Site updates and server move

This weekend commencing Friday 4th July, we'll be moving the bridalgems.co.uk site to a new home. Up until now our site has been hosted on servers in Atlanta, Georgia in the US, as part of our on going efforts to improve the speed and quality of the site, we're moving to UK based servers. We've fully updated our back end software to support the latest server specifications, which is faster to load and more secure. We don't expect any major down time during the move, and have planned carefully to ensure as little disruption as possible over the weekend.
In the unlikely even that we do run into problems, we will keep the blog live and have a full roll back option should we need it.

Wedding Forum

Ever since the old "UK Wedding Forum" closed down we've been working on a new improved forum and we've finally got to that, ready to launch stage. The biggest difference this time round is we're branding the forum as part of the new Bridal Gems information portal and it's hosted on the bridalgems.info domain. We'll also be heavily promoting the forum to customers on bridalgems.co.uk and to start the ball rolling a 25% discount promotion code will be available for all newly registered members.

Bridalgems.co.uk Site Updates

Over the past couple of weeks we've been doing some major work on the the Bridal Gems website, hopefully we've not caused too much disruption and as most of the work is on the back end of the site it shouldn't be too noticeable. For anyone who's interested, the main bridal gems shopping site runs on a heavily modified Oscommerce shopping cart. The cart has been constantly updated and modified since it was first installed way back in 2003, the latest updates are designed to make it compatible with the newest versions of PHP and mySql, which is the software which keep the site going. The next couple of weeks will see us move the entire site to a new faster server, located here in the UK which should considerably improve the performance of the entire site. The plan is to serve the site from our UK server and keep a mirror back up on the US server we currently run from. This will give us a good solid back-up plan should anything ever go wrong with the main server, and because of the big geographical difference between the two servers it's unlikely that any network problems which might affect one could affect the other.
The new server will also host several of our other website too, but as they're not all live yet I won't post details here, but as soon as they're up and running I'll let the world know. It's been a really busy time on the technical side of things, and we've loads of new plans and features coming along over the next 6 months, with new products, and some great website features and deals. As soon as we get the server move out of the way we'll be working flat out to get them all rolled out.

Bridal Gems Auctions

We've been selling on ebay for the past 4 years and usually have 80-100 items available at any one time. Over the past few months ebay have been making changes, which quite honestly are making it almost impossible to successfully sell on their site. Because of this we've now started to list on the UK's fastest growing auction site www.ebid.co.uk. Ebid have a much fairer auction system which costs us a fraction of what it costs to list on ebay. As our fees are much smaller on ebid we can pass the savings on to the bidders, and on average our ebid prices are between 10%-15% cheaper than ebay.
Currently we have almost 300 items listed on ebid, a figure we could never match on ebay. If you want to have a look at our current auctions our ebid shop is at the link below.

Bridal Gems Ebid Shop

New Information Website

We're currently working on our new information site www.bridalgems.info once complete, the site will contain constantly updated news about all the websites in the bridal gems group. We'll also be doing a bit of blogging over there, but I'm sure we'll still find time to pop along here every now and again.

Belmore Street Office

We're now almost fully moved into our new office in Belmore Street, Enniskillen. All orders are dispatched from here and we have a small display area open to the public. We haven't put sings up yet to show were we are, but anyone who wants to pop in and see us is more than welcome. Our address is 39a Belmore Street, and we're located on the first floor below Curves Gym. Due to the nature of our business, our office hours have to be rather flexible, and if you're planning on visiting us, it might be a good idea to give us a call on 0800 043 4850 to make sure we'll be there.
All returns are still processed through our old address, however over the next couple of months this too will move to Belmore Street. The final stage of the move should be complete early in the summer.

Easter Sale

EASTER SALE

Our Easter sale is due to start next week, we'll be giving a 15% discount off all orders over £30. The discount code for the sale will be EAS33, the code is due to be advertised on the website from Monday 17th March 2008, but as a blog reader you can start using the code right now. It'll remain valid until Tuesday 25th March 2008 and can be used as many times in this period as you want. To get the discount simply enter the code in the "coupon code" box during checkout on the website.

www.bridalgems.co.uk

Wedding Journal Show

Kings Hall, Belfast

Just a quick thank you to all who visited us on our stand at the Wedding Journal Show in the Kings Hall, Belfast over the weekend 22-24th Feb. 2008

We had several thousand visitors over the three days, and it really was a pleasure meeting you all. We're currently processing all the orders and requests and should have all done by Tuesday 26th.

We had a small glitch with the discount vouchers we handed out on the day, we've fixed it and they should work fine now.

New Offices and Warehouse

During this month (February) we'll be moving our offices and warehouse operations to new premises. The new facility in Belmore Street, Enniskillen will be open to the public towards the end of February, however all packing and dispatch operations are due to move over the weekend commencing 1st February and should be completed by Monday 4th February. We don't expect any disruption to our normal service and all orders should be processed as normal.

The new facility will have a small showroom giving customers the opportunity to view some of the available products. With several thousand different items available on our website, we won't be able to display them all, however we should be able to get hold of any item if there's something someone needs to see.

Further details of the new premises will be posted closer to opening time.

VAT and non EU buyers

Just a quick note about VAT (Value Added Tax) all our prices include VAT @ 17.5% however if you're located outside the EU you won't be charged the VAT and it'll be deducted automatically during checkout.
I've added this information to the terms and conditions page just so everyone's clear.

Discount/Coupon Codes

We've finally got the discount coupon code system working again, the problem arose when we changed our prices to include VAT. The system had a previously unseen bug which caused the order total calculations to be wrong. The error only appeared after the change in the VAT status of the products. No orders were affected and we manually deducted any coupons entered with orders before they were processed.

Just a quick reminder that all blog readers can get a 10% discount by entering the code BL31 during checkout, the discount applies regardless of order size, and we've extended the validity period for another 3 months.

Wedding Cufflinks

Unfortunately over the last few months we've been struggling to keep our stock levels up for all the different cuff links we sell. It's really frustrating because we always seem to have a few styles available, but obviously this is no good when you need to kit out the whole party. To try to address the problem we're planning to bring in large stocks of all the following styles early in the New Year.

Best Man Cuff Links
Father of the Groom Cuff Links
Usher Cuff Links
Groom Cuff Links
Father of the Bride Cuff Links
Grandfather Cuff Links
Brother of the Groom Cuff Links
Brother of the Bride Cuff Links
Pageboy Cuff Links

Hopefully this will solve the problems and help avoid disappointment, these wedding cuff links are really stylish and look superb when worn by all the blokes in the wedding party.

Pre Christmas Sale

It's a strange world really, when every other business is in a mad rush for Christmas, here at Bridal Gems things get a little quieter and we have time to catch up on some long over due website maintenance, and get things ready for all the newly engaged couples coming online in the new year. As a little thank you to Pre-Christmas shoppers, we'll be offering a 15% discount of all orders over £20 placed up to 26th December. The coupon code xm34 will deduct the discount automatically from your order.

Jewellery Reviews

I was just reading through the jewellery reviews on the website and was amazed by the number of positive comments, we do have the ability to edit or remove comments but I can honestly say we very rarely have to use it, and then it's just to correct little errors or reply to a comment made. When reading the comments you can almost feel the excitement of the authors, now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's just the jewellery that's making them happy, but you definitely know there's something up, and it really brightens up a dull Monday morning sharing in the new "bride to be's" happiness.
I was thinking about starting up an on line gallery where brides could upload their pictures after the wedding. I'm just not to sure if anyone would take the time to come back after the big day and go to the trouble of uploading pictures. If you've any thoughts pop a comment on here as I'd love some feedback. Obviously any pictures would be welcome, but shots of our jewellery or accessories would be most appreciated. I'll work on it over the next few days and post a link when I've got something working. To start it off I'll probably have to put some of our own pictures on it but hopefully if I email some past customers we might get some from others fairly quickly.

New 2008 Jewellery Range

We expect delivery of our new 2008 range of necklace sets towards the end of October. It'll take a couple of weeks to sort, photograph and list them all, so I'd guess they'll start to appear from the beginning of November on. There's some really pretty new sets arriving so have a look from November on and see what you think.

The set's will appear first at the link below, which lists all our new products.

New Bridal Gems Products

Latest Royal Mail Strike

The latest round of Royal Mail strikes are due to start on Thursday 4th October, the way the strikes are planned, Royal Mail staff won't be back at work until Wednesday 10th October and there's likely to then be a backlog for a few day. Although there's nothing we can do for our UK customers, we're pleased to announce that we will be shipping international orders through another carrier, and these should be delivered as normal. Unfortunately we don't have this option for UK orders as the final delivery is done by Royal Mail.

We do plan to process and pack all orders as normal during the strike, however from past experience we've found it best not to pass the packages to Royal Mail until the strike's over.
As crazy as it sounds, after past strikes the backlog hasn't been cleared in order of first posted first delivered, rather what appears to happen is the mail is simply piled on top of each other and the post on top is delivered first. This means mail sent at the beginning of the strike is likely to be the last delivered, and post sent at the end of the strike delivered first, honestly you couldn't make it up. With this in mind I've listed below the days we'll be posting over the next week, if however things change we will of coarse react as necessary.

Tuesday 2nd We'll drop orders off with Royal Mail as late as possible to catch as many orders as possible.

Wednesday 3rd No normal post, but we will post registered post for delivery Thursday.

Thursday 4th No Post

Friday 5th International orders only posted

Monday 8th No Post

Tuesday 9th No Post

Wednesday 10th All back orders will be posted as early on Wednesday as possible.

I'm really sorry for the inevitable delays which will happen over the next few days and hope it doesn't cause to much inconvenience.

UK Wedding Forum

At this time of year here at BG's, we've had a little extra time to give the UK Wedding Forum some more attention. We're trying to promote it as much as possible so if you're getting married or just fancy a chat, drop by and log on. The forum is of coarse totally free and we do love the banter and hope it can be a real help to new brides, grooms .

Postage Changes

We've tweaked the postage charges a little bit to make it reflect actual postage costs a little closer. For the vast majority of customers there will be no change, some international orders will cost a little more and some small UK orders will be a little cheaper. Overall the changes are very minor and as always you'll be able to see the full postage and packaging price before finalizing your order.

Bank Holiday Special Offer

We all love bank holiday's and here at Bridal Gems we're no different. To celebrate the last holiday here in the UK between now and Christmas, we're giving a massive 20% discount of all internet orders over £30. The offer will only last until Monday night so get your order in fast, to avail of the discount simply enter the discount code ABH27 during checkout.

Special Delivery 'v' Recorded Delivery

With the current Royal Mail Strike we're getting more enquiries than usual about the differences between recorded delivery and special delivery. Firstly I'll cover it from Royal Mails' point of view. Recorded delivery items are treated in exactly the same way as normal mail, except that upon delivery the postman gets a signature from the recipient, or if no ones available to sign for it, it's returned to the local delivery office for collection or re-delivery. Special delivery on the other hand is tracked right through the delivery system by means of a bar code which is scanned through out the journey from dispatch to delivery. The special delivery service we use also guarantees delivery the next working day after posting. There are of coarse several other differences in the services, such as compensation levels and what types of things can be carried.
At our end we treat both order types slightly different. The special delivery items have to be brought individually to the post office, where as recorded items are collected in bulk by Royal Mail. This obviously makes the special delivery service much more time consuming which is why it's more expensive than standard recorded delivery.
We do our best to dispatch special delivery items within 24 hours of receiving the order but we can't guarantee this, so it's best to give us a call and check when we can get your order to you. If the order is urgent we can usually make time to get it packed and posted.