Jo & Al
Jo & Al are the 'larger-than-life' presenters
on Curvy Brides' Boutique
Curvy Brides Boutique presenters, Jo Cooke and Alison Law, transform plus size brides-to-be
and find the wedding dress of their dreams. The Essex-based business partners and friends, run their own bridal company, Curves & Couture, which is exclusively dedicated to Curvy & Plus Size Brides.
Emotional, intimate and uplifting, the series captures the highs
and lows of brides-to-be on their journey to the big day.
CURVY BRIDES' BOUTIQUE on TLC & Quest Red
BEHIND THE SCENES OF
CURVY BRIDES BOUTIQUE
Making the biopic Hattie, starring Ruth Jones, as a one-off film for BBC Four, our production company, Angel Eye Media, had told the story of how your size shouldn’t limit feeling good about yourself in a drama. After meeting Jo and Al (who run the amazing real-world bridal boutique Curves & Couture) we saw how to bring this universal and inspiring theme to life in factual TV.
We knew that, in Jo and Al, we had met people who really understood the emotional truth of what they were doing for the women they worked with and Angel Eye’s core mission is to spot emotional truth and good-hearted people and look after them.
But taking subtle moments that happen in a small bridal boutique and making 20 episodes is like taking a much-loved, home-cooked, recipe and trying to sell it nationally. You can easily lose the original flavour.
What has been amazing was the great relationship we have established with Jo and Al. They have a really instinctive understanding of the needs of TV – so for example Jo was quick to spot a spare business unit nearby, where we could base our production. In terms of casting and scheduling, Jo and Al suggested someone who was an expert in bridal sales to work for our production as a researcher - answering the enquiries for Curves and Couture, sensitive to their clients, while keeping the shop schedule in sync with the shooting schedule and passing on interested brides to our casting team.
But far more important in terms of making the series work is the resilient core of who Jo and Al are – what they do for women, their unique blend of bold humour and deep sensitivity – their indelible commitment to making their brides feel good as they are now, not permanently trying to live up to unreasonable standards.
So, as we film with this great double act, dressing and fitting more than 60 brides in a hectic schedule, the authentic flavour of what happens in the real shop, without the cameras, is always there - in every scene of Curvy Brides’ Boutique.
Richard Osborne, Executive Producer
Angel Eye Media