By Ellie Gosley

Copyright walesonline

Most bridal shops are an abundance of white, creams, and ivory. The dresses, the walls, and lights are all varying shades of white. They’re billed as places where you can try on your ideal wedding dress, surrounded by your nearest and dearest, ready to feel beautiful for one of the most special moments of your life. However women sometimes end up feeling like they’re being shoved into a box they don’t quite fit in or into an expensive purchase that doesn’t feel unique to them. Nearly 18 years ago a postwoman who had spent years making wedding dresses for her friends, who had all felt out of place in one way or another, left her job and set out to create a bridal shop that was different. It was a decision that would change Samm Buca’s life and be a labour of love that grew from strength to strength. It would even land her her own TV show and an upcoming spot on the catwalk at Paris Fashion Week, which she is in the midst of preparing for. Read about her decision to legally change her name to Samm Buca here. Pink Butterfly Brides was born in Bridgend in 2007 and from the beginning was intended to be a space where brides could feel at home. All dresses are custom-made and designed by Samm, who prides herself making sure women feel comfortable in what they put on no matter the size, colour, or design. In fact if you were to ask for a dress that wasn’t the usual white or ivory – although she does that too – it wouldn’t be something that was unusual and would be something Samm would jump at the chance to do. Samm recently got married in a bright green wedding dress covered in flowers, which she of course designed herself. While Pink Butterfly Brides may now be the go-to shop for all the brides who want something a little bit different it wasn’t a conventional journey for Samm, now a 47-year-old successful business owner and happily married mum to Meadow, to get where she is today. As a young girl growing up in Abergavenny Samm had always had a passion for design and making clothes. “I wasn’t very good at academic stuff but I was always creative and I’d make my own clothes even when I was about four or five,” she said. Stay informed on Bridgend news by signing up to our newsletter here . “I’d cut up tea towels and make skirts. I’d always be costume-making and dressing up and designing dresses. My mum bought me a sewing machine when I was really little and I’d always been able to do it. “I just think it was in my blood really. It was the only thing I wanted apart from acting. Art was the only thing I really excelled at and enjoyed.” She gradually moved on to making clothes she would sell to her friends and replicating all the latest fashions that were popular at the time. Samm remembers looking in magazines and seeing what the Spice Girls were wearing before creating a version for herself. “Everyone would be going: ‘Oh my God – look at her top’ and I’d just go and make it. People would ask me: ‘Where did you get that? It’s just come out.’ I’ve just always been that person who was capable of doing that sort of thing.” Passionate about design and fashion Samm went off to Hereford Art College to study fashion design. However, having undiagnosed dyslexia and ADHD that wasn’t understood at the time, Samm struggled with the academic side of things without knowing why and dropped out. She spent a few years as a blue coat in Pontins before ending up in Bridgend at 20 after getting into a relationship. Stuck about what she should do next Samm got a job as a postwoman to just “pay the bills”. “I ended up loving it. I actually won Best Postwoman in 2005,” Samm laughed. On the side, however, Samm didn’t stop designing as she had done when she was a young girl. “My friends were getting married and they were having really rubbish experiences in bridal shops and then they sort of ended up coming to me asking if I could make them a wedding dress,” she said. It got to the point where Samm was making enough dresses that she thought it could be something she did full-time. “It sort of just took over a little bit. I really loved my job and I didn’t really want to leave but I just decided to throw caution to the wind and open a shop to see how it goes. “I remember standing in Pink Butterfly Brides on the very first day I opened and just standing there thinking: ‘I hope I’m open this time next year. I hope I can succeed.'” She was worried about leaving behind a steady monthly wage from the Royal Mail to plunge herself into the world of self-employment while still having to pay the bills. “There’s all these statistics about businesses failing in the first year, especially if they’re run by women – there’s even a higher rate of failure and all the rest of it. ” Samm said. “Then three months after I opened the shop they announced the recession and I just thought: ‘I’m doomed’.” However Samm stuck to her guns and the customers just kept on coming. “I carried on being me and being creative and it just people drew people to the shop,” she said. “I try and be as down to earth as I can in the in the shop because one of the things that we found when we went to other bridal shops – I know that the industry is changing now – but it was kind of like if you weren’t a certain size, if you didn’t have this amount of money, you shouldn’t be there. “The shops were all white – you felt like you couldn’t touch anything. And I opened this shop which was the complete opposite and challenged the industry a little bit.” The shop works by ensuring brides are not “put into a box” like has been the case in the past. There are different options in terms of pricing while brides can choose and alter all aspects of the design down to the colour. “The dress is made to measure so they fit, rather than trying to make something fit, because we’re all different shapes and sizes,” Samm said. “With wedding dresses I just think it should be an extension of your personality. My tagline is: ‘Your dress should be as unique as you are’. Back when I first opened that was quite unique but it is changing slightly, which is nice. “I’ve always been alternative and I think that’s helped people realise if I can be different maybe they can be as well. The scene with alternative wedding dresses is growing so dramatically and people are having colour more so I’m really busy because of that. I do the standard white styles but I’ve started getting more request for the gothic and boho dresses.” This approach has made people travel far and wide to have a design made by Samm. On the day we spoke she was shipping one of her designs out to the US and it’s this – being part of every bride’s special day – that still gives her a buzz. “I really enjoy the process of someone coming in and trying things on and actually seeing them smile and see the moment on their face when they think: ‘I can actually see myself walking down this aisle because you’ve given me this vision of how I want to look’,” she said. “Seeing women feel confident in their own skin and get to the point where they can’t wait for the wedding to come to show off their dress is something I love.” This success eventually led to Samm and Pink Butterfly Brides getting picked up for a TV show called The Wedding Shop on BBC Wales in 2019. She was approached by a production company after they saw videos she had made from the shop and posted onto YouTube. “It all came about just out of luck really,” Samm said. “I didn’t go searching for it but it obviously catapulted me into a better place. It gave me more coverage and more people knew I was there. “For people who had bad experiences they could see there was a shop in Bridgend that is a bit more down to earth and they do plus sizes, alternative styles, bespoke dresses. It got my name out there and it was good for me as a brand. “Whenever it gets added back on iPlayer I get an influx of new inquiries, which is nice too.” She also started getting recognised while out and about. “I’m not going to lie – I quite enjoyed that,” Samm laughed. At the end of July Samm also had her dream wedding and married partner Benji with their daughter Meadow by their side. There were three separate dresses for the “festival wedding”, which spanned from Monday to Friday, which were all designed by Samm. The main dress was a green “meadow” wedding dress, covered in flowers with a pink underskirt, representing her favourite colours and the branding of Pink Butterfly Brides. “It wouldn’t have been my wedding without a few dresses,” she added.