Launching Services to Help Couples Budget

With marriages at the lowest rate ever* and the cost of a wedding still averaging 18.5K**, local business Form Bespoke Jewellers is launching new initiatives this month, to support couples looking to get married in the next couple of years, as part of their celebrations to mark their 1000th customer.

This month sees Form introduce a 0% credit payment facility, so customers can spread the payment of their rings right up until the day they get married. This comes along with an announcement that they will freeze any VAT increases on all orders for wedding rings placed before the end of February 2011, making them the first jewellers in the region to react to the budget.

The new 0% interest payment plans enable couples to pay off the balance in instalments to help them budget, with a number of different options available to suit individual client needs. As well as helping to ease budgeting burdens these options also guarantee the customer a fixed price so they are not affected by increasing metal prices.

Director Tim Swann explains: “We want to be there to help our customers though the difficult economic climate and appreciate that things start to add up when planning a wedding. Platinum and gold prices are also rising daily so there's the danger that if couples are holding off getting their wedding rings the same item will be more expensive a few months down the line. We offer a service whereby when the deposit has been paid, we freeze the price for the customer even if metal prices increase. We will then hold customer’s rings for them until their big day, be that 6, 12, or 18 months away.”

After 6 years trading, Chapel Allerton based Form has created hundreds of bespoke wedding and engagement rings for customers from Glasgow to Plymouth, New York to Australia. They also create jewellery gifts such as necklaces and pendants, cufflinks and earrings throughout the year.

Form has also recently launched the 'Anniversary Kiss' gift package alongside local Italian restaurant chain Casa Mia. A package intended to make husband's lives easier for their first wedding anniversary; this provides a beautiful white gold necklace and diamond pendant, exclusively created by Form and solely for their customers, alongside a meal for 2 at their chosen Casa Mia restaurant, with everything arranged for an all inclusive price.

Form was established by Leeds based jewellers Tim Swann and Michael Dransfield in 2004 who set the business up to provide a service where customers can interact 1 on 1 with their own personal jeweller. Tim and Michael both featured as Arena O2 X Club Entrepreneurs of the Year in 2007 and were featured in Courvoisier's Future 500.

Tim said:”At Form our clients don't deal with salespeople, they deal with the jeweller (myself or Michael) who will be making their ring/s, and this is what people love. We hope our flexible payment plans will mean that even more people will get to benefit from this service, although even without the payment plan customers find us much more cost effective than the high street”.

Payment plans will be available from 1^st November 2010. For more information please see www.formjewellery.com

-ends-

Notes to Editor

Image of anniversary kiss attached
Image of jewellers Tim Swann (left) and Michael Dransfield (Right) attached
Form is based at Stainbeck Chambers, 51 Harrogate Road, Chapel Allerton, Leeds, LS7 3PD.

*There was a time when 50 out of every 1,000 women in the UK got married annually. Now, according to the Office for National Statistics, marriages are at the lowest rate ever. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/feb/11/marriage-rates-uk-data#data
**Stats from Weddings Day Website 2010 – www.weddingsday.co.uk
Form Bespoke Jewellers are used to working with all levels of budgets and keep their prices more competitive than the high street by not holding large amounts of stock

For more information please contact:

Helen MacGregor

helen@chocolatepr.co.uk

0113 236 1835

Chocolate PR

Launching Services to Help Couples Budget