Meet Our Designers - Romantica of Devon
- Sarah Smith
- Aug 30
- 2 min read
A British Bridal House
Romantica is a family owned and run British business since their inception/creation over 30 years ago. Through the eyes and drive of talented designer Sally Waddington, they know honesty, integrity and family values are incorporated in all the distinctive wedding dresses that they produce.
Starting out with Sally as the designer and factory manager and her husband Mike as Sales Director they set up with the assistance of 20 machinists in a small factory in the heart of the Devon countryside. They quickly expanded the brand over the coming years as the designs evolved, whilst keeping their core values central in all areas. Twenty years ago they moved to a larger premises, but still operate in the Devon countryside and 3 more members of the family have joined the business and continue to drive the legacy forward.
They have a dedicated in-house team bring a varied set of design skills and experience to their dresses. With expertise in different areas from textile design to pattern drawing, construction and draping, the team ensure each design is produced to an exceptional standard. Fabrics, laces and embellishments are hand-picked for each sketch allowing the designs to capture the romance and elegance of every style. The designers are constantly drawing inspiration from the ever changing concept of the 'Wedding.' This allows them to keep up with bridal trends and themes whilst endeavouring to provide a range of dresses with a style for every bride.
We first took Romantica dresses almost 30 years ago. The then Sales Director, the wonderful Mike Waddington, drove up from Devon in a big white van kitted out with rails on either side, which were crammed with dresses. With his help (I was very new to the bridal industry) I chose just 3 dresses. He didn't want to sell me loads, he wanted me to start with a few dresses, that he knew I'd be able to sell. I can still remember what they looked like now - one was a full-skirted gown, in ivory with a caramel trim - it came with it's own top hat, in ivory silk - very much of it's time!!! Since then we've bought countless dresses from them and hundreds of our girls have worn dresses by Romantica. We love the designs, we love the fabric and the embellishments. We're proud that we have a great relationship with Sally Waddington (still the MD and a woman with a great passion for bridal and with a breadth of knowledge that is unrivalled in the industry) Neil, the Sales Rep (Mike is sadly no longer with us) who's great fun, Sharon in accounts and Jon in Customer Service who's always good for a natter on the phone!
One of the special things about a Romantica dress is that there is a blue lace rose appliqued into the lining of each dress. It's your 'something blue'. It's little touches like this, that matter.
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