The Unveiling of a Dream: The Launch of Zoe Rowyn Bridal

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Imagine searching for the wedding dress of your dreams, only to realize that it doesn't exist. That's exactly what happened to our guest, Corina’s from Zoe Rowyn Bridal, inspiring her to take matters into her own hands and start her own bridal brand. She shares her amazing journey with us, from the moment she realized that her dream dress was waiting to be created, to the launch of her brand just days before her own wedding. Listen in as she shares the thrill of pulling off a campaign shoot for her line on the eve of her nuptials in scenic Portugal.

This episode is packed with gems, including Corina’s unique approach to design and the importance she places on creating a joyful experience for brides. We also touch upon her invaluable tips for navigating wedding planning without losing your sanity.

Special series season in partnership with Coded Agency

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Founded in 2019 by Corina Culeva- a long time fashion industry actor, Zoe Rowyn was, like all great businesses, triggered by a personal need. Having always been distinguished by a strong personal style, Corina decided to make her own wedding dress, tailored to her needs and desires of a stylish modern bride. In the process, she discovered that she had much more to offer to the modern bridal market. An entire collection of minimalist yet sophisticated bridal gowns followed. The collection expresses the designer’s admiration for sensual simplicity, contrasting with whimsical details. Corina created a brand for the chic, bold, and sophisticated brides like herself.

Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoerowynbridal/

Places to go - People to see:

Kelly's Site: http://www.kellymcwilliams.com
Kelly's Blog: https://www.kellymcwilliams.com/blog
Instagram: @kellyamcwilliams

About Kelly:
Kelly knows how incredible a well planned wedding can be. Every moment counts and every decision plays a part. Wedding planning should be fun and as easy to do as possible. Besides planning weddings, Kelly travels the globe as an industry speaker. Kelly is a Martha Stewart Top Wedding Planner & this podcast won Brides magazine and WeddingWire's best podcast.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hello and welcome to this versus that making wedding
decisions with Kelly McWilliams.
This podcast is for you ifyou're making a wedding decision
and want to know what toconsider before saying I do to
all the things that will makeyour wedding experience a great
one.
I'm your host, kelly McWilliams, and I'm so glad to be a part

(00:30):
of your wedding planning journey.
In each episode, you can counton me and my expert wedding
co-hosts to give you everythingit takes to make the best
decisions for the wedding thatyou're dreaming of.
And here we are, back in thecoded agency podcast studio at
Melange de Blanc in New YorkCity.

(00:51):
New York brand market fashionweek.
Oh my goodness, what was that?
Okay, sorry about that.
I don't know if you heard it.
I did.
This is the last recording.
I'm so sad.
This was the most incredibleexperience and, just as a
reminder, one last time we're in.

(01:14):
Melange de Blanc, hundreds ofpeople, models, wedding dresses,
coffee cafe, the hustle andbustle, the buyers.
Mac makeup is over in thecorner.
We have famous footwear herewith all of their shoes.
I'm so thankful and gratefulthat coded agency brought me in

(01:37):
here to do this and to be ableto bring all of these incredible
designers to you guys, and Ireally do truly hope that you
will listen to these episodesand take the time to go and look
at these gowns and look atthese collections that are brand
new.
These women have just broughtthe most amazing gowns to the

(02:03):
table and I can't wait for themto end up in the showrooms, like
as you're going to look foryour dresses in the next few
months.
It's incredibly exciting.
So this is Karina from Zoe RowanBridal, and I did see some of
their gowns just so stunning,but more so, I loved her story

(02:28):
of like why this is allhappening.
I think that you will too, andagain, I think that's going to
mean something when you go shopand you see their names, that
you just know more about them.
I feel like that's that waywith everything, like the more
you know, the more interestingit is and the more you're
inclined to like love yourdresses because you also love
the person who made it for you.

(02:49):
I think it's so exciting.
So, again, I'm just so excitedand glad and honored and humbled
that this versus that weddingpodcast was brought in to do
this, and I can't thank theladies enough from Coded Agency
and my launch to Blanc for eventhinking of doing this and I

(03:13):
hope that I get to come back anddo it again in the future and
again before I just like startcrashing and crying over it
because it was so exciting, hereis Karina with Zoe
Rowan-Brightle.
Hi, karina, it's a pleasure tomeet you today.
Thank you for meeting me hereat Melange de Blanc.
Hi, kelly, thank you for havingme.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
I'm super excited.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
This is great, and you haven't done a podcast
before you were telling me.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
No, I haven't.
I'm super nervous today.
Don't be nervous, it's soexciting.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
So Melange de Blanc is, you know, for everyone
that's just listening for thefirst time it's like a pop-up
bridal market and there's all ofthese amazing designers here
who are showing off all of theirnew seasons, their collections,
and Karina was so nice to comesit and talk to me about her
collection and about her brandand I just wanted you to get to

(04:08):
know her.
So tell us about your brand andhow you came to be and how this
all started.
I think you have a great story.
I wrote a little bit, but Iwant you to tell it.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Well, let's see.
Well, the brand is called ZoeyRowan Bridal.
It was founded in 2019.
I was getting married myself,so I was on this journey of
trying to find the most amazingdress, or the one that I had in
my head, and so I was really,really looking for it, and I

(04:39):
couldn't find it.
It wasn't what I imagined.
I tried a lot of dresses.
It wasn't what I wanted, so Idecided to make my own.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
Oh, let me ask you something.
Did you know how to sew already?

Speaker 2 (04:53):
No, but I did have some experience in fashion
industry, so I knew someone whocould help me do this.
So I just designed it and thencontacted the team to help me
sew it, and then I very quicklyrealized that it's.
I have much, I have many ideas.

(05:14):
You know, so I just wanted tomake them all live and yeah, so
I think I took this decision ofbuilding a brand in like 10
minutes.
I got really excited about thisidea of bringing the gowns that
I had in my head to real brides.
So that was the story.

(05:35):
So my wedding was on 12th ofJune 2019.
And on 15th of June, welaunched Zoj Role and Bridal Get
out Wait.
The same month.
Yes, it was a very eventfulmonth, let me tell you.
I mean really stressful, but soexciting.
There was so much energy, somuch adrenaline.
Everything was working soperfectly.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
So, now I have to ask you on your wedding day, were
you also thinking about thelaunch of your company?
Definitely.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Definitely, of course , also because my wedding took
place in Portugal.
It was a destination wedding.
It was an amazing party we hadthere, and because we were
traveling to Portugal, we didthe campaign shooting there as
well.
So it was one day before thewedding we had the campaign
shooting.
It was a lot, I know.

(06:25):
Looking back, I don't know howwe made it happen, but I have so
many questions, go ahead.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Okay, so just take it back.
You went to go look for abridal dress.
Could not find one that youloved Exactly.
It was out here in the States,or was that somewhere else?
No, it was in Europe.
It was in Europe.
Okay.
So you're like, okay, well, I'mjust going to make my own.
And then, as you do it, you'relike I love this, I have more
ideas and you start sketchingthem out, or whatever you do.
And then you're like I'm goingto start my own brand, I'm going

(06:54):
to have my own design, my owncollection.
You reach out to the people,decide I'm going to launch this
right after my wedding, crackingup over this but it's also how
a lot of wedding planners cometo be so I mean, I was much
younger and much moreadventurous.
But now you're here.
You're in New York.
Is this the first time thatyou've shown in New York?

(07:15):
Yes, it is.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
We launched right before COVID.
So we had these three years ofalmost nothing happening
physically.
So we're very excited, we'rehere.
I got pregnant last year so Ihad this one year of a little
bit of a break so I didn't knowhow we can make it possible, but

(07:37):
we just said okay, we're goingto do it.
You saw, my husband is here, mysister is here to babysit, the
baby is here as well, soeveryone is here, but we're
doing it.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
So do you have your whole collection here today?
Yes, in how many?

Speaker 2 (07:51):
dresses.
Well, we have six dresses fromour new collection, which is
launching today, oh my God.
And then we have I don't know,I think about 30 dresses from
our previous collections.
This is our sixth collection injust that short amount of time?

Speaker 1 (08:09):
Yeah, I think it's like five years or so.
So where can people, where canbrides find your dresses, Like
if they wanted to see themperson?
Do you do trunk shows or?

Speaker 2 (08:19):
Yes, we do trunk shows In the USA.
We have a partner.
Okay, so you can find us atFlourish LA in.
Los Angeles.
We'll see how the market goes.
We'll probably have many morepartners.
We are all around Europe, butwhat's important is that you can
find us online.
The gowns can be bought online,oh that's amazing.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yes, let me ask you this, so I know that you have
been.
I'm asking you truly because Idon't know you as a designer.
You put these collectionstogether.
The only thing I know aboutfashion really is from fact,
what's called Project One Way,so that's what's in my head.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
So you know.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
But so can someone.
If, like, they look at yourcollection and they love what
they see, but they're like, oh,I'm torn between these two.
Is that something that they cancome to you for?
Definitely yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yes, we do that Well, usually they would contact me
us on the website as ourheroincom, and then they would
schedule a meeting with meusually, and then we discuss
what exactly they want.
We can't make a dress from likejust out of nowhere.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
But we can combine the dresses.
We can choose a differentcleavage or a different length
of sleeve or a different lengthof the dress.
So we just discuss it with abride.
She has personal meetings withme, and then we discuss wherever
she likes, and then I come withrecommendations judging by her
body, her type of wedding, theevent and everything, and then

(09:54):
we make a perfect dress for her.
Oh, that's amazing.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
So if someone's in the US and they wanna see your
dresses in person, they would begoing to Fleurus LA.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yes, okay.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
And then there's potential, like if they reach
out to bridal salons in theirarea, is that something that
they can bring in or is it okay?

Speaker 2 (10:13):
But I think the best thing to do is to reach out to
us.
And then we'll recommend a shoparound.
Yeah, and if there is no shop,then they can definitely have a
call with me and then we candiscuss what we can do for this
bride.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Perfect, okay, so I have a few questions I would
love to ask you about.
Okay, so you told us your storyalready, so we definitely
already answered that.
But I was wondering, like,what's the heartbeat behind your
collection?
You said there's six from thenew line.
What brought you to these ones?

(10:52):
Did something specific happen?
Did you see something?
Were you inspired by something?

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Definitely, Well, the main thing is we do
minimalistic designs.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
So really clean lines .

Speaker 2 (11:03):
We use almost always natural silk, Italian silk and
silk variations and thephilosophy is, you know, that
the bride wears the dress andnot the other way around.
I love that.
So we find that it's best whenthe bride has a rather simple

(11:28):
gown.
But simple doesn't mean toosimplistic, right.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
Right yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
And then she can accessorize, she can style it,
she can give it the personalitythat she wants to give it to the
gown.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
I have to tell you I love that perspective that first
of all, she's wearing the dressand the dress is not wearing
her.
But what you just said about,let her create her personality
around it, like the jewelry thatshe wants to wear.
Let her makeup and hair andshoes accentuate everything
about it Exactly.

(12:00):
That is awesome, that is awesome.
I do want to ask you one otherkind of like.
If you had to question, if youhad to choose between lace,
embroidery, sequin, beading orhigh structure, where would you
go?
Now, I know you saidminimalistic.
Yes but is there any room forthat?

Speaker 2 (12:23):
There's a lot of room for everything.
Yes, we like to play witheverything around, so this year
we went full-lace.
You did okay.
So we have this beautiful 100%silk lace, which is gorgeous.
But you know, we like thiscontrast of really elegant,

(12:44):
really classic fabric withreally minimalistic, a little
edgy lines.
Okay, so it's contrasting and Ilove it.
But also high structure is alsosomething I personally love
really do.
We do have structure in prettymuch every collection.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
So when you say structure, does that mean things
like boning and no?
Is that like form fitting.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Yes, I mean for me boning.
We don't really do boningbecause my philosophy is that it
has to be comfortable.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
Oh so it has to be so many people are like yes, I
hear you it has to be light.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
You don't have to feel this weight of the dress on
you right.
So no boning.
But when I say structure, Imean maybe a little more
structure to the fabric that itholds, you know, a little more
draping or architecturalaccessories.
So this is what I mean, this isso beautiful we have to check

(13:46):
it out.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
I'm so excited to go see.
Now.
That's the worst part aboutbeing in this little studio is
that everyone's telling me allthese exciting things and I'm
like I just want to see it sowell.
I want to thank you for for me,for coming in the podcast and I
know my audience is gonna be soexcited, do you know, to get to
know you and now that they knowyou want to see your dresses

(14:07):
and I'm just so excited.
Thank you very much.
And, guys, I gotta tell you Iknow you're used to this podcast
being every episode being soquiet.
It's so noisy in here becausethere are all of these designers
and what they call marketbuyers buyers here to look at
all of the new collections andthere's a coffee shop right

(14:30):
outside and so there's lots ofnoise and fun and excitement
happening in here.
But I just really appreciateyou coming to Melange the Blanc
and for kind of PR to come anddo this for us.
So I appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
Thank you for having me, kelly.
I hope this episode is useful.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Oh, it will be.
I'm sure it will be high, highratings.
Thank you, okay, bye, bye.
I'm so glad to be able to sharemy wedding experiences and
expertise with you and that myco-hosts are so giving it theirs
.
We truly do want you to havethe best time at your wedding,
and our hope is that thispodcast is helping you to make

(15:07):
your engagement time whileplanning your wedding that much
easier.
May I ask a favor of you?
If this is the case, would youjust take a moment to leave a
review of this podcast on yourlistening platform?
It helps people just like youto find the podcast and to also
find out their answers so theycan make decisions.

(15:28):
I would also absolutely lovefor you to give this versus that
podcast a shout out on yoursocial media.
You can find us at this versusthat wedding podcast on
Instagram, and if you would likeme to help you with a specific
question a wedding decisionplease by all means ask.
Send me a DM.

(15:48):
I would love to hear from youand maybe, just maybe, even have
you as a wedding guest on afuture episode.
How fun.
Here's to another great wedding.