In this episode of Let’s Talk Weddings, host Lesley sits down with Gayle Morrice, the new owner of Kudos Bridal Couture in Dunfermline, to talk through her whirlwind journey from discovering the shop was closing to signing the deal within weeks and taking over the business by August. The conversation covers Gayle’s background running an events styling company and working in interior design, her plans to bring in new designers and build on the store’s existing reputation (while keeping much-loved staff member Megan on board), and the emotional handover from outgoing owner Jackie, who built Kudos into the beloved shop it is today. Along the way, the pair swap stories about their own wedding dresses, trade tips on when brides should start dress shopping, and share some lighter moments about family, karaoke, and starting a new venture later in life, before Gayle closes with a heartfelt promise to make every Kudos bride feel seen, supported, and beautiful.
Gayle Morrice, the new owner of Kudos Bridal Couture in Dunfermline, joins host Lesley on Let’s Talk Weddings to share the story behind her whirlwind takeover of the shop. It all began when Gayle’s future daughter-in-law went dress shopping at Kudos and discovered the store was closing, prompting Gayle to quietly make enquiries of her own. Within months she had signed the deal, with a full handover completing by the 1st of August. Gayle talks candidly about the emotional call with outgoing owner Jackie, her determination to keep beloved staff member Megan on board, and her plans to bring in new designers after a trip to Harrogate, all while balancing the business side with her husband and leaning into the creative, “pretty part” of the role that plays to her background in events styling and interior design.
Beyond the business talk, the conversation turns personal, with Gayle and Lesley swapping stories about their own weddings, from Gayle’s dress being flown up from a London designer to Lesley’s memories of the Evening Times wedding supplement, and both reflecting on what happened to their dresses decades later. They discuss practical advice for brides, including how far in advance to start dress shopping and the growing trend of second “going away” dresses, alongside lighter moments covering Gayle’s love of singing, her family, and her honest take on starting a new business past 50. The episode closes with a quickfire round of favourites and Gayle’s heartfelt promise that every bride who walks into Kudos will feel seen, supported, and beautiful.
Let’s Talk Weddings EP 5
Welcome to Let’s Talk Wedding with Your Scottish Wedding. I’ll be your host today, Lesley Trainer, and I am so excited. I’ve got the beautiful Gayle and Gary in the studio today. Hi, guys. Hi. Hey. Aw. This is very Oprah, isn’t it? Oh do you like it, this- It’s very posh. Oh it is. It is, very much. If nothing changes- Nothing changes.
It’s lovely. Thank you for having us. Uh-huh. No thank you for, for coming on. I’m so excited. We’re not used to posh places, are we? No no. I’m sure you are. ‘Cause yous have obviously led a very glamorous life, have you not? Oh that’s a lot of rubbish. Is it? What are you talking about? Well your acting careers and, like- Oh.
I paid her to say that. Did you, aye? Thanks. Thanks for that, Taylor. No bother. No bother. Not as glamorous as you would think. So is it just what we see then that, that looks very glamorous, whereas in the background it’s just not glamorous? Like- Les, I’ll have you know, it’s hard work. Oh I know it’s hard work, 100%.
Yeah. Like, 100%, I get that. No it, it’s, it’s lovely. I mean, being an actor is is not for the faint-hearted, put it that way. No. Especially when the world is a-changing, eh, Gary? It’s changing very much. No it’s, it’s, it’s tough. Mm. And you need to be well, you need to be thick-skinned at points- Mm. Yeah.. and be tough, ’cause, you know, you, there’s a lot of, lot of, uh, refusals- Told you’re shite sometimes
and knock-backs. Yeah. but we’ve been lucky enough. Oh listen, really, we’ve been very lucky. Uh-huh. Very lucky. Uh-huh. Maybe, I mean, you’ve been doing it a long.. You, child. Can I tell a story? So really quickly- Oh here we go. Shut up. So- See you. Right. Can I just say before you start the story- Yeah.. so just so that people know, so Gayle, you were in River City for a long time.
Yeah. And Gary, you were in Mrs. Brown’s Boys. Yes. Yes. Yes. So just so that people know that. So- He was also in Take the High Road. << Daew, naew, naew, naew >> Oh. But yes, that, that’s- So my very first-ever boyfriend’s wee brother was in Take the High Road. What’s his name? And I went to go on set. It was so my boyfriend’s name was Barry Brown.
I can’t remember his wee brother’s name. It made that much of an impact on you, Lesley. Ah, that was a- Little wee pest. Little wee pest. But do you know what? Take the High Road just was my school because I lived down in, I’m from Bredalbane. Uh-huh. Uh, and I live in the Vale. Yeah. And they would obviously film round about us- Yeah
and that was the kinda local school, the Vale. Yeah. And they came down to film, and we would do wee bits and bobs as extras. I mean, and I had to say a line. They were like, “Can you just say bye-bye to..” And it was your sister, the girl Shona, who were in the school. Oh and you were up on the season with her.
Yeah. And I was like, “See you later, Sarah.” Like, gave myself lines, right? But Gary was there, and I remember you were like that, “Hi. Hi.” You were dead nice, actually. I mean, and then you turned out to be- Well yeah, nice.. and then I turned out to be this. Yeah. Nice. Aye. But I remember it being, I was probably about 13, 14, Gary, when I first clapped eyes on you.
And then it was years, and years, and years later until we actually finally got together. Destiny brought youse together. Well and the color of her hair. But uh, the two gingers. But uh, no, I, as Gail said, I started when I was 12. Mm-hmm. Were you 12? 12. Right. And The early, uh- Child, child actor.. a child actor.
Uh-huh. Tell
the story about the audition and- I know, the audition. So I remember it was back in 1992, and what was happening was that STV were going around various schools looking for kids to, to go and audition, but it was blonde-headed boys they were looking for. Right. And my drama teacher, Terry, had.. and Mandy had said, “Oh I’ve got a blonde, but I’ve also, I’ve got a ginger.”
Uh-huh. And they said, “Oh well, send him anyway.” And I- You’re more strawberry blonde, to be fair. Yeah. I, no, I was lot, lot, lot ginger then. Right. Just gray now. And I was going, going white now. Tell no porkies. And uh, hanging about with you. And uh, so we, we went.. I remember saying to my mum, because I had never from a background of acting- Yeah
we were a working-class family, and- You’re a Pollok, aren’t you? Yeah fae the Pollok. Oh sorry, the Pollok. And uh, and I said to my mum, “I’ve got this, uh, chance,” and, uh, off we went. I remember it was at Goldbergs at the time. Yes. Do you remember Goldbergs? Off I went to get a new rig out. Aw. A style card, mum.
You had a style card. We had the style card. Well I’ll tell you this, that’ll tie in with what I’m gonna say. And off I went to the Pollok centre, now Silverburn, get a new rig out- Yeah.. and jumped the 48 bus to Cowcaddens, and there I walked into a room of 50 children, all blonde, and me. Right. So the- So so the good thing is you stood out.
Yeah exactly. Oh I certainly- Exactly.. I certainly stood out. Cut a long story short, a couple of auditions, and they offered me the, the job. Amazing. And it changed my life. Yeah. It changed my family’s life. Wow. And uh, great memories. Martin McManus, James, and Blythe. It was a fantastic, uh, opportunity, uh, and a lovely time.
Yeah. From that job, I was able to pay my mum’s style card off. Yes. And that was- And that was the Taggart.. my proudest moment. And that was from Taggart. Absolutely. Yeah that was Taggart. Uh-huh. And I remember you saying- Aye, wee Betty was no longer in any debt. Uh-huh. She’d been.. I was the baby of the family.
Uh-huh. She’d been paying this card off for years. Forever, I know, because the interest on it was so high. It was. It was. Isn’t that so lovely? But no, and that was me, that was sort of me put on the road to, uh, uh, to acting, and that’s when I got the bug. How great is that though? so that’s, that’s the lad up.
And that’s a very proud moment, isn’t it? It was. To, to help your family. Aye, I was proud and, uh- You’re very giving.. the wee boy fae Pollok- Yeah doing a police drama He’s made good. He’s made good. He’s, he’s, he’s still doing the drama. Do you know, the m- the most I’ve kinda done for my parents is I’ve, I’ve, I have got them a couple of holidays to Tenerife.
Lovely. Not, I’ve not paid any cards off or anything like that. You could have bought them a couple of Vesta curries as well. I mean, come on, don’t be hard on yourself. But now I’m out of job, I’ve not got much to offer anymore. Oh no, you’re only having a rest. You’re gonna get snapped up- I’m having a rest, aye
so you’re not gonna be out of work for too long, lady. Oh good. So don’t, don’t. ‘Cause you’ve got lots of.. But so, and we always gonna touch obviously that, you know, River City’s now finished. So what’s next for you? Because are you now, am I right in saying that you’re training to be a celebrant? Is that right or is it wrong?
So- Oh she’s past that point now. She’s past that point. There’s no returning. She’s past that point. She has her wings and she’s flying. So I think- Amazing.. as a, as an actor I do a l- well, myself and Gary host Yes.. a lot. We, as we do for you- Yes yes.. at Your Scottish Wedding Awards- Yes.. which we had a total ball.
Last year was our first year. The best, the best. And it was great, wasn’t it? And uh, yeah, we are obviously, we do this and we’re obviously, yeah, we’re, we’re out there available. And I think as a, as an actor, you need to wear a lot of different hats. Of source. So Gary- It does, uh, celebrate funeral celebrancy Yes And I said, “I quite fancy that.
That’s a really nice thing to do for someone” Oh. So I got lumped with it. So from February I’ve been going out shadowing him, and let me tell you when I tell you he is the best in the business no, it’s- No you are. Shut up. So he’s really good- Uh-huh.. and he’s been such a great mentor. Yeah. And I’ve done maybe about 10 funerals now.
Have you? And I’ve enjoyed it immensely, just being for the families. What a special thing, though, to do for somebody because it’s one of those things, isn’t it, where you’ve lost a loved one and you just don’t really know who to reach out to. Uh-huh. And if you can get somebody- Aye.. who’s going to be incredible at telling that human being’s story.
Such an honor for a celebrant- Yes.. you know, for us to be given that role. Uh-huh. You know, I sort of fell into it. I’d lost my brother six years ago, and then my dad three years ago. Left Mrs. Brown. Yeah. Uh, I’d moved back to Glasgow, and I was just- And we’re glad to have you back.. well, thank you. Uh, but I was just lost.
And of course- Yeah.. when I look back now really, you know, we’re coming out of COVID. I’d just had a, a baby who was premature. I didn’t obviously have the baby, my wife did. Yes. Lost my brother then- Yeah.. you know, everything was just all- A lot.. on your plate. Yeah. Uh, then Dad passed, and it just something, you know, I had many people in my life that passed.
Yeah. And of course loved them and missed them. But something with a parent, it just- Yeah.. something dies with you. Yeah. Yeah. and it was a, a friend of mine, uh, my cousin’s, uh, husband who’s a funeral director, and he said, “You should possibly look into doing this.” Uh-huh. “I think you would be good- Uh-huh
because of Jared and your dad. You can be empathetic, et cetera.” Yeah. Or not find a public speaking. Absolutely. All this carry on. It’s using your skillset as well. Yeah. Like mostly- Absolutely.. and actually I remember saying to Gary a couple of months ago, “Gary, you’ve got such a good why you do this.” Yeah.
“And I don’t know what my why is. And- Then when I started, ’cause I’m quite an analytical person, right? And I thought about it, and when I go to a funeral, sometimes you don’t know any more about the person when you go in to when you, you leave. Yes. And it’s their last show, it’s their last send-off.
Absolutely, it has. It’s really a special thing. It’s, it’s their celebration of life, isn’t it? Yeah and it’s a big responsibility. Yeah. And actually, that’s where my why came from, ’cause I would, I would always be like, “That was shite.” Like, give the, give that person the best that they should- Yeah.. you know, work hard on the eulogy and writing it- Absolutely
and actually using your skillsets. Yeah. Public speaking- Yeah.. writing, being creative- Yeah.. with the stories that you’re fed from the family. Yeah. And you’re only given a short snippet of that person’s life. I know. Because you can’t fit it in- Of course you can’t.. to just one service. No of course. But it has been, it’s been an eye-opener.
It’s been quite a beautiful experience, actually. Yeah. And it’s lovely when you walk away as, as we do- Yeah.. and the family are so grateful. Yeah. And they’re so.. They can’t thank you enough. Absolutely. You get the wee message the next day. Yeah. That’s nice. “You made it so special.” I always wait on that, you know?
And you walk away, ah, you walk away, and you just think, “Okay that’s why.” I think it takes a special person, though, to do that job, whereas I couldn’t. I would just be a blubbering mess. I’d be reading everything. Well I am sometimes. And I would just be crying. I honestly would be crying. Like, if somebody cries- Yeah
in front of me- Yeah.. I immediately just cry. Actually, you’re emot- you’re emotional. Because I’m like, “Oh my goodness.” Like they’re, they’re hurting, or they’re sore. Yeah so I couldn’t do it, so hats off to you guys for, for going down that. No thank you. And- We, we need more people like you in the world.
No as they say- Yeah.. as I always say to families, you know, they say, “You enjoying it, Gary?” And I say, “If we can use the word enjoy, I enjoy giving back.” Of course. I enjoy making you walk away from your loved one- Yeah.. knowing that you have done your loved one proud- Yeah yeah.. just by the help of, of me.
Absolutely. We’re there to narrate their story. Yeah. and of course, as Gayle’s saying, the experiences and comedy may be pulling into that empa- Yeah.. being empathetic, all those little things. And here we are falling into that. Uh, will I ever act again? Never say never. Absolutely. But for me, and this- Door’s always open.
Uh-huh. For, for me, doing this journey was, it was, that’s what I found I had to do. That’s where you were, the place that you were at. Yeah yeah. and it’s turned into this is a, a new business. A career. Uh-huh, which is very exciting. Yeah. But you’ve also written plays, Gayle. Like, you’ve.. Was it just last year you did that?
Like, share. Last month. So well, last month, and actually I did, uh, an adult panto, so that was a bit more risky. Love it. It was very. So tell us, so where did the inspiration for that come from? Like- Well I think, uh, I mean, it’s just, it’s working class humor, isn’t it? I mean, sometimes it can be a bit smutty, but, uh, I don’t think anybody ever goes, wakes up in the morning and goes, “I’m a writer,” right?
Unless you’ve, you know, you’ve went to university. Yeah yeah. You’ve done a, kind of, writing course. Yeah. I’ve just, kind of, fallen into it. And I think, like, when I’ve spoken to production companies or maybe been in something- Uh-huh.. they’re like, “Gayle, do you have voices in your head?” And I’m like, “Well aye.”
You know, characters. Yeah yeah, yeah. That’s what I mean. And I think that- Beautiful.. yeah, I just I think, uh, yeah, just starting something, having a vision, having characters in your head, like really- Uh-huh.. analyzing people. Uh-huh. I enjoy that. Very creative though. Yeah. And I, I, it was actually the l- the one last month was in Aurum More.
Right. And I’d written it with a lovely guy, Mark Pye, and working class story about bingo, but it was about friendship, love, like, you know- Nice.. stakes are high. Like, you know, all the, the working class themes that we expect, and then the adult panto was an absolute godsend. It was a hoot. Yeah. And that was probably..
I’m really, really proud of that, ’cause it was good, wasn’t it? No it was very funny. It was funny. I, I got to see it. It was very good. Yeah. So will you resurrect that again this year, or- Yes. We’re doing, uh, Jack with a Big Beanstalk. Oh. Uh, that’ll be going out in February actually. I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Oh she, she needs to wash her mouth out. That’s what she needs to do. But do you know what? It’s like you can go anywhere with something like that, and actually the beauty of that was that when I f- first put that out and you do a table read, you’re like, “I don’t know how this is gonna go.” Yeah. And actually when the first night we went up, it was like bang, bang, bang, and then you would land a joke.
Yeah. And I thought, “Right okay. All of that’s working. It’s all right. You’ve learned as you’ve went along in your life.” Yeah. Because you don’t know. Yeah. And you did enjoy the audition process, finding Jack and the big beanstalk. The beanstalk and his big beanstalk. That was, kept you busy. But it was, it was actually the wizards were the big boss.
And we had Sanjeev Kohli in, uh, play the big boss. It was hysterical honestly, and it was really good, and everybody was really on board. Yeah. I, it was just a, it was actually just a lovely team to work with. Uh-huh. I think I would talk to Gary when I was writing the panto- And I was like, “Gary, it’s gonna be shit.
It’s gonna be this, it’s gonna be that,” and oh, and I’m walking in this park, walking the dogs, and he’s like, “Will you cop yourself on? I’m burying people every day. Go and see a ward of dying children and then you’ll know what the..” You know? Absolutely. That is nothing. And he does, he puts me in my place- Yeah
for that because you’re in- So that’s perspective, isn’t it? And you’re put, and you’re- Not very much.. you’re creating, you’re making people laugh. You’re- Yeah.. you’re giving back as well. Yeah. Yeah. That’s it. But you’re entertaining. Like, you’re having a laugh. Like, come on. Yeah. It’s not that deep. And- There’s a lot worse things going on
I know. And you also don’t know that what that laugh might do for somebody. Like, that might be the worst day of their life or, you know, maybe something, they’ve just had a crap day. They wish they hadn’t got out of bed. And then you’ve just made.. You’ve turned that around because you’ve made them laugh.
Well I do that for Gary every day. We speak every day. Oh the phone bills are increasing and increasing. Three, four times a day. And see if it goes straight on the answer phone, I just ping it right back. I go, “Oh no, he’s put it on DND so he doesn’t need to stop and talk to me. I’m just calling that again.”
You do. Do you do that? Short dial. No. Yes you are, pal. Boys. I know. Man talk. Love it. Oh. So obviously we’ve, we’ve touched obviously on your careers and stuff like that. Is there anything else? Like, if you could go back to, like, your sort of 16-year-old self.. Well you were 12, so you’d need to go back further than that.
I’ll go back to 16. Like, is there anything in life that yous would change? Is there anything that yous would have done differently? Or would you have gone into acting? Would you not have? Like- I mean, you know, the acting- What would you tell yourself? I would probably tell, you know, that 16-year-old to- Uh-huh
to not worry so much. Yeah. You know? I, I think with my kids now, I say, “Please don’t worry.” No. And especially the job I’m doing now. Uh-huh. That life is so short. It is, and it’s precious. Don’t worry. Yeah. Enjoy. And I wish I’d, you know, been more relaxed back then. It was always, I grew up so, so quickly- Yeah
within the acting world. Yeah. I, I, I.. Yeah I was, I wish I’d went on the boys’ holidays and just relaxed more. Uh-huh. and again, don’t be frightened about making mistakes, because you learn from mistakes. Of course. But at that time you don’t think that. And of course at 16- Yeah.. you, you thought you knew everything.
Yeah. and I, so I, I would say just enjoy and just don’t worry. Yeah. I always say there’s, you don’t fail at anything in life. It’s just a life lesson. Yeah. That’s lovely. Yeah. I don’t believe in like, you know, those losers and winners- No.. and, and all that kind of nonsense. I just think that- We’re on this planet for such a short period of time- No yeah
and you don’t know what tomorrow’s gonna bring. Yeah. So you’ve just got to- It’s so true.. ride out the storms and ride out the good times and- It’s so true. And even now, you know, the, the, since losing Dad and, and, and life has changed. Yeah. It’s, uh, changed me, uh, that my outlook is now I don’t people please the way I used to.
Yeah. I do things that suit me. Yeah. Uh, I look after my children and, and the timeframe. Yeah. I spend more time with them. I make them more priority. Yeah. I’m not chasing career. Yeah. I’m not chasing money. Because all of that really- It’s irrelevant.. yes. Isn’t it? The big grand scheme of thing. When you look at the big picture.
Yeah. And you just think, “Okay let’s slow down now- Uh-huh.. and enjoy time with friends- Yeah.. time with family- Yeah.. doing things for you.” ‘Cause it’s so precious, isn’t it? So precious. It really is. It really is. It really is. Life is precious. But I do think sometimes you get hung up with- You do.. “Oh I need to get the car.
I need to get the house. I need to do the..” Yeah. That’s it. So ’cause when I obviously started Your Scottish Wedding up- Yeah.. like, I sold my house. I sold my beautiful big house. That was huge though. It was, and we lived in a cara- we lived in a caravan for a year and a half. In a caravan. That’s it, in the caravan.
I know, I love them. is it- That’s right.. those thingy giants? What do they call it anyway? Yes. but yeah, so, so I did that, and I thought, do you know, like, we’ve had all that, but we started with nothing. Like, Ted and I genuinely started with nothing. I was 21, and we built everything up ourselves.
And I thought, do you know, you can always make money. Yeah. Like, I really, like, you really can. That outlook, because I think that, you know- Especially from somewhere like, like you’re asking would you change anything, and the worry is definitely something, or not people pleasing, or even chasing.
Now, I was always gonna act, but, uh, uh, but you chase a lot. And you possibly go into circles that you don’t actually feel you belong. Right. Okay. And that’s another thing about our industry as a whole. Whereas I’ve really stripped that back and I suit myself.. definitely. And there’s, there’s always that kind of, you have to be on on call for anyone or, like, you know, maybe be seen.
I’m not very good at that networking thing because it’s like you have to go to be seen. I, I could not. Thank you. No passed all that. I know. But I’m past it. I know. And I don’t want to be past anything. Like, I feel as if I’m quite a young-spirited person, but- Absolutely.. you know, talent doesn’t just speak for itself- Yeah
and hard work. Yeah. It’s so much more than that in our industry. Absolutely. Yeah. It’s not about that. Yeah. And especially nowadays, it’s about followers, shite like that, you know? Yeah. And that’s not to say that somebody isn’t talented that’s got all that. Yeah. Yeah. But it’s just not as simple. Yeah. And actually, do I think that if I just kinda rocked along and just kinda..
Maybe my life, I would’ve had more kids or you know, I’ve only got, uh, one wee girl. She’s amazing, and maybe that’s the way my life was meant to go. Yeah. But you know, maybe I would’ve lived a wee bit more of a family life, because I remember when I dec- when we were having Stevie, I remember saying to Jack, like, that, this is the only time we are gonna get the opportunity of a normal life- Yeah
if I’m in this career. Yeah. Because this is so, it, it, it’s beyond anything that my, my man could ever, you know, even go into, because he just didn’t understand it, right? Yeah. Yeah. So it was obviously my career would take away from him. Yeah. And actually, I didn’t never want to, I didn’t want to do that to him.
No of course. So so having Stevie really did give us a normal life- Uh-huh.. in this kinda crazy business- Uh-huh.. that you’re part of. Yeah. So would I change? I would probably just- I would probably just experience a wee bit more actually, and not pin all my stuff on- Yeah.. that career. Yeah yeah. Because you talk to people, Lesley, and they’ve had, like, five jobs.
I know. And like, I’ve had one job my whole life. No. And I go, like- Yeah.. I’ve maybe missed out on something else. So true. Yeah. Because you’ve been so like, “But I, I want the part, and I, and I forget this opportunity.” Yeah. And it’s like, but what have you left? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right? No it’s, uh, it’s so true. It’s funny, isn’t it, reflect, to reflect back and y- y- ’cause, yeah, ’cause I’d never, ever thought that I would own my own business.
I was just always brought up to, you buy a house. That’s, uh- If you buy a h- you’ve got to have a mortgage, you’ve got to be with the one company, ’cause my dad was with the same company for, like, 40 odd years. Yeah. Maybe even 50 years. And and I was just like, God, that sounds so boring. Yeah. I’ve always wanted more for myself.
Yeah yeah. Like, so so yeah, it’s funny looking back and you kinda go, gosh, I.. But here we are today, and, you know, we’re all doing the things that we want to do, and like- That’s it.. where, where we are. Happy. Uh-huh. Happy. Contented. I think it’s like we’re pivoting. Uh-huh. P- like, we’re, like, I suppose I, I’m really at a crossroads where I’ve, I’ve spoke to you about it.
Like, you’re, you’re pivoting all the time. Uh-huh. But does it really matter if you’ve got the big motor and the, the cad and- It’s only stuff. It’s only stuff. I know. Whether you drive a Micra or whether you drive a Maserati- Yeah.. it’s four wheels and it gets you from A to B. I think just not- No
catastrophizing life is a
really good thing. Uh-huh. So true. Just to go like- Uh.. you know what, it’ll come and it’ll go. Absolutely. In this job now, when you’re dealing with families, and when you meet families- Oh.. and it’s not a big, about the, the big house- No.. or the fancy cars. No. Do you know, the most touching thing is when you’re reading a eulogy or you’re meeting a family and you’re discussing the, the memories, it’s the caravan holidays.
Yeah. Absolutely. The camping trips. Yeah. The day to Largs. Yeah. Yes. The fish supper- Yeah.. and the pissing rain. Yeah yeah. And you think, wow. Yeah. That’s what everybody remembers. It’s things that cost no money. Not the Maldives. No it’s not the Maldives. It’s not, you know, look at my lovely, you know, marble kitchen.
Yeah. People don’t remember that. No they don’t. And and so by doing this, it’s, it’s just, it’s changed everything, my whole outlook on everything. Yeah. and, and I feel, and, uh, certainly my family, we’re much better for it. Uh-huh. And and we’ve, we’ve been so privileged to w- you know, I’ve worked for 36 years.
Yeah. You know, not unemployed, battered through it. Yeah. Chased a career. Yeah. Uh, finances, all this with it But when you took a step back, I thought, ah, I’ve missed out on that pissing rain with a fish supper with my boys on the beach. Yeah. Yeah. So that’s what we’re doing now. Doing now. Very true. Yeah. I love that.
I’ve I’ve got a friend who is a multimillionaire. And they say in order to keep ourselves grounded, we go back to when we just started dating and we’re going to the beach- Oh right.. with, you know, the wee disposable barbecues. Barbecues. And they have sausages and a can of beans- Mm-hmm
and that’s our dinner. I love that. Aye. It is. I love that because we’ve all started from somewhere. Yes, you, you grow into whoever it is you’re gonna be, but I do. I’m like, you’re a multimillionaire. You could literally have a chef in your kitchen, but you choose to go into the the beach- That’s quite humbling
and have- That’s special I, I think that is because they’ve never lost- No.. touch with where they started. Well as my mother and father say, “Don’t lose your old arse.” Aha. Aye. Don’t forget your old arse. Don’t forget your old arse. 100%. I’m not a multimillionaire by any means, but I mean, I remember in the days of, we called it poverty pasta.
Right. And jack- What was that?. tuna pasta. And I was like to Jack- Oh yeah, I’ve never heard of that.. “Do you, do you want tuna pasta?” Oh tuna pasta. And he’s, “Ah, nah, that reminds me.. That’s poverty pasta. That reminds me of the poverty days.” And I’m like, “All right. Okay. That’s what he calls it.” So we never have tuna pasta in our house.
I’m laughing. Do you not? But I’m like, I quite fancy- Oh God.. tuna pasta now. Are you? I mean, I quite fancy it. Wow, Ollie loves that. Aye. Me saying that, here’s Ollie- Poverty pasta.. and his poverty pasta. So aye, we’ve not quite went back to the poverty pasta, but yeah. So we call water council juice. Council juice.
Aha. Aye. Council juice wa- Yeah.. waters at the tap is council juice ’cause we buy bottled water now. But you know what? I was talking about, like, phones, and I’m really interested in that kinda like, you know, everyone’s, like, absolutely stuck in their phone. And even with, like, Stevie growing up, she’s 14 now, and- Yeah
and she went on a guide camp last year, and I said to her, “Right what’s your, uh, rose and what’s your thorns? What’s your peak and your whatever? Like, what’s your good thing and your bad thing?” Uh-huh. And uh, she said the good thing was that nobody was allowed their phones. That is good. And that we were outdoors because- Or were they all full of anxiety because they didn’t have their phones?
Well, ’cause they had enough to get on with- That’s good.. ’cause they were doing a lot of activities. That’s good. But she said, “You know, when you’re in a group of people, Mom, and they’re all on their phones- Yeah.. the only thing for you to do is go on your phone.” Yeah. True. Whereas everybody was in the same boat- Uh-huh
and they come off their phones. Yeah. So true. And I thought that, I don’t even know. Is that even relevant to what I was saying? Anyways, it doesn’t matter. Have you seen the ban, though, kids can on- Oh I can’t wait. I know. What’s this? Liv- The ban.. so they’ve banned, so, so kids under the age of 16- Yes.. are now not allowed to be on, like, TikTok, Facebook- Ooh
Instagram. They’re not allowed to have accounts. So you’re gonna be fine. No social media. I will be fine Yeah they are, you know But going back to the basics- I do.. that’s what I meant by that about obviously the, your friend on the beach with the beans and the- Yeah.. the sausages. Yeah. I mean, I’m not too keen on the sausages, the lips and lugs and that.
L- But I can, I can identify with the fact that there’s basic stuff- Yeah.. that makes you actually, that really you enjoy. Yeah. Yeah. And actually can’t wait for the ban. Yeah. Don’t know what they’re gonna do. There was a wee girl interviewed the other day, and the, she had her face on her like- Oh.. like smacked her.
No happy.. like she was raging. And the interviewer’s like, “So what was your screen time last year?” And she was like, uh, la, uh, yesterday, and she was like, uh, 12 hours. Oh. Something like that. 12 hours in a day, by the way. Hours. Mine’s about seven in a, in a week, right? So anyways, this wee girl was interviewed and she was like, “Oh my screen time was 12 hours in the one day.”
And the, the interviewer said- That’s a lot.. “And what are you gonna do then in place of that time?” And she went, “Stare at the four walls.” Like, she was raging. And I thought, “I get it.” But that worries me because- I know.. the youth, as we did in our days, not so much phones, but we always find a way around of- Uh-huh
that, so it worries me that, that things aren’t getting monitored. Yeah. That our kids are.. I mean, I try and say no. Well it’s like an ele- electronic babysitter, isn’t it? Yeah. Well it can be. I mean, we’re all, we’re all guilty of it. And we’re all guilty of it, of course we are. Yeah. Yeah. You want peace and quiet for your own kinda like- Well maybe so much that, but you know, like when we’d be traveling a lot when we lived abroad, we’d be s- the first thing we’d do is there’s an iPad- Yeah
for him to watch a movie- Yeah.. so that nobody else in the plane-.. was disturbed and that we could- Yeah yeah, yeah.. relax. Yeah yeah. Or in a restaurant. Yeah. I get all that. Yeah. But social media’s different because your, their attention spans are like that. ‘Cause they’re just flicking. I know. And I sound like an old- But you are Okay.
Yeah she’d be bottled up, honestly So that’s okay. I cannot work with him. Let me tell you, Lesley, that these, these awards are gonna be absolutely brilliant this year. I was just about to say, so we’re not doing the awards together then. Oh we’ll do it together. The two gingers have split. We’ll do it together.
Yeah they’ve split. Well sorry, what were you gonna say? No I’ve got nothing to say. Right. So that naturally just brings us onto the awards actually- Oh.. because Can’t wait.. you joined us last year, which- Yes.. I was, I was absolutely ecstatic when you guys said yes. I was like, “Oh my God, we’ve got them.”
’cause we needed a wee change. We always had Elaine C. Smith and then we just needed a wee change because you can’t, I think, keep using the same people- No.. time and time and time again. Yeah. ’cause people want to see a change. Aquavitae shelf life. Yeah. No of course. so yeah, so you joined us last year.
You’re here again this year. Yes. So the date is the 22nd of November. It’s at DoubleTree- DoubleTree.. by Hilton. Yes. in Cambridge Street again. so yeah, so do you want to tell us just a wee bit about who the opening act’s gonna be this year? ‘Cause I’m very, very- On you go. On you go.. excited. Oh it’s the super sexy, the super talented Callum Beattie.
Drum- Oh I was gonna say drum roll. Ah-ha. I mean, what, what a thrill. Callum Beattie’s, he’s- Yep. Callum Beattie. He’s a fallen sweetheart. He’s so- Yes.. brilliant. He is. And do you know what? He’s a cracking guy into the mix, isn’t he, Gary? What I love about.. I met him years ago, uh,
and his manager Dave. We became great friends. Yeah. What I love about him- Lovely.. is that in this industry you can be affected and you, you know, things can change. Yeah. He’s, he’s growing- Yeah.. and his popularity, his fame’s growing. Yeah. Yet he has not changed one bit. He doesn’t change. He’s gonna be out doing himself in schools.
Oh loves that. He’s just amazing. Isn’t he? They do so much for charity. I love that. He’s just a genuine guy. Yeah. Uh, and that’s what, uh, just makes him extra special and, uh- Yeah.. they’ve agreed to s- I know.. well, we’ve managed to tie the date down. Yeah. I’m so, so happy. I know. Thrilled. And just what an entertainer, though.
I know. And that’s such- Imagine that having your a- your, your opening act. But that’s the thing- Yeah.. because l- I mean, last year the entertainment was brilliant as well. It’s always, it’s always incredible. Such a great night. Yeah. I mean, before the dinner we had those light up things. We had everything.
Remember all of that? We were having a rave- As we was having the meal.. before we even had the chicken. It was brilliant. And actually the food was amazing. You had you’d chosen it all. What was it? It was a something Wellington. I think it was like chicken Wellington. The chicken Wellington. Yeah. It was a chicken Wellington.
Beautiful. Because usually you get your function chicken or your shin of beef, you know? Yeah. So- Whereas it was really different.. yeah, so we usually do a beef dish just because I always think beef is a wee bit more Like high-end than- Upmarket.. than chucking. But but yeah, so, and I thought we’ve done, we’ve done beef again, like for all these years- Yeah
so we’ll change it up. And chef said, “Look, don’t think that chicken’s a, a, a different or a bad option.” So he- he’s always.. Stuart, I’ve got to give Stuart a shout-out because h- he is the head chef at the DoubleTree. And he’s such an incredible human being. Like, I always go in every year and go, “I want something that nobody else has ever had.”
Yeah. And he goes, “Well here she comes.” And he’s like, “Oh no.” Absolutely. and he just always takes that brief and he just runs with it, so he’s incredible. So so yeah, I’m really excited for this year ’cause we’re, we’re five. Yes. This is- That is five years.. big year. Uh-huh And it’s been a, it’s been a big journey, but like what you’ve done- Oh it’s been a slope
in the last, like year as well. But I mean- It’s not been easy.. no, but I do think it’s all coming good.. and nothing is, but- And it’s actually such a great night. Like we had, we had a ball. No it was a genuinely a brilliant night. Uh-huh. Yeah. Everybody in the room- Yeah.. everybody knew why they were there. Yeah.
Uh-huh. They were there to enjoy. Yeah. Yeah. It was a big party. Yeah. It’s a posting awards ceremony. It went so quickly. Celebration. Yeah. When we, when we got all the papers through and looked at the scripts, it’s, “Oh my goodness, we’re gonna be here all, all, all night.” And it was like, yeah. It flew by. Yeah.
And then it just partied. And we took the cars last year. We’re not taking the cars this year. I was gonna say, you’re not bringing the cars this year. No. No. We’ll- No.. we’ll- We’ll all stay over.. maybe sh- I’m not allowed out. She gets two Proseccos and that’s her. No listen, I’m the same. I go and I say my speech, and then I come off.
The shoes are kicked off- Yeah.. and I had my flip, had my flip-flops on last year. But there’s, there’s a, there’s a, a reel of me in my flip-flops, and I was like, “I need to get nice wee sandals for this year.” Nice wee sandals this year. I’m not, I’m not doing flip-flops. Use the style card. Nice wee sand- I’ll get you a nice pair of sandals.
Oh do you know what though? It is such a great night, and it’s lovely for the whole industry to celebrate, isn’t it? ‘Cause it’s like where they let their hair down. Yeah. I think that having somebody like Calum Beaton, and we’ll obviously have a DJ and- Yeah.. that kind of thing. Yeah. And we, but that guy, that sax guy was brilliant as well.
I know, I know. He was- He was something.. Conrad. He was, he was- Conrad was great.. Conrad was amazing, yeah. he is.
The whole package was brilliant, and, and we’re so looking forward to it. Oh yeah. Yeah. So looking forward to it. Yeah so I think, like this year we are five, so we’re just pulling out all the stops for it. Yes. I’m thrilled that you guys are gonna be there again. We’ll have a couple of games as well flung in there.
We cannot wait-.. to absolutely mortify these guests. Yeah. How’s your donkey? Yes absolutely. Honest, we’re doing well. Sorry. yeah, and, and we might do a few wee competitions and stuff like
that. Yes. So so nice wee prizes- So much looking forward to it.. will be in there as well. So so yeah I’m so excited for this year. I, I genuinely am. Like, and also Like I started the awards because I’m so passionate about this industry. I genuinely am. Like, like You can see that. No you are. And I, you know, when we first met you, I couldn’t believe how passionate you are.
I could actually cry just now, you just talking about them, honestly. Like I came into this industry years and years ago started in venues and then went to Scottish Wedding Directory for 17 years. And I, that was my dream job, dream job. And then when it closed, devastated, which is obviously why we’re here now.
so for me it was important to To really have a voice for the industry because they work so hard. I mean, honestly, these people are up at, like, sometimes 4:00 in the morning, sometimes 2:00 in the morning to get to a venue or to set up or- For someone’s special day.. and then they’ve got to go back the next day- Yeah
and then collect all that stuff, and they maybe already got another wedding on that day. So I just think that’s all the things that people don’t see- Yeah.. the, the graft. They don’t. Ah. The amount of work that goes into it. Uh-huh. They just see the pound signs because obviously th- these things cost money.
Uh-huh. But it’s like the graft that goes into that- Uh-huh.. is phenomenal. Uh-huh. Yeah. And it really upsets me, like, when m- potentially wedding couples will say, “Oh why is a cake £600?” or, “Why is that £1,000 and why is that?” And I’m just like, “Because you don’t see what actually goes into it.” Yeah. No like- They’re not..
It’s just not just standing at a, you know, your kitchen sink whisking up a few- It’s not a Victoria sponge we’re talking about here, you know It’s not a Victoria sponge. These are- Lego cake. No. Ah, like, they’re making the flowers, they’re making the petals- Yeah.. they’re making- Yeah.. absolutely everything. so yeah, so I’m so passionate.
If I can give them a voice and show them, you know, like, they are genuinely.. You know, I want to look after them. It’s not my job to look after them, but I just want them to have- You’re appreciated. I want- Give them a pedestal to be seen. Uh-huh. I want them to have a night just for them. You know, get glammed up.
Yeah. It’s just for you. Let’s go, all go out, have fun. and win an award. But if you’re in that room, I genuinely.. Like, we do so many checks, like, so many checks, so if they are in that room, it’s because they’ve, they’ve ticked a lot of boxes. Yeah. You know, they deserve to be there. Yeah. So for me, this night is an incredible night just for, just for us to give back.
It’s a great honor. It really is. So important. And you can really see that, and they do really use it as their- Yeah.. their night out. It’s, it’s like a big Christmas night out, isn’t it? They go wild, and why not? And everybody’s lovely. You know- They’re like the like the-.. genuinely lovely people. Uh-huh. Oh they are.
They are. Like, this industry is incredible. Yeah. Incredible. Like, if someday, if something happens they will just swoop in to help. Yeah. Yeah. That’s kind. Like, you know, it’s everybody’s got everybody’s back, and I love that. That’s, that’s one of the things that I absolutely love. Yeah. And it’ll be here before we know it.
I know. November. And then after that’s Christmas, of course, you know. I know. Yeah. Oh I know. What you wearing that night, Gail? Oh I don’t know. Maybe something, you know, a wee skimpy number. Just- Oh.. couple of nipple tassels. Oh no. A wee, a wee thong. No again. No again.
Aw. It’s been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for being here. No thank you. And thank you so much for hosting again this year at Your Scottish Wedding Awards. No thank you. I really can’t wait for it. It’s like we cannot wait. We’ll have a fantastic night. We’re gonna have a great time. We certainly will.
Thank you. Yeah. And we cannot wait to see Calum and do all the The hosting and- I know.. and all, it’s all the carry on that we love, the carry on We do, and I can’t even see your new pair of sandals. They’re lovely. I know. They’re lovely. I’ll have my big heels on at the start, and then they’re getting chucked to the side.
They’re getting tossed. Ah, they’re getting chucked to the side- Good on you, Lesley.. as usual. Good on you. And then it’s just Prosecco all the way for me. I’m just like, “Right my job is done.” Whoop, whoop. My job is done. Yeah. I can’t do anything else. I’ve organized it. I’ve planned it to the, the Nth degree, so yeah.
That good on you. Yeah. And that’s not forgetting Ted either. Oh wee Ted. Wee Teddy. Poor Ted. I know. He’s the one, he’s sorting out the awards at the side. He’s my rock. Oh I know. He is your rock. Yeah. He’s amazing. Whenever I have a meltdown, he’s like, “Listen, you got this. You got this.” Aw. And I go, “Right okay.
Yeah I’ve got this. Right. Okay. That’s fine.” Jesus. He said it, so I’ve got it. Yeah. No you have got it. Amazing. Yeah yeah. Absolutely, Lesley. Yeah. You’ve done so well. Yeah. So you should be very proud, and we are so excited to see you at the five years as well. I know. Five years. Honestly, it has- Unbelievable
zipped by, zipped by. Yeah. It’s been an incredible journey. And it’s a huge achievement, so well done. Oh thank you so much. Big round of applause. Aw, thank you. Here’s to the next five years. I know. Yay. Here’s to the next five years. I’m so excited, yeah- On that note.. ’cause we got, we got big plans. So yeah thank you so much for coming on the journey with us.
No not at all. Thank you. Thank you. Really appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. No problem. Thank you. Take care.
Let’s Talk Weddings EP 10
And welcome to Let’s Talk Weddings with Your Scottish Wedding. Today, I have a very special lady in our studio: Gayle Morrice, the new owner of Kudos Bridal Couture in Dunfermline. Thank you so much for coming into the studio today. You’re welcome, it’s so nice to finally meet in person.
So we’ve emailed, we’ve phoned, but this is the first time I’ve actually physically met you. I know, it’s exciting. How are you? Excited, nervous, about owning a new store. Tell us how that all came about with the Kudos store. My daughter Chelsea had bought her dress from there – two years ago, and the experience we got there was lovely. My future daughter-in-law, who’s getting married to my son in August next year, wanted to buy her dress from Kudos too. She’d seen that the store was closing – it was on the last weekend of ordering, so – she went, we went together, and I was standing in the store thinking, “Why is nobody buying this? It’s such a tragic, beautiful shop, and Jackie’s so lovely.” Jackie’s retiring. This was just in May this year, and I never told a soul that I’d asked for more information on it.
I set up some meetings. My daughter Chelsea, this particular day, had said to me she wanted to go on a shopping trip, and I said I couldn’t because I was going to a meeting. She said, “Where are you going?” and I said, “I’m going to see about buying Kudos.” That’s incredible – we signed the first part of the deal on the 12th of July, and we take over completely on the 1st of August. That’s amazing – and we’ve done so much already. So by the time this comes out, you’ll have taken over fully? Yeah, we’ve been working fast. My husband’s been so good and supportive. Is he going to be part of the business?
He’s taking care of the financial side, the business side, and between the two of us it should work well. So you’re going to do the front-of-house side, the pretty part? Yes, that would be me. Money and paperwork – that’s not me.
It doesn’t float my boat either, but you’ve got to in business. It’s good that he’s dealing with that side. So what are your plans for Kudos? What do you want to get your teeth into straight away? We want to bring new designers in.
We’re going to Harrogate in mid-September. So you’ll never have been to Harrogate? No. It’s brilliant – you’re going with Jackie, and you’ll love it. I have my eye on a few designers already, but I’ll keep them to myself for now. The experience you get at Kudos is already good, so we’re just going to enhance that a little bit. And Megan’s staying, isn’t she? That was a decider for me – I needed to know that Megan was staying before I took it on. She’s such a good lass, she’s got the kindest heart, and of course the brides love her too.
Everybody who comes in always says, “Oh, I saw Megan,” or “I saw Jackie.” So the fact that you’ve managed to keep the store and keep it alive for years to come, I think that’s really exciting. Hats off to you, because it’s a new venture – you’ve never really been in the wedding industry, apart from your daughter getting married and – now your daughter-in-law and your son getting married, so that’s exciting. It is. It’s not unfamiliar territory though, because I did have my own events company for seven years, doing event styling, so I was already on that side of the business.
When was that? I sold it just before COVID, in January that year – lucky timing, because the company didn’t survive after that. That’s a shame. I had it for seven years and it was good. I did a lot of corporate events, but for weddings I was doing the pretty part again.
That’s what I like, that’s what I’m good at. Am I right in saying you’re an interior designer? Yes, after my son Dennis, who has Crone’s Disease, became really ill, that was the real reason behind selling the events side. And then I guess your creative side comes out.
It is there. I got in with an interior design shop and did that for a few years – I had that flair, that natural talent, I think. I believe you’re either creative or you’re not, and I’ve always been quite creative. That floats my boat more.
I worked there a couple of years, and then we got some grandchildren that I needed to help out with. They’re so good, aren’t they? But your actual kids will say, “Oh, you never let us do that.” I know, there are no rules in Granny’s house, and they love coming.
You want sweeties for breakfast, that’s fine. I get called Gaga, like Lady Gaga, I love that, and he says, “Gaga piecey.” He always wants a piecey. That’s a biscuit, a piecey. Bless him, how old is he? I think here you’d call it a sandwich.
A piece of sandwich – that’s what I would have called a piecey as a kid. That’s funny. How old is he? Aran is two and a half, and Noah is five months. Noah is just like a mini Elvis. Really?
He’s got that Elvis hair, I love it. He’s just cute, loads of hair at five months.
He’s cute. So you’re going down to Harrogate, which is really exciting. You’re taking Jackie, who’ll absolutely steer you in the right direction – she’s done this for a long, long time and knows everybody down there. Harrogate’s an incredible time, so enjoy it in its entirety.
Get your glad rags on, go down, work that room, and love every minute of it. You’ll be invited into specific shows as well – runways where you can see the outfits and choose what you want from that too.
That’s what I’m looking forward to, it’s really exciting. We’ve already picked some new dresses in for the season, and we’ve got a delivery coming – I’m looking forward to getting right in and looking underneath the dresses into it all.
That’ll be a different experience from what we’ve done already for the ones we’ve got coming. And price points – what’s your price point at Kudos? What are your starting dresses going up to, what can people expect?
You could order a dress from around £1,300, going up to two and a half thousand. But we also have sample sales, and a sale room where you can come – that’s straight off the peg.
You can come and get a dress there right now for the price of a blouse in River Island. Don’t say that to me, because I’ll be buying a whole host of them – they could do for many things, if people wanted something fun for Halloween or just getting married, or having a second dress for eloping. A lot of couples are doing that now, because they feel it’s either cheaper to get married abroad, or they just want to be more private, or they’re taking all their friends and family with them, and it’s a built-in honeymoon as well – it’s their wedding day and a honeymoon, so it’s everything inclusive, which is quite nice as well. We’ve featured a few Scottish couples who got married abroad, and it’s beautiful when you’re guaranteed the weather – unless a hurricane sweeps in, which would be typical, wouldn’t it? Well, I’m very excited that you’ve taken over.
I think I’ve said that, but I genuinely am – I’m really excited to see what you’re going to do with it, because it’s a beautiful store. The frontage is beautiful, it’s right on the high street, it’s lovely. So tell us your plans – are you going to decorate?
Are you going to keep it the same, or is this creative flair going to come out? For sure, I’d like to do something with the bridal boutique, but my husband is reining me in right now. He’s the money man, but I usually win, though.
Darling, I’ll take you on holiday, I’ll give you a back rub – just please let me do it. All of that will come as soon as we find the right time to do it, but that’s what I’d like to do.
So you’ve got plans, obviously. The windows – you can see the bridges even just sitting in that room, you can see – the high ceilings, the three rail bridges you can see from the window there – it’s got huge, high ceilings, it’s beautiful, it’s stunning. The front of it is just… I’m assuming it was a house at one point, a beautiful house. Or has it always been a shop? I don’t know the answer to that.
I know it was a hairdresser’s before it was Kudos, so it’s been a business for a long time. I’m not sure what it was before that, but it would’ve been a cracking house back in the day. Have you got bits downstairs as well?
There’s actually a dentist downstairs, and upstairs is empty. She just raised her eyebrows – there’s news to come, that’s probably why her husband’s reining her in, he sees potential. Of course, and that’s the whole thing with it, because it’s a beautiful thing that Jackie and Megan have built over the years.
I know. It was really sad when she contacted me – I’ve got a really good relationship with Jackie and Megan. When she phoned and said, “Don’t say anything,” I said, “No, of course I won’t.” We were genuinely both quite upset on the phone, because I was like, “But we’ve been together for years.”
And she said, “We have, but I need to retire now, Lesley.” I said, “What, so you can go more Munro walking?” I’d seen they’ve got a tech class – she was telling me all about it, and I said, “Well, it’s the end of an era.”
She said, “I’m selling it, it’s up for sale, and I really hope somebody buys it.” We kept in contact, and she said, “No, we’ve got nobody interested.” Then, I was on holiday, and she just said, “Lesley, I think we’ve got a buyer.”
And I was like, “Really?” She said, “Yeah, I think I’ve got a buyer.” Then she said, “But I can’t tell you who it is,” which made me intrigued “Ooh, who is this person?” And obviously it’s yourself. But what a thing to take on, though, it’s brilliant.
You’re going to have so much fun with this. I think a lot of people would be surprised that we’ve bought a business, but not surprised by the type of business, because it really suits me. So it suits you, but not your husband? Well, for that side, the two of us together, it’s a dream.
Aye, it’s a match made. And do you think the girls will ever come into the business, your daughter and daughters-in-law? I think maybe one of them. She’s raised her eyebrows again – I think maybe one of them, who likes fashion. My daughter’s a dentist doing aesthetics,
cosmetic aesthetics, and my future daughter-in-law is a teacher, so I think she’s suited to that. But my other daughter-in-law might be interested, she likes fashion, and she’s from Barcelona, so she’d be good to have.
Perfect. Will she go down to Harrogate with you? She won’t, but we could do Barcelona in February next year with her. This is why you bought this business – so you can jet all over the globe. I know. Absolutely. But yeah, they’re really good things to do.
I’ve never personally been to Barcelona – the furthest we ever went was Harrogate, and it was such a busy time. You’d be working really hard during the day, and then partying really hard at night. Well, that’s certainly what we did.
You’d get invited along to all these private dinners because we were part of the magazine back then. It was great – you’d roll out of bed and straight back into the next day, on repeat for the next few days.
It was absolutely brilliant, I loved Harrogate. You’ll have great fun, and with Jackie by your side she’ll definitely steer you in the right direction. But if you’ve got a very specific look you’re going for at Kudos, then that’ll shine through once you start seeing everything. There’s lots to see and do – it’s on three levels, isn’t it? When I went, there was a massive hall, a huge conference centre, and lots of hotels round about it.
Specific designers would hire out specific rooms in these hotels, I don’t know whether that still happens, as it’s been maybe 15 years since I was last down in Harrogate. No, I believe it’s all in one building now, on three floors.
Right, so maybe they’ve moved it. So we’ll be racing about, we’ll need our trainers on and get the steps in. But remember, you still have to stop for some prosecco on the way, and a nice lunch. I’ll remember to put that on my list, because you’ve got to have fun,
it can’t be all work. You’re just finding your feet, so start the way you mean to go on. Will I see you there? No, as I said, we haven’t been to Harrogate for about 15 years, but I think things have changed now, because all the designers send us everything anyway, so we get everything automatically. For us to go down now would just be to have a party – pretty much. It’s a good reason to go, isn’t it? Well, watch this space. I quite fancy the Barcelona trip though, just to take a weekend off – Barcelona probably ticks my box a wee bit better than Harrogate, although Harrogate is beautiful, I do love Harrogate. You’ll have to go to Betty’s Tea Room. Have you never been to Harrogate? No. It’s really pretty. That whole area is pretty, isn’t it, because Yorkshire’s gorgeous.
Yorkshire’s gorgeous. Right at the top of the woods you’ve got Betty’s Tea Room, a really old-fashioned must-go for afternoon tea. Proper wee china cups, everything matches, and it’s got the silverware.
It’s a really nice experience, a bit pricey, but you’ve got to do it again when you’re down in Harrogate. I’m sure Jackie will love that – well, unless she’s already been. So, obviously, if somebody’s getting married, they’ve got that beautiful ring – when should they start looking for their dress? It’s not that you can just go in, is it? You can, if you’re buying off the peg, but then your selection isn’t as wide. That’s right.
Unless you’re ordering, I’d say nine months to a year – ordering time is four to six months, so start looking nine months to a year ahead. And depending on the designers you have, you’ll absolutely have to order as well.
Well in advance, just to ensure you’re getting the style, the designer you absolutely love and adore – the dress of your dreams that you’re going to walk down the aisle in. So it’s important that you do that sooner rather than later. More and more people are doing two dresses now – they might want a huge dress for during the day, and something sleeker, or a short version of a dress, and so on. Dresses nowadays are incredible, with all these different attachments you can add or take off – you can have a lace overlay. We recently did a shoot, and there was one dress with a huge train, but it fastened at the waist, and it looked incredible. Then you took it off, and it was just a simple dress underneath – it looked like a completely different dress. That’s what I love about the designers now, they’re so innovative and forward-thinking: yes, you’ve got this dress, but how can we make it look different for daytime into nighttime?
And even for your photos, maybe adding a cape on or taking one off – there’s a whole host of ways you can play around with it. Honestly, if I was getting married again now – would it be much different from what you had?
Oh yes, because I’ve been married for 29 years, and there wasn’t a wedding magazine, there were no wedding fairs, there was nothing. I remember going to wedding fairs – I don’t ever remember a wedding fair. How long have you been married?
33 years tomorrow. Tomorrow! I hope you’re doing something nice. We’re going to the Luke Holmes concert at Murrayfield on Saturday, and to the W Hotel for a spa day on Sunday. That’s very nice, good for you.
So 33 years, that’s a long time, isn’t it? I’m 29. I do remember going to wedding fairs, though – I don’t ever remember them. I come from a small place, or it was small back in the day: we stayed in Duntocher, and Mum and Dad are still in Duntocher.
You never ventured out, if you went into town it was a big day out, because we used to call it the village, it was small and that’s just what you did. You went to the wee local school, got married at the wee local church or chapel, and hired the local cars.
You used the local florist, the local hairdresser, and they were always available. The photographer was two miles down the road. There wasn’t anything like what there is now, so for me there weren’t any wedding fairs that I was aware of. I remember seeing my wedding dress in a pull-out magazine.
I can’t even remember what the newspaper was, we’ll say the Evening Times – it was probably the Evening Times, because that’s what my dad used to get delivered. There was a pull-out wedding supplement in there, and I saw this dress and looked at my mum and said, “That’s my dress.”
Going into town was a big deal for us, you just didn’t do that. So I saw this dress and said, “That’s my dress, Mum.” She said, “Right, let’s phone round and see who’s got it.” We phoned round, and it was a designer in London.
It was an Ellis dress. We phoned round everywhere in Glasgow, and nobody was stocking Ellis at that time. We phoned this company and I said, “Can you bring it up from London? We can’t afford to go down to London to get this dress.”
This company, they’re not here anymore, it was Julie Lamont, very kindly said, “We’ll bring it up for you, and you’ll essentially buy the dress from us.” I said, “That’s fine.” I remember trying it on for the first time and feeling a million bucks in it.
That’s what we want the brides to feel. I felt a million bucks in it, and even after the wedding I loved it that much, because obviously, unlike a kilt, you can’t wear a wedding dress time and time again. Generally, you’d get your wedding dress and then turn it into a christening gown for your first child, or a skirt for a Moses basket.
You’d do something with it. Some people just dry clean it and put it up the loft, because people aren’t really handing their wedding dresses down anymore, which is a real shame. Have you still got yours? No, but for a good two years after I got married, Ted used to come in from work and I’d be hoovering with my dress on.
No you didn’t! I absolutely did. I’d think, “I’m just going to put my dress back on,” and I’d be hoovering in it, quite the thing. He’d say, “What are you doing?” Well, they do say you should buy a dress you never want to take off. Honestly, just go to Tesco and do your food shopping in it, or wear it every day.
No, it was just in my wee flat at the time. He’d come in and say, “What are you doing?” and I’d say, “Why not? I love it.” Then it went up to my mum and dad’s loft, because at the time we were only in a wee two-bedroom flat, so there was no space to keep the dress.
So it went up to mum and dad’s loft for years and years. Then, after we’d been married about 12 or 13 years, I thought, “It’s just taking up space up there, it’s not doing anything.” It was Thai silk, and stupidly – beautiful, beautiful material.
This daft one here thought, “I’ll just wash it.” It smelled of 12, 13 years in the loft, so I put it into the washing machine — and shrunk it. All that beautiful silk had shrunk by maybe 25 centimetres, whatever it was.
I thought, “I’m just going to cut the underskirt out,” and put it into our local charity shop. They sold it for a small fortune, because it then looked like a three-quarter length wedding dress, which was apparently quite in fashion at that particular time.
New to somebody else, that’s nice. I thought there was no reason to keep it – it didn’t fit me after 12, 13 years anyway, I’d have been lucky to get a toe in. So I gave it to charity.
Mine’s still in a drawer underneath my bed, still looks like the day I took it off. Do you ever put it on? I wouldn’t get a leg in it. Did none of your girls want to take your dress? No, I look like I’m a rang. I wouldn’t. So you’re keeping it for sentimental reasons?
I just don’t know what I’d do with it. You don’t want to see somebody else in it? I think if I keep it long enough it might come back into fashion, because everything else does. You could put it in your shop window! It would scare people away. I bet it wouldn’t – some of the designers, it was – what they’re pulling off nowadays is incredible. It was a nice dress for the time. I actually won… They used to do this thing where you’d see the brides that got married that week in the paper, the announcements. There was a bride of the week, bride of the month, and bride of the year. I won bride of the week and bride of the month, and then all the brides from that month go forward. It was my name printed with the wrong photo, so I never knew if it was actually – it was that person who got contacted, but it was my photo.
And they never reached out to you? They wouldn’t have been able to, because it was the wrong name with the wrong picture. What a shame. But it doesn’t matter, I got a nice crystal rose bowl. I’ve actually started collecting crystal rose bowls now.
You have? I’ve gone for wee dinky ones, and I’ve got quite a big one in my lounge now – I don’t know why, it’s just a thing. Do you have the cage in the middle to hold the roses up? I specifically buy them with a cage already, I’ve got loads of them in my house.
Wedding presents. It’s just a thing my gran always used to have, and I don’t know whether I’ve gone back to that and thought, “I quite fancy a rose bowl.” We were up in Pitlochry, passing a florist, and every time I see a florist or anything to do with weddings I stop in my tracks and think, “Who are they and what are they all about?”
There was the most beautiful crystal rose bowl in her window. I said, “Is that for sale?” She said yes, and I said, “I’m going to get it.” It’s pride of place in my living room, and I always have roses on it, because my gran always used to do that. Oh, grannies, are the best, aren’t they. I lost my gran, unfortunately, when I was only five, but that always stuck with me – that she always had really pretty flowers in this beautiful rose bowl. When she died, I wouldn’t have thought that was a significant thing at all.
You’d just think, “Oh, yeah,” because I was five, what do I know. But it’s funny how that resonates with me now. So it’s pride of place, doing what your granny did. I miss my wee granny, she was great. She was what you’d depict as a typical good granny, a good granny, a kind, kind-hearted person. So, all the conversations you’re going to have with all these incredible brides coming into your store – it’s going to be great. But you don’t just do dresses, you’ve got accessories too. We do.
At the minute they have bridesmaids’ dresses, but we’re not going to be continuing with that – we’ll sell what we have and just focus on bridal. Veils, are you going to continue doing that? Yes, all that – tiaras, brooches, for your hair and so on.
We borrowed a few of them for a photo shoot and things like that – every time we come in, Megan will say, “Do you want to take anything else?” and I always say, “Oh, yes please,” scan the shelves, and go, “Ooh, I love that, and I love that,” and just throw it in the basket.
She’ll say, “So when are we getting them back?” and I say, “You’ll have them back for the weekend.” I like to go in and have a wee rummage through the accessories. You can make one dress look ten different ways with accessories – it can lift it, or a lot of dresses nowadays don’t really need anything, to be fair, but if you want something in your hair to break it up, then absolutely. I see loads of people, and now they’re doing gloves – gloves are very in at the moment. But how do they deal with that when it comes to getting their ring on?
They generally take them off. But then that’s ruining the look, isn’t it? You can either put the ring over the glove, which is what some people do, but then it makes it really tight, or you just take the gloves off. I guess it’s more of a photo shoot thing, but it’s not really practical, is it?
But it’s a statement, though. I had gloves for my wedding. Did you? I like the sleeves, I like them, but the gloves – I love a glove, I think it just elevates it. Did you take your glove off when you were getting your ring on?
I did, and put it back on after. My engagement ring was already off – my bridesmaid had it, because the glove would make a huge indent otherwise, and it just looks silly. So once the band was on,
I just kept the band, and put the glove back on. It was fine, simples. It was great. Twenty-nine years has just flown by, but it must have flown by for you too, 33 years – in a blink, hasn’t it. It’s been good, though, and that’s the whole thing.
We were talking earlier – one of my other guests I’d had in was saying, make sure you’ve got the right person. If you’ve got the right person, you’ll go through life and build an incredible life together. When I opened up Your Scottish Wedding five years ago, I’d worked for a company in publishing for 17 years.
They closed it down during COVID, and I was so upset – I thought, what’s going on, the industry can’t not have this title. It’s their bible, the Bride’s Bible as they used to call it – the brides used to say, “Oh, it’s a bible.” I thought we can’t not have this incredible magazine.
So I took my redundancy money, and my husband said, “What do you want to do in life?” and I said, “I don’t know. I’m too old now to work for somebody” – because I’d had the most incredible and kind offers. I thought, “What am I going to do?” and I opened up Your Scottish Wedding.
I put every single penny of the redundancy in, emptied our savings account, and then had to sell my house, Gayle. That’s brave. But I don’t think that’s brave, because the kids were grown – Ted’s kids are, you know, 40 and 43, and the grandkids are just about to turn 15 and 20.
So we didn’t have that to worry about. Whereas if the kids were young, it’d be different, we wouldn’t even have thought about it. But when it’s just Ted and I, we just think, “It’s just a house, there’ll be other houses.”
It’s true, because a house is where your people are, isn’t it – I see it as bricks and mortar. It might be beautiful, and we spent a lot of incredible years in that house, and do I miss it today? Yes, I do. But we’re now back in a house, thankfully.
Good. We put everything into this business because I wanted to make sure the industry was well represented – that’s important to me. I’m so passionate about this industry. I can tell, it’s nice. I think you either love it…
It’s a bit like Marmite, you either love it or you hate it. I used to do wedding planning in a previous life, before I came into publishing, and I got to the point where I thought, “I’m done, I’m done with wedding couples.” They weren’t getting it, they weren’t understanding what the whole marriage thing was about, because I had a few wee bridezillas.
I thought, “No, I’m done with this now, it’s not ticking my box,” and went into banking. Oh my God, I hated it. Sitting at a desk, it was so dull, talking to people about money – money’s not my thing, talking about money just doesn’t float my boat.
It doesn’t, and paperwork, no thanks. Spending it, though, I could do in a heartbeat. That’s how Your Scottish Wedding was born, from a place of not knowing what I wanted to do, the magazine closing down, and then thinking, “Well, why not?
I’ve done this for so long,” the industry knows me, and I know the industry. I’ve worked it from both sides, so I understand where everybody’s coming from, it just made sense. So you’re launching your new business now as well. It’s keeping going what’s already going, and building on that. But it’s a new business to you, though. That’s right – it’s not a new business, but it’s new to me. That means you’ll put your own stamp on it, and naturally find your way, navigate your way through. I will.
And you’ll pick your own designers – so designers, watch out, she’s coming. I am, Gayle’s on it, I’m coming to get you. That’s really exciting, because Jackie and Megan did an incredible job for all these years, but it’s yours now.
So it’s your time to shine. Hearing that word, “yours,” it is yours, though. Can you believe it? Did you ever think you’d own a bridal company? No, I never knew what I would do, to be honest. They say things wait for you, and destiny’s a wonderful thing and that day I went in with my future daughter-in-law, it just felt right, it clicked, it really did. I was 47, I think, when I was made redundant. I’m now 53, and I thought, “I’m probably too old to start my own business.”
That’s what I used to think – but actually, I was too young. Too old to learn something new, too young to say I’d never do anything again. And here we go. That’s all bollocks, isn’t it, it’s absolute rubbish, because I definitely didn’t want to go back into learning.
I knew that. I also think it’s just a number, because in my head I’m 18 – some days I’m 21. It’s just a number. The kids, call them kids, the big kids, the 40-year-old and the 43-year-old, always say, “But do you not just want to retire?”
And I’m like, “Nah,” genuinely, that’s just not on my radar. My husband can’t wait to retire, whereas I’m like, “But I love what I do, this isn’t a job for me.” This is not a job. I love chatting to people, I love hearing about their experiences and how they got into the jobs they’re doing, and how they got into the industry, it’s incredible. So it’s just a number, your age is just a number. More and more people now are opening businesses slightly older, which I love, because there’s no reason not to – if you still feel fit and healthy and you still want to, get out of bed and have a purpose in life, that’s inspiring to me. Everybody’s like, “When are you retiring?” and I’m like, “I’m not going to retire any time soon.” What good would that do anybody? My gran and grandpa retired super young, my gran never worked, and my grandpa was 55 when he retired. They did go and do things, but my other gran and grandpa – my gran died young, and my grandpa also retired at 55, but he just sat in and watched telly, and did bowls once or twice a week. It’s difficult to get motivated in the day like that.
And I thought, if that’s what retirement is, that’s not for me, it doesn’t look good. I’m like, “What are we doing? What are we doing?” It drives Ted crazy, because every morning of a weekend, if we’ve got nothing on work-wise, I’m looking for something to do. I’ll say, “Right, what are we doing?” and he’ll say, “Can we just have a day off?” and I’ll say, “That’s a waste of a day, why don’t we do this, or why don’t we do that.” I’m the person that wakes up in the morning, they need to chain you down.
I’m the person that wakes up in the morning and says, “Morning!” – that’s me. All my friends are like, “Dial it down,” but I love breaking into song as soon as I get up in the morning. You’ve got to be happy. The only one who likes it is my son’s dog – I sing to him and he appreciates my singing.
I only sing in the shower, I’d clear a room very easily. I’m as deaf as a dodo, honestly, I have no notes on me whatsoever. I went out with one of my industry friends, Lee, and we’d gone into the Horseshoe Bar in Glasgow, and she said, “Oh, they’ve got karaoke.
Let’s go in.” I said, “I don’t do karaoke, I’ll empty the place.” She said, “No, no, it’ll be great, I can’t sing either.” So she pushed me onto the stage. I’m singing whatever I was singing, and even the guy at the side said, “Oh, hen, you’re really bad.”
I said, “Thanks.” Then Lee went up onto the stage, and my God, she blasted it out – like a professional singer. I was like, “You’ve set me up here to fail, you’ve brought me in here so I look terrible and you look brilliant.” But she was an incredible singer.
Incredible singer, honestly – I said, “You should do this for a living,” and she said, “No, that was in a previous life.” So she had been a singer then? She did cruise ships and the whole shebang. She was a professional dancer too, she did everything.
People like that should be banned from karaoke, because it’s not really karaoke then, is it – we’re only allowed to make a fool of ourselves. But yours was so bad it was good. Well, not even the compere thought that – he said, “Oh, you’re really bad, hen,” and I said, “Oh, thanks.
Thanks very much.” So you’re not an Adele. Absolutely not. We’ve got some final questions now – we’ve started doing a quick round where you say whatever comes into your mind first. So, what’s your favourite curse word?
That needs to be a different podcast – I can always say that, beep, beep. What’s your favourite colour? Blue. Light blue, dark blue? Just blue, any blue. Who’s your favourite person in the entire world? Well, it would usually be my son-in-law, Andrew. Oh, so not your kids or your husband?
But I have to say my husband, because he’s allowed me to buy a business, and our anniversary’s tomorrow. What gets you out of bed in the morning? Well, I like singing, I can break into a tune right away in the morning. Quite happy in the morning, just being me.
You’re just happy to be alive, and living life to the full – just do the day, and that’s the way it should be. Sing to the dog, Bruno. What’s the wee dog called? Bruno. Well, he’s not that wee – he’s a golden retriever, and he’s an absolute menace.
You sing to him, and he laps the kitchen, he loves it. I sing him a good morning song. How does your husband feel about your singing? Hates it. Do you think your brides will like it? I’m loud.
Will they expect you to sing? It’s just because I’m loud. I love it – I break into song thinking I’m Beyoncé, Adele, Celine Dion, all of the above, all the big powerhouses. Final words to brides coming to Kudos? We’re looking forward to and excited about welcoming brides onto this new chapter with us.
That’ll be so good, whether they’re looking for their dress or ready to say yes to the dress, we’re looking forward to being part of that story. Our promise is simple: we want every bride to feel seen, supported, and absolutely beautiful. I love that.
Gayle, it’s been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for coming in and speaking to us today. Thank you, it’s been so good. When are we doing another one? We’ll get you back in in a few months, with the bubbles, for the world’s tonight.
Absolutely, we’ll ditch the cars for sure. But it’s been a pleasure, thank you so much. And for meeting you too, Lesley, it’s been so nice. Thank you, that’s really kind. You’re just as you seem on the platforms – you’re exactly what you are, I’m like a tin of paint, what you see is what you get. You are very real. Thank you very much, that’s really kind, Gayle. Thank you.
Host: Lesley Traynor
Guest: Gayle Morrice from Kudos Bridal Couture
Length: 43 minutes
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