Once upon a time…
The fairy tale of Koonings The Wedding Palace began in the year 1968 when Jos and Jo Koonings started a clothing workshop. Location: the barn next to their house in Zeilberg. Soon the assortment was expanded to include wedding dresses. Hooray, Koonings Bruidsmode was born! Due to the great success, expansion was necessary. A move to a more spacious building on the Kerkstraat in Deurne followed.
At the age of 14, Ineke began working in the workshop of her aunt Jo, later Mrs. Koonings. She learned the intricacies of tailoring and later plunged into making wedding dresses. Inekes daughter Ramona was 14 years old when she started in the business as a coffee girl. In no time, she developed into an enterprising saleswoman brimming with ambition.
2000 – 2014
At 17, Ramona gets the opportunity to take over her aunt and uncle’s business with her mother. As a young entrepreneur, she soon takes the initiative to include wedding suits in the collection in addition to bridal gowns. Koonings Bridal Fashion becomes Koonings Bride & Groom. Over the years, the family business expanded to include a men’s store, a women’s store with evening wear and a branch in Den Bosch.
To accommodate customers in one place, Koonings moved to a prime location on the outskirts of Deurne in 2005. Anyone who thought that Ramona’s dream was thus fulfilled was wrong. After an extensive renovation, the grand opening of Koonings The Wedding Palace on the Dukaat 5a followed in 2014; the place where you are immersed in the magical world of weddings.
2018 – today
Koonings The Wedding Palace 2.0
Under her personal credo “If you can dream it, you can do it,” soon after, Ramona begins again to create and execute unprecedented plans. And so, in 2018, the next ambitious expansion will rise on the adjacent meadow of Koonings The Wedding Palace: ‘The Westwing’ of over 6,000 square meters. Ramona’s mission to offer brides a sensational total experience, taking them into a spectacular dream world has -to say the least- succeeded.
After an all-suite opening in October 2018, Koonings The Wedding Palace can rightfully call itself the largest bridal boutique in the world: a one-stop-for-all shopping experience of 11,000 square meters with a gigantic collection bridal gowns, wedding suits, menswear, fashion for bridesmaids, festive children’s clothing, gala and cocktail dresses, shoes, accessories and goodies. At Koonings The Wedding Palace you can find the most exclusive trends in bridal fashion. A total experience made complete with a bite and a drink at restaurant Inekes, shopping in The Goodiestore or enjoying in Koonings Beautysalon.
2024 to today
The fairy tale continues
With Koonings The Wedding Palace, Ramona not only fulfilled her own dream of a castle-like bridal store, but has been fulfilling thousands of dreams in white every year since. However, the desire to have her own real castle never left her. When Kasteel Oost in Valkenburg came up for sale in 2023, she entered the tender and won it with a loving total concept: Koonings The Wedding Castle. A place that goes far beyond just looking for a wedding dress. The estate, which totals more than 35,000 m², will include a second bridal store, a men’s and children’s fashion boutique for festive evening wear, two restaurants, a hotel and a wedding hall. In addition, an orangery and a ballroom will be added to the ensemble, so that Koonings The Wedding Castle will also be available in the future as an event venue for celebrating weddings and other lavish parties. The first partial opening of this entire project is scheduled for October 2024. And once again Ramona proves, “If you can dream it – you can do it”.