Wedding Supplier Spotlight: Rosalyn's Emporium

One of the most personal and long lasting choices you can make with your wedding is your rings.  This symbol will stay with you throughout your marriage and holds such a strong meaning. 

Over the years new designs have formed and the possibilities for this keepsake are truly endless, so much so it can become a little daunting at times. This is where todays supplier Rosalyn’s Emporium comes in handy…..quite literally. Roz offers a service where you actually get to be part of the creation of the rings and not just the design mode but in the hand on practical approach. 

We caught up with Roz to find out more about her service and her thoughts on wedding planning in todays modern world.

Hello there everyone, my name is Roz and I am a bespoke jeweller. I specialise in teaching couples how to make their own wedding rings & bridal party gifts. Clients can make wedding rings from gold, platinum, palladium or silver. I do it because I love it. It’s born out of a hobby that started with making wedding rings for family, friends & I hope that genuine passion & slow growth shows in my approach & non-hard sell sales pitch. Most couples know pretty much straight away that this is for them & that’s the joy – it sells itself because it’s so special. My business is pretty much my 3rd ‘baby’ (after my 2 real-life babies). I’m fortunate to have a workshop space at home so I can fit it around my young family & welcome wonderful clients into my home for a private, highly personal & unique wedding experience. I also take on bespoke commissions, repairs, recycling of jewellery into new items & am slowly developing my own jewellery collections.

The bespoke nature of my business & my love for new, interesting projects means I seem to attract unique requests from couples. I like a challenge so will normally find a way to make something happen where other’s can’t or won’t.

I worked for a large jewellery & watch company for years so have witnessed the mass manufacture & selling of jewellery & ‘romance’, the scheming that goes on behind the scenes to sell things to you/us. My business is everything opposite to that. It’s from the heart, home grown, loved & adored from the inside out. If I have to ‘sell’ it to you then it might not be right for you & I accept fully that it won’t be for everyone. I don’t want everyone. I want the special clients who seek something different, lasting & their own.

For every couple that connect with me hope that they see the genuine passion that I have for my business, the care & attention I take with each of them to make their perfect rings & experience unlike many conveyor belt wedding suppliers. That’s why I love the Chosen wedding fair because it is all about finding something unique.

The biggest worry I hear from my customers is what happens if they can’t make the rings is the most common. They say “I’m not crafty / creative / good at this kind of thing” and so on. But rest assured I won’t let you mess it up, don’t worry! The truth is, we use simple hand tools to shape the metals & as long as you have some decent hand eye co-ordination, a bit of attention to detail you will find it hard to go wrong. You have a silver sample ring which I use to demonstrate each step & you practice on before moving on to your own rings. The most risky thing is soldering & I do that. I am there every step of the way & jump in to help if needed so everyone leaves with professionally finished rings & the satisfaction of making something amazing. It’s not in my interest for clients to make rings that they don’t like & don’t look good. I am always so proud to show off what they’ve made. I’ve never not shown a pair of finished rings, they are all perfect in their own way.

The start of the process varies slightly depending on how I meet the couple. Either we start a conversation in person at a wedding fair or via email if they found me online. Normally couples come to my workshop for a consultation which involves trying on my wedding ring samples, discussing every detail of what they want to make & then me taking all relevant finger measurements. It’s private, personal & unrushed. I allow 1.5 hours for a consultation & this seems to be the perfect amount of time to feel relaxed & get to know each other a little. Ultimately I am inviting strangers (at first) in to my family home so I also want to ensure that I can enjoy spending time with them & trust them too. It’s a very intimate experience in a way. I try to guide & advise them but allow them to make their own decisions too. I can be flexible & the beauty of running my own business means I can adapt to suit each couple. Each project brings a new aspect to my work & keeps me engaged, interested & encouraged to do more & add new things to the business & what I can offer people.

During the making stage I get to know my clients more and we get to talking about all things wedding related, including the stresses they may be experiencing and my one piece of advice I always give is that no one will know what’s missing on the day apart from you so let it go.

The biggest worry for people today is budgeting and over whelming choice. I got married 11 years ago this year & even then weddings were starting to average £14,000. We had no where near that much to spend so did a lot of things ourselves, prioritised what would have lasting meaning to us & our guests & skipped the ‘nice to haves’. We’d been together a long time already so didn’t want a long engagement & that was a good thing for us because we made fairly quick decisions & just did it without labouring over minute details.

When we were planning our wedding I started watching loads of wedding programmes. I enjoyed watching them for pure entertainment value & just couldn’t believe how much money people would spend, or how much effort & minor detail went in to one day. It made me realise that I didn’t want our wedding day to be a stressful, money draining experience that we, or our parents would be paying for years later. I didn’t have a fancy car to take me to the wedding because everyone would be inside so no one would see it apart from me but we did have an amazing cake to share with everyone. We decorated the venue ourselves & we had jasmine plants on the tables instead of cut flowers because I didn’t want them to be thrown away when they died a week later. It smelt & looked amazing & I could give away living memories of the day to close friends & family at the end of the night. We chose great food because we knew our guests would appreciate that the most & had a ‘pay for your own drinks’ bar in the evening but had wine on the tables for dinner.

We lived together already so didn’t ask for a wedding list to replace material things we already had but for contributions towards Trailfinders vouchers instead. On our 1st anniversary went to New Zealand for 3 weeks for a belated honeymoon which is still one of our best experiences yet. Prioritise what’s most important to you, not everyone else & don’t try to impress & please everyone because you can’t.The only thing I would change if we did it again would be getting a better band or DJ. I think there are so many more options now which can make choosing so much harder. There’s a lot of pressure now. Ultimately have some fun with it all, it’s you special day so if you want something in particular have it, there are fantastic suppliers out there and the world truly is your Oyster.

My final thoughts on my work is that in my head is an imaginary ‘Emporium’ (a large shop that sells many different types of goods) which is hopefully what my business will turn in to one day. Thank you to anyone who puts faith into my little business now, you are helping me reach my dreamworld…..maybe I can welcome you in to that one day too.

You can keep up to date and find out more about Roz's new pieces at the following channels:

- Website: www.rosalynsemporium.com

- Facebook: www.facebook.com/rosalynsemporium

- Instagram: @rosalynsemporium

- Pinterest: www.pinterest.co.uk/rosalynsemporiu

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