Few industries were quite as affected by the pandemic as the bridal wear industry. As revealed by a survey Statista conducted worldwide, 82 per cent of weddings globally that were supposed to take place in April 2020 were postponed and 11 per cent were canceled.To survive the shaky state of the market, Rachel Leonard, the current editorial director of The Bridal Council and former fashion director of Brides magazine, pointed out that wedding retailers had to get resourceful.“Vendors were hurting during Covid, and some just did not make it. They had to be clever on how to navigate through the tough times, many bridal designers went into producing masks or even loungewear, while bakers and florists had to focus on other opportunities besides weddings,” she said.Two bridal wear executives who pivoted during this time were Christina Wettstein and Kimberly Marcoux, co-founders of the bridal pop-up market Melange de Blanc. Inside Retail spoke with Wettstein to hear more about the lightbulb moment behind Coterie White, her thoughts on the state of the wedding industry, and more.Bridal wear says “I Do” to pop-upsBefore launching Melange de Blanc, Wettstein and Marcoux were hard at work with Coterie White, a sales agency focused on introducing, growing, and establishing top bridal designers around the globe with retailers.They currently have 14 designers in their portfolio and handle everything from shipping logistics to trend forecasting to determine what designs should look like for the upcoming season. Coterie White has worked with over 500 bridal stores across the globe to stock its wares. But during the pandemic, traditional venues for bridal wear viewing, such as large-scale bridal expos and bridal shops, were closed off, limiting opportunities for designers and retailers to engage with one another.To circumnavigate this situation, Wettstein recalled that she and Marcoux “ended up creating this concept of just hosting pop-up markets and we would buy out little boutique hotels all over the United States and drive the dresses around and meet with buyers that way.” From a one-time pop-up show in Palm Springs, the bridal pop-up market has expanded to include anywhere from 30 to 60 bridal designers and has been hosted in New York City and Milan. Between running Coterie White, which Wettstein revealed will be shortly reaching $10 million in sales this year, and the successful evolution of Melange de Blanc, the entrepreneurs have barely had time to seek external funding. “We’ve never had an investor,” Wettstein said. “It’s always been through Coterie White and it’s always been a bootstrap [effort] for us. In fact, we never even took a loan out until two years ago, after being in New York for several seasons. With costs so high [to run everything], our market trade shows are an insane investment every year for a little company… We’ve always lived by the motto of reinvesting in our business over and over again and that’s been the whole basis of our company the entire way through.”While some mistakes and readjustments were made along the way, like any true entrepreneur, Wettstein believes that those steps helped build a stronger company in the long run. “That’s the beauty of learning and we’ve grown a pretty big company, I would say, off of nothing. I think those lessons are really pivotal in becoming more profitable [as a business] as time goes on.”The future of Melange de Blanc Wettstein observed that the bridal market has more than recovered in recent years, hitting peak revenue in 2022.According to Zion Market Research, the global bridal gowns market was estimated to be worth $44.2 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach $73.2 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 6.5 per cent during this time period. But while some would see this as an opportunity to turn Melange de Blanc into a permanent retail store, Wettstein is ambivalent: “We have actually considered opening a more permanent space, and to be honest with you, I think there’s more value in the pop-up because it kind of keeps people on their toes.”However, she did disclose that there are plans to host further pop-ups in Asia and European cities like Paris.