Working in a Bridal
Shop
Boy, do I have
stories. I have worked in three
different shops, one department store bridal salon and owned my own shop for a
few years. You cannot predict what will
happen in your day in a bridal shop.
One day, I had a
bride and her mother in and they picked the most expensive gown we had. It was a Galina gown in silk shantung with
lace on it that was nearly $300 a yard.
It was gorgeous but not one I would ever consider. It was over $3,300.00. I would have gotten like 99.00 in commission
on that sale alone. They both loved it
and decided while in the shop that they would both get second jobs so they
could get it. They came in at least once
a week after that to try it on and look at headpieces and shoes and everything
else. They were very nice and so excited
to try it on each time.
It was in their ivory
color which was close to this color (without all those lines):
It was not this gown
but the sleeves and bodice were very similar.
Then they suddenly quit coming in.
Several weeks later the mom came in alone to look at veils and said that
they had found the exact same gown at Penney’s Outlet store for 99.00. It was exactly the same from the beading on
the short sleeves to the very expensive lace all along the hem and train. Big
lie! First, Penney’s never sold Galina
gowns nor gowns in silk shantung. Second you did not get the exact same gown,
you pay for quality and they were completely different in quality and third she
pulled out a picture of the gown they bought and it was this one:
Cheap satin, long
sleeves, no lace on the hem, etc. So, we
figured I had spent a good 4.5 hours with this bride over the weeks and then
this happened. I didn’t care that she bought
another dress somewhere else, but don’t try to get it over on me that it is the
exact same dress. They look nothing
alike at all!
In one of the shops
we had a hat rack with hats and veils on it and several bars with veils hanging
there – most $150 to $300. One day a
lady and a little girl came in. Little
girl was about 6. Lady says her sister
is getting married so she wants to look at our veil selection. I take her to the veil area and the girl is
trying on all kinds of veils and mom is trying on veils. Girl starts hanging from the brass hat rack
and it about falls over on her. Mom just
keeps on trying on veils for her sister who is not there. I keep taking the veils away from the little
girl and hanging them up and asking her to please be careful, she could get
hurt or easily rip the veils. Mom keeps
telling her how cute she is as she is hanging upside down between the
veils. Manager comes out and asks the
lady to please refrain from letting the girl hang on the bars and hat rack and
to not allow the little girl to try on any veil. These are expensive and we do not want them
ripped. Lady ignores her and continues
ignoring monster brat who is running with a veil now up and down the hall going
into the dressing rooms, where brides are.
I stood at one end and the manager at the other end to stop her and she
just kept on, now running in the showroom part of the store and hiding under
the wedding gowns. Mom keeps asking me
questions about the veils and pricing, so I am stuck standing there with mom
and our manager and our tuxedo manager are dealing with monster child. Finally, the mom gets upset because I could
not offer any type of discount to her to offer to her sister. She hollers for monster brat and tells her
she behaved so well, she was so proud of her and they were going to get her a
happy meal for behaving so well! As we
cleaned up the mess!
I once had a bride
come in and had it narrowed down to two gowns, one was a full skirt and one was
a sheath (tighter) skirt. She asked me
which one would be easier to take off… She and her future hubby were both
virgins and wanted to do it in the back seat of the limo between the church and
the reception. I think she went with the
full skirt.
The one she went with
was very similar to the one on the left and the one on the right was similar to
the other one she looked at:
Then there was my
very mature bride… She wanted an ivory suit and we did not have anything like
that really. I showed her what we
had. She, her daughter and future step
daughter were there trying on dresses.
Bride was 83! All four of us were
in the dressing room the entire time.
Lady said all we had was too young for her, she liked one dress and it
was too expensive, and they left. About
an hour later the owner called me in her office. One of the ladies had called back and said
that I was mean and rude and kept calling her an old lady. The stuff her daughter said about me made me
cry I was so upset. Of course, the
customer is always right so the owner offered her a discount and a guarantee
that I would not be their consultant.
The owner did not tell them what the discount was but when they came
back later that day, they were very upset that it was only 20%. They wanted 80% off because of all the grief
and aggravation I caused! Thankfully,
the other consultant had told the owner that she heard most of what was said in
the dressing room and I never said anything they said I did. And they ended up not buying anything from us
of course! Oh well…They just wanted
something for nothing we decided. I
believe, now that I think back on it that the owner actually asked them to
leave as they were causing a scene and we obviously did not have anything in
their price range.
The one shop hours
were Mon, Tues and Thursday 10-7, Wed, Friday and Saturday were 10-5.
It was the day before
Thanksgiving and I was so excited, my brother was coming home from Denver that
day. It was really quiet in the shop
that afternoon and the phone rang and it was a bride who had a dress on order. She wanted to know our hours. I told her we closed at 5 and would be closed
the next day for the holiday. She
started screaming that I was being unfair to her. I waited till she was done screaming and
asked what she meant. She said are you aware tomorrow is a holiday? I said yes,
I am. She said are you aware that some
of us have family coming to town and they want to see my dress? I said I’m sorry but we are closed for the
holiday. She asked why. I said because we want to spend Thanksgiving
with our families too. She began
screaming again that I was a selfish b word and I better stay there tonight to
let her in when her family gets there. I
was on the phone clear across the room from where the managers office was but
she heard the bride screaming and got on the phone and asked her to calm down
and tell her what was going on and the woman starts screaming that I am a
selfish b word because I wouldn’t come in on Thanksgiving to let her family see
her dress. The manager hung up on her. She called back two or three more times
screaming and each time the manager hung up.
She finally called and calmly asked why they were hanging up on her and
our wonderful manager said we won’t listen to anyone scream at us. We will be here till 5 tonight and 10-5
Friday if you would like to come in then.
Well, on Saturday they came in, and I got her dress out. She showed it to like 15 people. Tried it on, wasn’t sure it was perfect, complained
that we had spilled something on it etc.
We explained that she had already purchased the gown and special ordered
it in so she could not get her money back, and there was nothing spilled on her
dress. Her grandmother agreed with us and they were happy for a minute. Now Saturdays were our busiest days and that
particular Saturday there were tons of people in there. Here comes that bride, asking me what time a
movie was showing at the theater across the parking lot. I did not know. Here comes mom, will you call and ask? There
are people in line at the desk and they are butting in asking me to call the
theater! About that time our manager
came out and told them they could go to our front door and see what time the
movie showings were on the marquee. This
was my first job other than day care so I was very timid and shy. And afraid I would say something the wrong
way, so I was always happy when she came out of her office to help me out!
I watched Young and
Restless back in the day (still do sometimes) and Danny and Cricket got married
and she wore a gown very similar to one we had in the shop.
Danny and Cricket gown we had
I had a bride come in
and was looking through the dresses and I was putting them in her dressing room
when she came across this Zurc gown. She
just had me put it in the room and when she was ready she wanted to start with
that gown. She got it on and began to
cry. She went out to the hallway and
called her mom at work and asked if she could take her lunch break and come see
it right now. The girl didn’t say
anything to me about the dress but waited on her mom and when she got there the
girl began crying again and told her mom, this is Crickets dress. I get to wear Cricket’s wedding gown. It was around $800 I think and she ordered it
that day without trying on any of the other gowns she had pulled. I always thought that was sweet.
We had a girl come in
and wanted us to dye a pair of satin shoes she owned to match her red prom
dress. The shoes were a deep green so I
had to bleach them first and I told her that red was the hardest color to
match. Especially, once I had to bleach
them first. We only charged $5 to dye
them so I told her again, I would not promise they would be the exact
color. I got them as close to the swatch
of her dress color as I could and she came in and said I needed to redo
them. Now, mind you, every time we
bleached shoes they got harder to wear.
The bleach hardened in some way and they were not comfortable. We
re-dyed them and had her come in three more times. Finally, I told her I would dye them black
and not charge her since we could not get the correct red color. She said that was fine. The Monday after her prom she and a big group
of her friends came in and demanded her money back for the price of the shoes
(that she bought somewhere else) because I ruined her senior prom! They wouldn’t leave and I wasn’t giving her
money. I had spent hours working on her
shoes and didn’t charge her for them. My
mom called the police to get them out.
They left just before the first police officer arrived. Turns out they had been going around to a lot
of stores and doing the same thing demanding money back for stuff they didn’t
buy there and since there were normally 10-15 girls the stores were giving in
to avoid more trouble. The girl and
about 3 of her friends were arrested in our parking lot as a couple of them had
stolen dresses from us as they were arguing with me. And had shoplifted at other stores too.
While we owned our
own shop, we loved doing the window displays and we had put a ring box with a
cheap $2.00 “diamond” ring and plain wedding band in the hand of the male
mannequin. We had two guys come in one
morning and one guy kept asking my mom questions about renting bridesmaid
dresses while the other one really admired the tuxedo in the window. They were in there about a half hour and
after they left I went up to the window to rearrange some stuff he had looked
at and didn’t put back in the correct place when I realized the ring box was in
the mannequins’ hand but the rings were gone.
Wonder what his fiancé thought about that big diamond ring she was given
that I had bought on sale at Walmart?
While we owned the
shop, my brother got very sick in Denver and my mom and dad flew out there
Wednesday morning. He passed away on
Thursday morning and of course, as was his very dramatic fashion, he had to die on the
busiest tuxedo week of the year. June
22-25. I think we had 7 weddings and
about 115 tuxedos going out for that weekend.
I had called all the brides on Wednesday and told them I was flying to
Denver on Friday. They were all very
nice and all came in Wednesday and Thursday to pick up the tuxes. We often had to do alterations on them so I
was worried. When I closed up at the end
of the day no one had to have any alterations done. I had a teenager that worked with me part
time and all the brides had her number at home if they had an emergency come
up. She only got one call the whole
weekend and had to run up on Saturday morning to find a bow tie as one gotten
lost in the car or somewhere. I was so
proud of her and all our brides and grooms for being so nice and flexible. We had the funeral on Saturday and came home
on Sunday so we were back at it Monday morning and all day the groomsmen and
families returned tuxes to us and gave me hugs and were all so sweet. I was so impressed!
I have many more stories but for now, I will leave it at this. Happy pinning!
