The 2009 winners have now been announced! Click here to see who won!

Several new award categories were added for 2009, including the new Bridal Innovation category, as well as new awards for the Best Wedding Dress of the Year, The Best New Bridal Retailer and the Best Bridal Shop Display. We are also planning to split one of the established awards into two - creating separate awards for the Best Bridesmaid Collection and Best Occasionwear Collection.

The full category list for 2009 is as follows:

  • Best British Bridal Designer
  • Best Bridal Retailer
  • Best Groomswear Retailer
  • Wedding Dress of the Year - New Category
  • Best Retail Website
  • Best Bridalwear Manufacturer
  • Best Groomswear Manufacturer/Supplier
  • Best Bridesmaid Collection
  • Best Occasionwear Collection - New Category
  • Best Bridal Headdress Designer
  • Best Bridal Innovation - Swarvoski Award
  • Best Bridal Shop Display
  • Best New Bridal Retailer - New Category

Retailer Led Categories

Make sure you direct your customers to either www.nationalweddingshow.co.uk or www.youandyourwedding.co.uk in order to vote for you in the Best Bridal Retailer, Best Groomswear Retailer and Best British Bridal Designer categories. Only voted for by the actual buyers of your products, these categories have grown in popularity over the past three years.

As well as these three retailer lead categories, Brides have another chance to vote in the new category for this year, The Wedding Dress of the Year Award. Six top consumer wedding titles have chosen their favourite dresses from the finalists of the 2008 bridalwear manufacturer category. These six dresses will be on display at the National Wedding Shows in London and Birmingham where brides will have the chance to vote for their favourite dress and pick our winner for the 2009 award.

NEW Categories for 2009

Three new categories have been added to the Awards Programme for this year. They are

  • Best Occasionwear Collection
  • Best New Retailer
  • Best Bridal Innovation.

The Best Bridal Innovation award is sponsored by Swarovski and will focus purely on creativity and innovation. All entries must include an element of Swarovski, but can be from any area of the bridal industry. Added by popular demand, the Best Occassionwear Collection has been added to this year's programme by an increased interest in evening wear, while the Best New Retailer has been introduced to highlight all the new companies who are allowing the continued growth of this industry. We hope you will support all these new categories by entering. Please download an entry form here.

Nomination Form Led Categories

All other categories for the Awards this year are nomination form lead. Manufacturers can only enter the awards by completing a nomination form and submitting a 300 word statement to support this entry. You can include graphs, pictures, testimonials, in fact anything that you think will increase your chances of winning a Bridal Buyer Award. Please download a form here to enter.