It’s been a wonderful 8 months of consultation and designing for an amazing project involving a set of custom dresses for a Miss Monica Sanchez.
Monica first came to me while her and her fiance were making their wedding plans. She had already found a venue for both ceremony and reception, photographer, flowers and even a limousine service for her big day. The last major thing she was missing was the dress. Actually, she wasn’t just missing one dress—she was missing three, since she knew many years ago that she wanted to have three dresses on her wedding day. One would be for the ceremony, another for the first part of the reception, and a third more versatile dress for the first dance.
The reason she had put it off until last? She wanted the dresses to be just perfect but hadn’t found her perfect designer yet. Monica had approached 2 other designers previous to coming to me. “Third one’s the charm”, she said. “What an intimidating role to live up to…” I thought when she first told me.
However, we got to talking a bit, she gave me a quick description of what she envisioned for each dress and we hit it off. We spoke on a similar level and I felt I could envision her dresses clearly in my mind as she described them. I was confident that I could exceed her expectations. Only time could tell, but the good feelings she got from our first consultation session was enough for her to put her faith in me—her instincts told her that I was the one. We exchanged information, I got her measurements and we would continue to have exchanges over the phone and email.
The Wedding Dress
Her wedding dress was the dress that would make the first impression and was the most important to nail perfectly. It was the dress that we focused on first.
For her wedding dress, she wanted something that was fairly traditional in that it was long and white, but with some contemporary touches.
She wanted to fore-go the long train and veil. In short, she wanted something comfortable, borderline casual, yet quaintly endearing and beautiful.
That is exactly what she got.
Once the first iteration was ready, I called her in to try it on for the first time. The moment she put it on, tears came to her eyes—fortunately these were good tears. She said it was amazing how the dress looked just like how she had pictured in her mind for so many years.
It was an incredible start, but it wasn’t perfect yet. There were a few adjustments that had to be made.
By the time she came in the next time, the dress was perfect. We were both generously pleased with the progress and excited to tackle the next two dresses.
The Reception Dress
For the reception dress, Monica wanted to go with something that was formal and sexy, with a slight vintage feel.
We went with an elegant light grey material with a sexy cut. The diagonal piece and trim added that vintage touch to the dress.
It took a few weeks to get it right but when she came to try the dress on, Monica was simply floored.
At this point she was loving me. “This experience has more than surpassed my expectations and these dresses are like a dream that has become reality…” she told me that day. Thank you so much, Monica. It has truly been my absolute pleasure.
She was ecstatic and could not wait to start on the third and final dress to complete your suite of wedding day dresses.
The First Dance Dress
The third and final dress was the one she’d be wearing for her first dance as a married couple. Monica and her husband had been practicing for months.
It was a livelier dance and the dress needed to keep up with her every move.
By the third dress I had a good handle on her sense of taste. She was looking for something similar to the reception dress (slightly vintage, formal and sexy), except a little more casual and a little simpler.
We looked at some cloth samples that I had suggested and we decided to go with a dark floral pattern—she loved it.
After our time together, we got along so well that she insisted I be there to attend her wedding. It was an absolutely beautiful wedding and I was delighted to see her glimmer in all three dresses. The dance was fantastic, by the way.
A quick thank you to the Vancouver limousine service that took care of Monica and her bridal party that day—they took such great care transporting the dresses. It’s a seemingly small thing, but most limo companies I’ve dealt with in the past did not show nearly as much care as the company Monica hired. Kudos to them.