Exploring Life & Business with Britnye Shore of The Bardot Bridal

Today we’d like to introduce you to Britnye Shore.

Hi Britnye, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I started off at age 20 as a hair assistant for a salon that did not treat their employees well. I swept hair, shampooed clients and was treated very poorly. I knew in my gut that there had to be a better way to do things so I put myself through cosmetology school. From there, I got a job at a few different salons, finally ending at a high-end salon with a wonderful clientele. The customer experience was still lacking and so I decided to open my own salon where the experience came first. That salon then transitioned into a large bridal beauty business that stretched the east coast where the experience also came first. I felt that there was such a need for something different, a different way that brides could feel that they got an experience they will never forget on their wedding day so I decided to launch Florida’s first mobile beauty bus. This bus was pink, fit 15 guests and our bridal team and it was amazing. We then got picked up by several magazines, news outlets, music festivals. The rest was history.

It grew so much that I decided that I wanted to launch this concept in a new and bigger market so we moved and brought The Bardot to Raleigh/Durham. Little did I know what that move had in store for us. The Bardot Raleigh took off, the pink bus now traveled up and down the east coast with my team and still I thought I had more left in me. That is a very consistent line throughout my journey as an entrepreneur. It’s – “I am not done, I have more to go”. While in Raleigh we decided we wanted a bit more land and started researching farm real estate in the triangle. We found a 14-acre farm in Oxford and decided to go check it out. Upon driving through Oxford, we instantly felt that it was pulling us there. The quaint small-town charm felt right. We passed historic building after historic building that I felt had so much life left to give and I wanted nothing more than to bring experiences and life back to these buildings and this sweet town that we now call home.

Since then, we have renovated an 1800’s farm, Morgan Farms, into our family farm and also wedding venue. We then restored a 1942 Art Deco Movie Theater with original bright light neons into Oxford’s first craft cocktail bar. We also host community events in this space as well as private events. We also took over a 5,000 square foot victorian home and are currently making it into bed and breakfast for all our guests who travel far to experience what we have created. And next, we are renovating a historic catholic church that sits in the heart of downtown Oxford that has been vacant since the ’70s. We hope to bring some sort of food concept to this space while not adhering to the traditional systems of the restaurant models we once knew. We have a lot left to go and we pride ourselves on creating businesses that put the experience and our staff first. Work-life balance is a real thing and we are happy that we put that consideration into our businesses, I can’t help but think all those jobs that I had when I first started is what shaped me in becoming an entrepreneur that is revolutionizing how businesses are created. It’s all about the experience.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has been difficult but exciting. I started from the very bottom of my industry and worked my way to the top. It took 12 years for me to get to the level of success that I wanted and dreamed of. I felt that I had a lot to learn and looking back, that was definitely the case. I had terrible jobs and I had great jobs. The terrible jobs were excruciating but necessary as it taught me a lot, especially about how to treat people with kindness. The hardest part of all was the adversity you face when you reach success. It definitely makes you realize who is important in your life and who will always be cheering for you regardless of what you do. Keep those people in your corner because you will need them!

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
The Bardot Bridal started off as a freelance bridal beauty company. The Bardot Bridal team grew to stretch the east coast and we did 400+ weddings a year. I have a great administrative team that allowed for this type of growth. In order to create more of an experience for our brides, we decided to launch a pink beauty bus for any bride who wanted to rent it for their wedding day. This allowed for a bride and her party to have so much fun getting ready in this curated pink beauty lounge on wheels that we created. Since then, we have made and are making several more for wedding venues, other bridal beauty teams and more.

We realized that our business model of freelancing wasn’t going to be sustainable, girls really want to work for themselves and the commission model that was once so great started to feel that it was changing. So instead of waiting for the change to come, we flipped our business model in the spring of 2021 and we are no longer a beauty team. Instead, we are now an online marketplace where any beauty vendor in the wedding industry advertises with us on our site and has their own profile. A bride or groom can now access our site and view multiple beauty vendors on one page so they can ‘find their best match’. Brides and grooms spend hours and hours searching social media and Google to find the perfect fit for their wedding day. So instead of that, they can go to our site and view everyone in one space. This gives such a service to a bride and groom, allows the bridal beauty industry to work for themselves and we have created the first platform that has done this.

On top of this marketplace, I am now offering business coaching to any beauty industry professional who wants to be successful in this industry. I love that I now get to help others, promote entrepreneurship and have a platform that not only encourages that but gives such a service to a bride or groom. And of course, the website is an experience too! We purposely make everything we do an experience. We are now scalable and plan on growing this platform internationally in the coming years.

How do you think about luck?
I strongly believe that how you conduct your life and the energy you put out is what you get back in return. We have definitely had moments of luck, good and bad. Good luck comes with opportunity and meeting the right people at the right time, which has happened many times in my life. But with that also comes the decision of what one will do with that lucky situation. Do you pursue it or let it sit. I pursue every good luck opportunity. I believe that even when bad luck happens, there are lessons to be learned and even when those lessons can be tough, I can always find the positive in it. I truly believe that when you live with positivity and live life with good intentions. a lot of good luck can come your way.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: wearetheshores.com thebardot.com
• Instagram: @britnyeshore

Image Credits
Jenna Alexander Photography Photographs by Stephanie Casie Weathers Photography Daybreak Photo Co