of having our shop next to hers was obvious, and it didn’t take long to realise we could collaborate to deliver exceptional service.
The challenge all of our clients had was finding great wedding dresses at sensible prices. So by 2004 we’d moved to a far larger premises and were offering everything including the gown! We pioneered the concept of a one stop wedding shop in Hampshire and offered fixed price packages which included the dress, groomswear, cake, photographer, car and venue decoration. Those were very busy years.s well as delivering the weddings, we were usually at a wedding fair on the Sunday chasing new business.
In 2009 we had to make a life choice, my husband had a couple of great opportunities either in London or Hong Kong. We chose the London route and moved our shop online. I was surprised to see that the fascinators went very quickly. This made me have a closer look and I soon worked out that I could make my own designs and sell through Amazon and eBay. And so Bev’s Accessory Shop came to be!
In many ways it was full circle, instead of baking cakes, I was now working from home making fascinators. The basic business model was the same. Quality, bespoke designs, lovingly handmade.
In 2013 my husband had to have treatment for cancer so we decided to step back from the London rat race and enjoy a more rural way of life.. We were fortunate to have a holiday home in France so took the plunge to move full time. This was pre-brexit and borders were no barriers to doing business.
We continue to develop the French and European markets, whilst streamling our delivery to the UK.
However, our core principle remains the same, Quality bespoke designs, lovingly handmade
