~by Lisa

Badgley Mischka was recently featured (on the cover!) in Martha Stewart Weddings Fall Issue 2009. Both gowns (Fifi and Mimi) are available (with sleeve build-ups if desired) through Avenía Bridal:

Avenía Bridal has it’s own in-house alterations studio –not a common thing for current bridal boutiques. Last Friday, Nancy wrote about the reasons for having an in-house alteration studio. This week, I was able to interview one of our fabulous seamstresses, Mary M:

Cheryl: Mary, when did you first begin to sew?
Mary: I first started sewing in my early teens (11 or 12 years old). I was fascinated by costumes and pretty dresses in movies and wanted to learn how to make them. My mom started me off with tote bags and flannel pants and how to read store patterns and I used that until I met Aneladee Milne who introduced me to costume design. She taught me how manipulate patterns into the gorgeous costumes I wanted and she allowed me to help her design and build costumes for the South Davis (Utah) Homeschool plays. This costume design stuff made me want to learn even more about sewing so I enrolled at Margaret’s School of Custom Dressmaking, where I attended class once a week to learn pattern drafting and how to work with leather and other unusual fabrics. Costumes, pretty dresses, and learning new sewing techniques continue to be my passion.

C: Have you had any professional instruction with sewing? What types?
M: I learned how to sew mostly through self motivation and trial and error. I did study under several very skilled seamstresses and I received some professional help at Utah Valley University and Brigham Young University and Nancy, the Artistic Director at Avenía Bridal, is definitely refining my skills as a seamstress.

C: How long have you been sewing bridal gowns?
M: I started working with bridal gowns in College, around my 2nd year at UVU. What hooked me into the wedding industry was the way a brides face would light up when she saw herself in the gown of her dreams. It makes my day exciting!

C: What is your favorite fabric to work with?
M: I don’t have a favorite but there are a few fabrics that I definitely don’t like working with…silk charmeuse and silk chiffon are very difficult to work with.

C: Which is your favorite part: working with custom couture or doing alterations?
M: I enjoy custom couture. I enjoy the process of making a gown and the creativity that is involved.

C: Tell us a bit about your personal life.
M: I grew up in Bountiful Utah. I have been married 9 months to a wonderful man and we do not have children, yet.

C: Do you have any higher education?
M: I received an Associates in Theater Arts from UVU as well as a Bachelor’s in Theater Arts from BYU.

C: What is your favorite part about working with Avenía Bridal? With Nancy?
M: I enjoy working for Avenía Bridal because it is a company dedicated to both the customer and couture design. Nancy will do whatever it takes…and more…to make a dress perfect. She does not allow us to cut corners in our work and she is very detail oriented in her designs.

C: Do you listen to music while you sew? Talk? Need silence?
M: Once or twice a week I raid the Provo or Orem libraries for good books on tape. The other seamstresses and I love to listen to books and the longer the book the better. We go through between 3-4 books a week. Right now we are listening to the Charlie Bone series, but we’ve also listened to The Keys to the Kingdom, Twilight, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Jane Austen, and tons others.

C: Which designer has been your favorite to work with (gown-wise)?
M: The Priscilla of Boston collection are very well put together and easy to alter, but Sposa by St. Pucchi is my preferred Designer because it is such an eclectic variety of designs.

Thank you, Mary! Be sure to check back next week to read about another one of our talented seamstresses, Dalene B.

~by Cheryl

Tea length wedding gowns are not new; they were all the rage in the 1940′s and 1950′s. However, they have come back as a very popular and practical choice. Why? Here are some reasons for picking a tea length gown:

1. Style : One bride (seen below) chose a tea length gown because she found the perfect pair of shoes. For others, the vintage style fits their personality.

(Gown designed by Nancy Barrus Couture)

2. Ease: Beach weddings, Summer weddings, dancing, travel, etc.

(Gown designed by Nancy Barrus Couture)

3.  Expense: Tea length dresses tend to be less expensive since less fabric is used.

(Gown designed by Nancy Barrus Couture)

Is a tea length gown right for you? If so, Avenía Bridal carries many tea length designer gowns, as well as options for custom couture.

(Gown by Priscilla of Boston: Vineyard Collection)

(Gown by Priscilla of Boston: Vineyard Collection)

~by Cheryl

As you know, we love the arrival of new gowns! (Click here for a post on a Rivini gown arrival.) We just received another one, and it is fabulous: Verde by Junko Yoshioka.

Lisa, our Managing Director, loves this dress because “of the Jacquard fabric pattern. It looks traditional, but the delicate geometric pattern is such a flattering juxtaposition to the feminine ruffles.”

For Nancy (our Artistic Director), her favorite part is ”the Asymmetrical line. It is very flattering, as it follows all the artistic elements by moving the eye right to the face.” (To read more about artistic elements, click here).

Come by the Avenía Bridal Boutique to see it!

~by Nancy

Over the years, I have worked in a variety of bridal shops that had different ways of handling their alterations. Many shops outsourced their contract work, and in today’s market, it has become the norm for shops to rely on seamstresses who are willing to come into the store to pick up the alterations, take them home, and then return them. This is mostly due to cost; it is cheaper to outsource alterations. However, because of this, shops do not train their own staff and are not able to control the quality of the workmanship.

I once worked in a bridal shop that practiced this idea of outsourcing. Bridal fittings were not as accurate, attention to detail was not executed, and the overall workmanship of alterations was poor. Although I needed the job, I decided that I could not work in an environment that paid such little attention to the customer –the bride.

This is why at Avenía Bridal we have our own in-house alterations studio! It was of up-most importance to have a place where we could have a team of highly skilled and dedicated seamstresses who could work on site. We train our own people, and the shop provides all the machines and fabrics so that quality is never compromised. Because the studio is on-site, not only am I able to watch the work happen, and can assure that it happens beautifully, but I am able to sew many of the projects.

The ability to oversee the alteration work is very important because our overall goal is to create a memory for the bride that she will always treasure and not look back on with regret. In order to do this, the time must be taken to make sure the gown fits properly. This means alterations are often a necessity, and having an on-site alteration stuido gives us the sources to create a perfect fit for each individual bride.

Next Friday:  Meet Avenía Bridal’s Seamstresses!