…as Bride stores develop one-stop wedding service

Richard Branson’s Virgin Bride store is to become a one-stop shop for weddings a year after it started selling wedding dresses.

The move follows the appointment of an events co-ordinator, Debbie Dwek. She will head a new division which will enable couples to order everything including the venue, flowers, wedding list services and even the honeymoon.

Couples can choose any number of the services or, alternatively, provide a budget and allow Virgin Bride to organise the entire day.

When Virgin Bride opened its first store it always intended to be a one-stop shop but until now it has concentrated on dresses.

The idea came from a Virgin employee who recognised the market potential after organising her own wedding. If the idea takes off, there are likely to big financial rewards. There are over 300,000 weddings a year in the UK, which cost on average 8,500 each.

Virgin has one store in central London but plans to open more across the UK by next year.