My Designer Story: Why I Became A Custom Wedding Dress Designer
I feel like I’ve been designing wedding dresses probably since I came out of the womb! When I was just 5 years old, my aunt gave me a sewing machine for Christmas and it sparked something inside of me that only grew as the years went on. I started sketching wedding dresses when I was around 9 years old because my mom had a small wedding planning business so there were always wedding dress magazines around my house growing up.
My mom also gave me a fashion magazine subscription and art supplies for every birthday and Christmas - but what solidified my love for wedding dresses was that I would receive a brand new Bride Barbie every birthday. I was HOOKED so much that one of my first jobs was working for a well-known bridal retailer.
I made a huge decision to follow my dreams, so at 19, I took a 2-day, 19-hour long bus ride to Long Beach, CA to study fashion design. After I graduated from college, I worked in the fashion industry in LA, then moved to NY so I could work in the NY Fashion District. Many of my fashion design roles involved sketching like crazy and perfecting the fit of my designs that were sold to stores like Macy’s, Nordstrom, Saks, etc. After being laid off due to the housing crash, I started my custom wedding dress brand in 2007.
What made me leap to start my bridal business started in 2006 when I and my first husband ended up getting married at city hall In Manhattan - YES the very same one Carrie married Big in Sex In the City but this happened AFTER calling off our initial big traditional wedding the year before. The thing I remember most about that experience was that I didn’t feel like me- my mom and the bridal stylist at the bridal shop I went to basically forced me to get a gown I didn’t even like after telling me the gown I did love didn’t look good on me. I shed tears in the gown I wanted but got the one they convinced me to because my mom paid for it and I felt totally unheard of like what I wanted didn’t matter.
Nearly ten years later, after having 3 kids and eventually divorcing my first husband I met an amazing man who loves and accepts me and all my flaws. He and I were married in 2018 and of course, I wore a custom wedding dress I designed which I felt absolutely amazing, flawless, and so confident - which just wasn’t like me. I’d always had this soundtrack running on repeat in my head with my greatest hits like “I need to lose a few pounds,” “If only I looked like this or That I would feel better”, and on and on. But on my wedding day in 2018, I felt perfect in the wedding dress I designed for myself, and I wouldn’t have changed a single thing.
Anyway, fast forward to a few months ago - my husband was hanging up family photos and paused and just stared at a picture of me on our wedding day in my fabulously perfect gown and said “Wow… and I got to marry you” and listen. Beyond the butterflies I’m feeling even right now, it got me thinking about why I do what I do. I’m not model sized, and I don’t have the perfect figure but just like you I deserved a gown that made me feel so beautiful and like a Princess (yup a 37-year-old second-time bride Princess with kids in tow).
And that’s what I want for you, too. To embrace your flaws, to feel beautiful exactly as you are as you walk down the aisle in your gorgeous custom wedding dress, to marry your Boo and celebrate your love story. Since 2007 I’ve worked with hundreds of brides and that’s what matters most, you feeling beautiful, confident, and amazing on your wedding day I’m here to help you do just that!