Service With a Smile
My favorite part of wedding planning is shopping for the wedding gown itself. Who amongst hasn’t dreamed of the day we shopping for the very important dress?
Usually I write about choosing a gown but this month I decided to take a little detour to address something that may just be as important as the dress itself; it’s choosing a bridal salon that will provide you with the service and attention you and your important day deserves.
After all most of us don’t have to contend with what we’ll wear on the red carpet this award season, unless of course you’re an A-list celebrity or musician. For most of us our wedding is our red carpet moment and we put a lot of thought and money into preparing our turn to shine.
A wedding gown retails for as little as $99.00-10,000+. While the majority of us won’t fall into the 10,000 plus category, we do expect to shell out the big bucks for a gown. As of 2005 the average cost of a wedding gown is nearly $2,000.00. Therefore even if the cost of the gown you’re considering is further south in price, it’s still the most money you’ll ever spend on a piece of clothing you only wear once. J
A tale of two salons
Recently I went gown shopping with my sister Natalie who is getting married in November of this year. So we made an appointment with Angel Bridals in East Islip New York. At the time we were just looking at bridesmaids dresses and to be sure we were prepared I’d written down the style numbers of the dresses we were interested in.
When we arrived, Danielle, a bridal gown consultant immediately greeted us and set about finding the dresses we were interested in seeing. After deciding on what style of gown I’d be wearing shop owners Vicky and Rosemary asked if my sister had any ideas for her gown.
Without being pushy they encouraged her to look at a few gowns while we discussed what kind of look she was going for. I went through the racks to view the latest styles and I was impressed with how well they knew their inventory. To make a long story short, after trying on three different gowns my sister found wedding dress that truly reflected her personality. Angel Bridals is everything a good bridal salon should be:
- They keep to their appointments
- The service is personal without being too intrusive
- They listen to their clients to determine what style of gown she may be looking for
They’re not yes women who ooh and ah at every gown a bride to be tries on, they very tactfully know how to make suggestions.
On the flip side
Although it looked like my sister found the gown we decided to keep her appointment with another bridal salon. Again we looked at their catalog and I made note of a few styles my sister wanted to see. We’d taken the time to eliminate the styles she didn’t like so we wouldn’t waste time looking at too many gowns. I have a rule when it comes to gown shopping; never look at more than four or five gowns at a time. Optimally I would prefer less than five but more than two. The reason being is you run the risk of the gowns beginning to look alike.
When we set out for the salon we had an eleven o’clock appointment and we arrived at 11:01. A sales consultant approached us and we informed her we had an appointment at which time she asked us to take a seat while the reception person worked with a walk in. All in all we waited fifteen minutes before we got to the reception desk.
