By Tania Phillips
Angela Able is an incurable romantic, a girly girl in love with the beautiful dresses and love that surrounds weddings so it’s little wonder that she became first a wedding celebrant and now the owner of the Granite Belt Bridal Wear at the Summit at 61 Granite Belt Drive.
“As a marriage celebrant what I noticed here was that if our lovely brides wanted a dress they had to get it at Toowoomba or Tamworth – there’s nothing in between,” she said.
“I was like wow that’s full on and then when they get there the prices are expensive so I thought rightyoh let’s see what I can do here.
“At the front of our property there is a shop, it used to be a fruit shop a long time ago. There were backpackers in there and then when the backpackers left and we thought let’s do something – it’s a
great opportunity.
“It’s not fancy – but it’s quite large so lovely husband, who is a saddle maker, took one half of the shop and I took the other half.”
It was an idea Angela had been thinking of for a while and so she already had quite a few dresses that had been stored up in the spare room of her house – her dream on-hold due to Covid-19.
“By March, Covid had eased off somewhat and I thought that’s it I’m doing it – it’s now or never,” Angela explained.
“So I had the builder come in and knock the walls out – it’s still not pretty – and I put my dresses in and thought it looked a bit bare so I bought some more dresses and then I bought some more dresses to the point where I think I’ve got about 200 gowns.”
Granite Belt Bridal now has pretty much everything you can get at “the big posh bridal shops” if not Angela can order it in and with fewer overheads, keep the prices down. Catering from all size from six all the way up to size 28, there is also a lot of formal gowns, bridesmaid gowns and deb dresses. As well as new gowns Angela takes good quality clean gowns on consignment.
“I’ve found that works quite well because it helps a lot of the ladies up here,” Angela said.
“They bring the dress in, I market it for them and they get money for it rather than having it sit there or trying to do it themselves – a lot of them say it’s so hard trying to put the dress on facebook or marketplace so I offer that service too. I have a small selection of consignment gowns because you can get a $3000 gown for $500. Essentially it’s been worn once and dry-cleaned so it’s a new dress.
“We also have a nice budget range and in the near future – the next couple of weeks – I’ll be stocking a good range of designer wedding rings by Bob Berg Designs – they’re on order, they are being custom made so I will have all of the samples here.”
Angela admitted she’d always had an interest in weddings and bridal wear, first becoming a celebrant before setting up her shop.
“Absolutely, I mean who doesn’t, I’m a proper girlie – if its light and fluffy and its got layers I’m all over it,” she laughed.
“I became a marriage celebrant because I love people, I love weddings and it’s such a happy thing to do.
To be able to offer this as well to wonderful Granite Belt ladies it’s pretty cool. No-one goes shopping for a beautiful dress when they’re miserable – everyone is happy.
“I’m a true believer in marriage, it’s wonderful – I don’t like the words institution or commitment – because anyone who is in a good marriage is doing it because they love it, it’s so simple – they want to be there.
“I didn’t meet my husband until we were older, I was already 50 when we got married and we had the most beautiful wedding. I said this will be the very last wedding dress I would ever wear because I knew he was perfect – he was the one, but it is agony because I haven’t tried on one of those dresses – I’ve looked at them but kept that promise to myself.”
The store is open by appointment only for further information contact Angela on 0487004509.
