About Us

If you ask one our Brides, how did you hear about Maria Modes, the answer is usually the same, my friend recommended you, she just said I HAD to visit you!

We are pretty special, even if we do say it ourselves…  being a large store with lots of choice isn’t that unique, first class customer service, and a 15 year award-winning history, so what is it?

It’s a combination of all of that, plus lots of little things which, when brought together, make us stand out from the rest.  Maria Modes has a simple ethos, to provide a luxurious and first class experience to all our Brides without the pretence.

For us, wedding dress shopping should be one of the highlights of your engagement, yes because you get to try on the most beautiful dresses and feel like a princess, but also because it’s such a special moment in time with your family and closest friends.  We hope the memories you make at Maria Modes will stay with you and your guests for years to come and we feel privileged to be a part of your wedding journey.

We aim to make everyone who walks through our doors feel welcomed and at ease whether you have an appointment with us or not and having an open door policy is just one of the ways we keep things relaxed.  Some brides are nervous about wedding dress shopping so the idea of not being able to pop in ‘just for a look’ before committing to an appointment can be quite off putting.   This open door policy continues throughout your journey with us, Brides drop in to collect accessories, to colour match shoes, show distant relatives who are visiting for the day ‘the dress’, you name it, you are always welcome in store.

We also don’t buy into any sales gimmicks.  All our dresses are labelled with size, designer, price and name and you are happily given all these details to take away to research and compare.  We gladly let you take photographs, of whatever you want, to help you remember our gorgeous dresses, as we know it can be hard to keep track.

Everything we do is to help our Brides, we want you to choose your wedding dress with us for all the right reasons and to find your time at Maria Modes enjoyable and special regardless of whether you find ‘the one’ with us or not.  We know we don’t have every Brides dream dress and we’re ok with that.

Now that doesn’t stop us from trying! We have over 200 stunning dresses in our shop and they all come from leading bridal designers.  Our brands are the crème de la crème of the bridal industry, you’ll find them wining awards, featuring in all the big bridal glossy magazines and leading the way with new trends and designs. 

We don’t just choose our dresses by random either.  Owner Emma likes to use her analytical side to research what styles we’re missing, what popular styles we need alternatives too, what have Brides been asking for and what sizes we should order to make sure we can offer every dress shape in every size.  There is more to dress buying than you think!

We purposefully invest heavily in each designer meaning if you come to us for that particular brand you won’t be disappointed in the choice and size wise we have you covered too.  Unlike most bridal shops that only stock samples in a narrow range of small sizes, our dress samples range anywhere between a UK10 to UK20, and all can be ordered up to a UK30.  Check out our Plus Size tab for more information.

So as you can see a lot of thought has gone into making Maria Modes the bridal shop it is today and we haven’t even talked about our amazing staff and the complimentary fizz!