Welcome to The Debrief, a POP-ID series by FoundPop that spotlights the team behind the brand, building engaged communities and driving pop-up success. This series offers insight into the innovative approaches, meticulous planning, and creative executions that have ensured Six Stories pop-ups have a line out the door on opening day.

In the latest edition of The Debrief, we shine a light on Six Stories, founded in 2019 by husband-and-wife team Lucy and Ross Menghini. The Manchester-based company has helped 250,000 brides embrace the “six stories” of marriage and their designs, available through Selfridges and ASOS, propelled sales to £7.9 million in the year to March. Six Stories is not only a leader in pop-up experiences but also a rising star in the bridal fashion world.

Their most recent pop-up success: the summer sample sale at London’s Truman Brewery. Known for creating modern bridesmaid dresses and bride-to-be clothing, Six Stories once again proved the popularity of their events, with the venue perfectly accommodating the high volume of attendees—a success built on their previous summer pop-ups.

For this activation, Six Stories partnered with FoundPop, providing sustainable, design-led furniture rentals. The FoundPop team supported Six Stories every step of the way, from venue tours and floor plan mockups to delivery, installation, and collection, ensuring a seamless and visually stunning experience for all.

Six Stories shares their sample sale secrets

Six Stories’ success isn’t just limited to pop-ups. Ranked 15th in annual sales growth over the past three years at a staggering 170.31%, the bridalwear retailer has become a favourite among brides-to-be. Recently featured on The Sunday Times’ 100 fastest growing businesses, there’s a lot of things going for Six Stories, and with over 300k followers, one of them is their social media presence. Faces often spotted on the Six Stories Instagram are founder Lucy and Social Media Manager Holly. We spoke with Holly about the recent brand activations and proactively growing online.

Pop-up shops have become increasingly popular in the retail industry. Why does Six Stories opt for temporary shops over traditional brick-and-mortar stores?

First and foremost, we are an e-commerce business. However, we will always value face-to-face interaction with our customers.

As the Social Exec and Creator at Six Stories, how do you leverage platforms like Instagram and TikTok to amplify the pop-up shop excitement?

We are a community-first brand and since the beginning, it’s always been about the customer. Even though there are nearly 300,000 followers, we treat it like there are 300. 

We have specifically used social media to amply excitement for our pop-up by bringing them on the whole journey, from asking where they’d like the pop-up to be and top venue choices, to what they’d like to see in the shop. 

On the weekend, we hosted Instagram Lives to show the size of the queue, updates on products out of stock, and conducted interviews with brides — a great way to capture content. The behind-the-scenes footage fed into FOMO, resulting in demand for another event. 

Our community shares what they want and we just go with it! The brand has the same philosophy regarding new product designs, so it’s the natural approach for Six Stories events.

In your experience, what qualities or elements contribute to the success of a pop-up event, both from a social media perspective and in terms of the overall customer experience?

• Transparency, always. When we struggled to find venues, we told our customers. When people asked ‘how long queues would be, we told them.

• Always ask for feedback and implement it! On a Saturday evening, we asked on Instagram stories for feedback straight away from customers who visited on Saturday so we could make the experience better for those visiting on Sunday. (This resulted in us changing the rails from size order to colour order because that’s how brides shop for their dresses.)

• Be adaptable. We sold out of clothes quicker than we thought, the queues were way longer than expected, we had to adapt quickly to ensure the next person’s experience was better.

• Treating your customers like they are the most important people in the world. We work with brides, it’s possibly the biggest and most exciting moment of their lives! We make sure each bride feels special, in person and on social media. 

As wedding season approached, how did you plan to adapt Six Stories’ social media content to align with the themes and trends of this peak period?

We know brides are typically in different stages throughout the year, and it is often the summer months that are the busiest. As a result, we create content around supporting brides on the morning of their weddings, reducing wedding stress, tips for the wedding day. With that being said, our strategy is always changing. Social media is different today than it was 2 months ago, or will be in the future. We create content that our customers like to see, and ask what they want to see differently, whilst also taking trends and content styles into consideration — it means we’re always on our toes, but that way we never get stagnant.

For those looking to create their own memorable pop-up events, our design-led approach ensures that your pop-up will be both practical and visually on point. Rent your shop essentials with FoundPop.

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