"To Look Like a Queen"

When you have this many gorgeous gowns in one place it can be a little overwhelming to see each dress for what it really is.  First of all it is IMPOSSIBLE to see a dress on a hanger and then after a while it just becomes one white fluffy blob after another when you're looking through the racks.  Which is why we have our Gown Specialists who already know each dress's personality!  Our ladies are able to see you for who you are and match your personality with THE DRESS.

So having thought about this I was like "Huh.  Maybe it would be fun to feature a dress once in a while?" and then Renee was all "YES I WANT TO DO THAT!!" And then I really needed a blog topic so last week I thought HEY I could use the "Dress of the Day" which was really kind of amazing that I committed to a topic more than 3 days in advance.

A.D.D. MOMENT: So when I write the blog I don't always think about it way in advance.  I mean, realistically I personally don't really think about anything really far in advance.  Example: We, the Camarillo Bridal Babes, all tried to go see "Bridesmaids" together.  Organizing it was almost impossible because guess who couldn't commit to a time and date more than 24 hours in advance. If this is indicative of my future I'm pretty much never getting married.

This is Claire.  She is saying, "This movie is really funny!"

END A.D.D. MOMENT.

So today I says to Renee, I says, "What dress should I feature?" and she says to me a bunch of letter and numbers, and and then I says, "Can you just show me?"

Meet Lydia

Lydia is by Maggie Sottero and is in fact not her real name, but just a name that I gave her cause I think she looks like one.  She is available in white, alabaster, and as shown here in pearl. The fabric is decadent giving it that feeling of weight and substance that you can TOTALLY pull off in winter weather.  And as we all know if you are ordering a dress in May it is probably for your winter wedding!

Box Pleating:
Pleats on a dress are not something I naturally think of, but when I pulled Lydia out I realized that they are very flattering and give it a beautiful fullness without any fluff. 

The Details:
I love the way that the bottom edge of the bodice scallops!  This belt is sold separately though I'm not entirely sure why as it TOTALLY finishes the dress AND makes your waist look teensy.

The crystals on the belt match the crystals on the dress!

And look at this bead work...that is absolutely gorgeous.  It's classy and elegant but also unique. 

Look at these little buttons that go alllllll the way down the train!!  That's the kind of small detail that makes your dress memorable.

See what I did there: combining photos. Yeah. I'm pro.

Then Lydia needed some neck candy.  So I pulled out this amazing necklace that reflects the round details in the bead work and buttons of the gown, as well as having pearls at the center to accentuate the baby pearls on the bodice.

And and no bride is complete without a veil!  Renee picked the perfect one that has tiny pearls and sparkles in a similar patter as the bodice to complete the ensemble!

Now Lydia is all ready to get married. We expect that she and her Manequine husband will be happy for many years to come in the windows of our store.  

 

"Many girls want to look like a

Princess on their wedding day.  This is for the woman who want to looks like a Queen..."

- Renee

The Reason We Work in Weddings...

I love working with weddings.  People always ask me if I get frustrated with all the bridezillas but it's really not like that.  There are no reality cameras in our store so girls tend to behave themselves.  Every day we get to be part of making some one's dreams come true...we get to see a woman go from excited fiancee to happy wife.  It's the celebration of femininity and the experience of a lifetime that makes this an amazing industry to be part of.

The reason I work here is because of the 4 year old flower girl who comes charging into the store breathlessly telling me in precise detail about the dress she needs:
"It has to be long and white and have a ribbon here and a bow and...it's a dress." (imagine major arm gestures and showing me just where the bow would be placed above her petite derriere.) 

The reason I work here is because I get to help a mom feel beautiful on her daughter's wedding day.  The reason I work here is because I get to see a teenage girl try on her first gown.  The reason I work here is because I get to see life time best friends pick out bridesmaids dresses together.  The reason I work here is because I get to be part of the tearful moment a mother sees her daughter in THE DRESS.  The moment that it becomes real to both of them that they are entering a new phase of life together.

Sometimes it's easy to lose sight of why we work here.  The phone gets crazy, the Internet won't work right, the computer system just REFUSES to make itself easy to use, an appointment is late, and the bathroom is out of toilet paper.  But then I take a deep breath, remember that it is NOT the end of the world, and that I have the honor working to make some one's perfect day a reality.  I remember that we do everything within our power to make sure we've done our job correctly, I remember that even if the scanner refuses to function correctly we can still take a minute to oogle over wedding pictures when a bride brings in her gown for preservation (cause we can handle that for you just FYI).  And then it's all OK and I get to enjoy my job again...and blog...blogging as part of your job is pretty great too. :)

So forgive me for a post with only two pictures, forgive me for the sappy sentiments, but today was the perfect day take a step back and remember how every bride makes this job fabulous.

Shoes and Chairs

Exciting True Fact #1:

Jennifer Hyatt won the Kate Middleton Gown Prediction contest!  The sketch that she submitted was the closest guess to what Kate Duchess of Cambridge actually wore on that famous/infamous day.  And the prize for being the closest guess is FREE SHOES!!

Exciting True Fact #2:

Jennifer Hyatt also happens to be one of our most favorite people everrrrrr!!  And here's why: Jennifer used to be the owner of Camarillo Bridal until about 7 years ago when Pam bought it from her, and their relationship has always been one of mutual appreciation and respect.  Pam still goes to Jennifer for business advice, and Jennifer still does (exceptional) alterations work for our brides! 

Jennifer may or may not kill me for putting this in the blog...

See! How cute are they!! They're BFF's!!

So Jennifer brought her lovely self in and picked out these shoes as her prize for being so tapped into the pulse of English Bridal fashion.  Congratulations Jennifer!  We love you!

Exciting True Fact #3:

REX BOUGHT US A PINK DESK CHAIR!!!! It's so cute!!  He brought the box into the store while I was in the back room and at first I thought he just got us a desk chair and I was all "Oh yay! Thank you, Rex!" BUT THEN I saw that it is PINK and I started LITERALLY freaking out and squealing...like girlie high pitched unintelligible. It was kind of like this:

"HOLYTUNASALADIT'SAPINKCHAIRI'MSOEXCITEDTHANKYOUSOMUCHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"

So here's Rex putting the chair together...thank you Rex!!!

"I'm answering the phone in my pink voice" - Claire (she didn't actually say that.)

I'm clearly thrilled about our pink chair.  I might name her.  Maybe Penelope.  Yeah. I think it's Penelope.

I just decided.  Claire says ok.

Everybody, meet Penelope the Pink Chair.  Penelope, meet everybody.

I've been happily spinning and rolling Penny (that's her nickname) around the floor for the last few days.  In fact I almost bumped into our perfect Elephant Ear Gray (really light grayish purple-esque) walls.  Don't worry...I didn't mark them.

Thank you Rex!!

Ribbon Cutting!

Wednesday is Blog Day!!

Cause remember how Monday is too busy and Tuesday sounds ridiculous?  (And the Dodgers lost to the Cubs…I don’t want to talk about it.)  Yeah.  So here I am!!  Blogging on Wednesday!!

THE PICTURES ARE ADDED!!

*I have SO MANY MORE pictures to show you guys but something is wrong and the server won't approve their upload.  Which translates to: I'll do it from home later. But I had to follow through on the Wednesday blogging or Laura would be really just too sad...even sadder than the sad kitty. (Shout out to you Lovely Laura!!)*
NO LONGER!! Got more photos and here are the good ones!

 Pam's adorable granddaughter...

sporting a pink cast to match us all!!

 Renee and me

The biggest news is the Ribbon Cutting last Thursday!  It was really an amazing event and I would like to thank every one who was involved:

 Sugar Bear brought us delicious mini cupcakes.  I would absolutely recommend them.  They were faaaabulouuus!

I Would Rather Be Baking made us the MOST AMAZING cake with our entire logo in frosting…yes.  Frosting.  How I managed to NOT photograph it?  Cause I was busy eating the delicious red velvet cake.

 See how amazing!  Also: NOMSNOMSNOMS.

Spanish Hills Catering brought lovely food trays for all of our guests to munch and it was wonderful!  Thumbs up…BOTH thumbs.

Ponderosa Flower Shoppe is not only wonderful to work with but brought us GORGEOUS flowers for both the Ribbon Cutting AND Bo and Celeste’s Vow Renewal!  They are gracious and we highly recommend them.

Ja'Nice from Rebe Belle salon in Ventura came and did our make-up cause she's awesome and we really love her not only as a stylist but as a lovely person!

 See how good we look!?!? THANKS JA'NICE!

We did manage to work some official business into our busy schedule of eating delicious food.  The Camarillo Chamber of Commerce came and gave speeches welcoming Pam and Camarillo Bridal into the new location.  The ceremony started around 4:45 and I think we didn't leave here until around 7...which totally supports that (obnoxious) but true saying "time flies when you're having fun."

Pam being affectionately ducked under the chin.

(perspective for the win.)

And yes.  We all wore pink.  It was obviously planned.  This is how it went down:

Pam decided she had to wear the bling shoes (what’s up Benjamin Adams) and then from there she picked the pink dress.  So then we all decided HEY wouldn’t it be cool if we were all in pink and peach tones to match!? So THEN Pam said,

"I would love for you guys to wear stuff off the rack so when people say “you look gorgeous!” we can say, “it’s from the store!”. 

Walking advertisement…which I guess is actually just modeling.  Anyway, we all picked a different pink gown and made sure they worked together and BAM!! Result:

Camarillo Bridal and Gorgeous Girls is more like it.

I’m not shy.  I’ll say it…WE LOOK GOOD.

It’s not every day that your staff’s average attractive score is an L.A. 8.  All the gowns that you see here (except for Pam’s of course) are available at Camarillo Bridal!

The Ribbon was cut and the pictures were taken, and everyone was in a general state of excitement!  And at the end of the day we were all more than pleased.

 The best one by far. AND with Ms. California United States!!

She came to help us celebrate!!

So there are the photos AS PROMISED!! (I really want to leave in the line about the Chamber of Commerce people not wearing pink...so I just did.)

Monday: Not blog day anymore.

Bad news.

Monday is no longer blog day.

Even I, with the super powers that I do posses, cannot single handedly manage reception and write the blog.  I would make Tuesday blog day but there are two problems with that. 1) It sounds weird. "Tuesday is Blog Day!" No.  That's lame.  Tuesday is generally the hated day anyway.  2) I personally don't mind Tuesday so much but it IS my day off. So I will be at the Dodger's game. That's right...I get to go to a Dodgers game.

So I apologize that I'm letting you all down today. I'll be back on Wednesday!!