JENNIFER Hartley has spent her life crying.
But, thankfully, on the whole, they have been tears of joy.
That's because over the last 20 years the dressmaker and shopowner has made thousands of local women look beautiful for their big day.
Jennifer owns Brides at Just Jenna in George Street, Halifax, and is so passionate about wedding frocks that she's still working at the grand old age of 73.
She firmly believes that in the right dress every girl – no matter what size or age – can look radiant on her wedding day and she's spent her life proving it.
But this Christmas the tables are about to be turned. For once, Jennifer will be hogging the limelight and others will be wiping away their tears as their favourite bridal shop shuts its doors for good.
Jennifer's lease is up on December 31 and she is calling it a day. She is planning a big party for staff and customers to mark her retirement but says it will be a day of mixed emotions because it is the end of an era.
But Jennifer, who lives in Halifax with husband Malcolm, has plenty of happy memories to keep her spirits up in the years to come.
She says every bride has a story to tell, some more than most. "I've enjoyed my work tremendously and learned an awful lot about people along the way," says Jennifer who dressed one bride on five different occasions.
A keen sewer, Jennifer worked as a model for the former Harella in Halifax, before she gave up work to have her two sons. She now has three grandchildren.
She became a needlework teacher at night schools in Halifax, Brighouse, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden before opening her own business in Lightcliffe making and selling lingerie and soft furnishings.
She began working with bridalwear by chance after making a dress for a friend's daughter. Other people started asking her to make their wedding dresses so she "took a gamble" and opened a bridal shop in The Piece Hall. She moved to the former Irvine Lodge hairdressers in George Street in 1994 when she needed bigger premises and expanded by introducing wedding outfits for men and evening gowns.
Jennifer stopped making dresses herself some time ago and instead sold designer gowns from all over the world. The most expensive dress she has ever sold is £1,500, the cheapest £250. She says it doesn't matter how much a woman spends – all customers get treated the same and deserve to look a million dollars on their big day.
Jennifer has worked on several same-sex weddings and seen brides in floods of tears because their wedding has been called off.
And what she has seen – probably more than anything else – is many, many women buy their wedding dress and put it away, vowing to lose weight before their big day. "If I had a penny for every one who said she was going on a diet I'd be a millionaire by now.
"The fashion today is for dresses to be a lot fuller and more glamorous and fancy. There are very few white dresses around. Most are ivory, champagne or gold," says Jennifer who, when she was married 51 years ago, did not make her own wedding dress.
She did however later dye it black and make it into an evening gown.
"A lot of women today still wear their mother's dresses and bring them in to be altered," she says.
Jenneifer is looking forward to the new year and a new chapter. She has started writing a book about her life story especially for her grandchildren. It will of course centre around her bridal career and stories of some of her brides.
In the meantime she's got a party to organise. And yes, before you ask, she will be be taking plenty of hankies with her.....