WELCOME BACK TO OUR WEDDING Q&A SERIES!
I am delighted to be chatting with Audrey, founder of the gorgeous Azure Jewellery. Audrey chats all about bridal jewellery along with giving some really amazing advice to help you choose the perfect style to suit you on your very special day!
Tell us about you?
My name is Audrey, I am the owner of Azure Jewellery. Prior to Azure, I worked in Sales and Marketing for a great Cork company, Beamish and Crawford. During my time here, I travelled a lot. While working with Beamish and Crawford, I was afforded the opportunity to work in Paris. I adored the Parisian way of life, the style and of course, their accessories. While living there, I took jewellery making courses to make friends and help me with the french language. This gave me the opportunity to meet with french jewellery designers.
Fast forward 3 years, with an opportunity for redundancy and an itch to scratch, I opened Azure in 2004. Initially I imported jewellery from Paris. Remy Dis was the first brand I stocked, I sold this brand solely in the store. I soon realised there was a niche in the market for handmade bridal jewellery and accessories. I retrained in this skill and started producing jewellery in Cork in 2010. We were able to facilitate the market much better and ultimately provide the brides with a much better customer experience a better choice and service. This eventually led us into all aspects of the market. Communions, confirmations, mother of the bride and basically anyone that needed something made for a special occasion.
Your jewellery selection is so beautiful, where do you get your inspiration?
I watch bridal trends very closely. I am constantly trying new things and new designs based on our bridal consultations. I see loads of dresses on a daily basis during the consultations, these images dictate a lot of our designs. I have 17 years of experience in Bridal Jewellery and Accessories so have learned a lot from the many brides I have dealt with over the years. Our pieces are also very nature inspired. We use lots of leaf and flower components. These elements give our pieces a very soft and romantic look.
At what stage should brides start looking for their jewellery?
The bride must have the dress before they can begin to look at jewellery. Seeing an image of the dress is a really important part in our jewellery/accessory creation process.
Once the dress has been purchased and the bride has an idea of how they will wear their hair, we recommend the bride comes into us about 3 months prior to the wedding. This allows us making time and also allows additional time for the bride to make tweaks and changes to the piece before the big day, this is especially important for head pieces.
When it comes to bridal jewellery, brides can either go subtle or go statement. How would you advise to go either?
The type of jewellery is completely down to the style of the wedding dress and the look the bride wants to achieve. Every brides desired look is different. Usually if the dress is simple, the bride can go for something more statement with the jewellery. Similarly if the dress is more detailed, we recommend a more subtle piece. This is not always the case however! Jewellery can be a lot of fun to experiment with and will always surprise you!
What are the trends you love at the moment?
Pearls are very in at the moment and will be for the whole Summer. I am loving the gold and pearl trend at the moment.
I designed a whole new collection around this trend I love it so much. We launched this collection just two weeks ago, The Aura Collection.
Do you specialise in bridesmaids and mother of the bride jewellery too?
We absolutely do. We have a wide range of pieces which we have designed especially for bridesmaids gifts and mother of the bride. These pieces come in a selection of colours to match any bridesmaid or mother of the bride outfit. This is ideal for brides, they can sort their own jewellery, their bridesmaids, mother and flower girl accessories in the one appointment.
For a bride that is looking to go for a classic and timeless look – which of your pieces would you choose?
One of our most popular pieces, the Hilary, is one of our most timeless pieces and is the perfect addition to any up style or down style. Our pearl headband is also a very classic, timeless piece option and compliments so many hairstyles. I would pair either of these pieces with our Ariel Earrings. The Ariels are the perfect earrings to include a little of both pearl and crystal and compliment the Hilary and Pearl headband beautifully. The beauty of most of our Bridal earrings is that they can be worn over and over again, the Ariels are a perfect example of this. I would normally pair one of our beautiful tennis bracelets. It can be nice to have something soft present on the wrist.
For a bride who is looking to have a statement/bold piece of jewellery – which pieces would you choose?
For a statement, bold head piece I would choose our Tanika. The Tanika is a big statement head piece, its normally worn as a headband. We can make it in silver and gold. The Tanika is beautiful paired with the teardrop lou lou earrings in silver or gold crystal. Both real statement pieces.
Tell us how brides can reach you?
We are delighted to now be open to the public again however we are taking bridal consultations by appointment only. We are heavily booked up for the summer which is great. We are happy to facilitate any last minute weddings as we know how difficult it has been for brides over the past 12 months.
We are always available to contact by phone ((021) 4915919),
email ([email protected]) and are very active on our Social Media platforms (@azurejewellery), we get back to all messages as quickly as possible.
