A Bridal Shop – How Lovely

Some years ago my daughter got married and we rudeness or just indifference we experienced from the shop owner or manager made me consider opening a shop myself. I had the money to invest and had been trying to decide what sort of a business to open.

Well, we thought, we won’t have to put up with destructive children because we will be catering to brides. Having seen so many shops with notices asking parents to keep their children under control I didn’t fancy rampaging hooligans in my shop. There was great big mistake number one.

The customers will all be happy and good natured planning for their big day. They will all be cheerful and happy choosing their dress. Big Mistake number two.

We ordered from several top designers, had the empty shop we had found gutted and prepared for the arrival of the gowns. We chose beautiful tiara and veils and a good range of wedding shoes. We ordered bridesmaid dresses for adult and children. What about no children coming into the shop? Ah well, we thought, they will also be thrilled at trying on dresses so no problem there.

The first few customers came, some ordered dresses and some didn’t but we were enjoying helping brides to choose their dress. Every bit as great as we thought it would be until the day a young woman came in with a small hurricane on two sturdy legs. He tried to pull the mirrors off the walls, he rushed through the rails of hanging dresses and was generally absolutely foul. On seeing the little monster treading all over the train of the fabulous silk designer gown in the window I grabbed him up and plonked him down beside his mother with the dirtiest look I could manage. My daughter talked to him and sat with him on the sofa and he actually calmed down while his mother ordered her dress. Oh how we hoped she would not order from us. Please let her go to another shop we prayed .

We carefully measured each customer and showed them the measurements which we wrote clearly on every order. Some of the measurements were quite amazing with busts smaller than waists. We had quite a few pyramid shaped brides which made finding a dress to suit them quite a challenge.

One young bride to be was measured and we ordered a size 12 for her. Four months later she came to try on the dress when it arrived and it was two sizes too small for her. Thinking on my feet I gabbled out that we would check the measurements of the dress in case they had sent the wrong size but of course it was a size twelve. In four months this twenty year old had put on four inches on her waist and hips. We sent her along to our dressmaker without much hope and of course the dress would never fit her unless perhaps she would lose some weight.

Angry denials came "I haven’t put on weight" so with a steely gaze I produced my tape measure and measured her in front of her irate mother who was certain that we had ordered the wrong size.

The next day angry fiance came in. You have ordered the wrong size. Eventually he accepted that his girlfriend had gone up by two sizes. This was out first experience of a girl putting on masses of weight between ordering and the dress arriving so I decided to get her a dress in a size 16 and sell hers in the shop. Do you know, we did not have one word of thanks from the bride or her mother. That was the only time I ever did that.