The brief, the decisions and the delivery
A bespoke WordPress rebuild for a visual, service-led business
The challenge
Liz Patey's work needs to be seen before it can be evaluated. The website had to give bridal, party and editorial clients enough visual detail to assess her style, while making practical service information easy to find. Replacing the off-the-shelf theme was not an excuse to lose the elegant direction or turn a beauty portfolio into a text-heavy sales page. The brief was to bring that presentation into a more deliberate, responsive WordPress structure.
Keep the portfolio central
The rebuild retained a photography-led experience. Service and gallery layouts give the work room to breathe, with supporting copy helping a visitor understand what they are looking at. This is useful for considered purchases: a prospective client needs to judge suitability, not simply see a large volume of images.
Build a custom theme around the content
A custom-coded WordPress theme replaced the previous off-the-shelf theme. The important distinction is control over the required layouts and behaviour, not a claim that every template is slow. WordPress remained the editing platform, so updating imagery and copy did not require moving the business to a different content system.
Separate service decisions from the enquiry
Bridal, party and editorial work have different questions behind them. The delivered service pages, galleries and contact journey let visitors investigate the relevant work before making contact. The practical design question is whether someone can move from a suitable example to the information they need, on a phone as well as a desktop.
Treat technical quality as part of the build
Responsive behaviour, image handling, crawlability and performance were included in the rebuild. The portfolio gallery includes the recorded Lighthouse assessment from the optimisation work. That is a test of particular pages and conditions; it is not a measurement of sales, Google positions or every visitor's experience.
What we delivered
- Custom-coded WordPress theme replacing the previous theme
- Photography-led homepage, service and gallery layouts
- Responsive presentation and a clear contact route
- SEO foundations and performance optimisation
The outcome
The delivered website combines an editable WordPress installation with a tailored visual presentation. Visitors can review different types of makeup work and reach the enquiry route without the business sacrificing its portfolio-led identity. The project gallery documents the actual page designs and the recorded performance assessment.
Delivery is documented by the live website, project records and portfolio screenshots. No before-and-after enquiry, revenue or organic-ranking increase is claimed here. Lighthouse is a lab assessment and should be rechecked when the website changes.
What this means for your project
A custom rebuild is worthwhile when the existing theme obstructs a clear brief. Before commissioning one, list the customer tasks and layouts that cannot be handled satisfactorily today. That gives the project a testable purpose beyond a new visual style.
- Compare a custom website with a template
- Explore our WordPress rebuild service
- Discuss a portfolio-led website
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