That has to be the most common question I hear at this time of year. If I answer that once a day I answer it 50 times. I try really hard not to get irritated or short with my customers when I am hearing this question for the umpteenth time in a 20 minute period, but I am not always successful. In an attempt to alleviate some of my own frustration and some of your frustration as a customer I am going to attempt to explain more plainly how this whole process works.
In the realm of bridal and formal wear there are very distinct seasons and trends within those seasons. Here in Wisconsin it has been my experience that April through October make up the popular "bridal season". The other big formal wear event that impacts my schedule is prom. Depending on the year proms start some time in mid April and run through mid May.
Many of you call months ahead of time to find out when you should bring your dress in for your first fitting. Thank you!! If your event is any time from March to June I will tell you to bring your dress in as early as possible because no matter what the trend of a particular year those months are always, always crazy busy because of the double whammy of weddings and proms.
Now this is where many of you tend to get confused or misunderstand the process. Just because you bring your dress in 3 months before the event, this DOES NOT mean that your dress is going to be done in two weeks. All this does is guarantee your place in line. But understand this, the line is not single file nor is it first come first serve. If you bring your dress in in March for a June wedding I am still going to have to finish dresses for March, April, and May weddings ahead of you because their event is first. How quickly your dress gets worked on is at the mercy of how many other weddings are ahead of you on the calendar. The majority of dresses are completed 1-2 weeks before the wedding. If your event happens to be during an incredibly busy weekend you can plan on getting your dress the week of the event.
Please also remember that there can be many, many events on the same weekend making my crazy schedule juggling even crazier. This past prom season was a perfect example. You may not realize this but I work on prom dresses that come from 8-12 different area schools. Normally the proms at the different schools are spread out over several weekends. This year, because Easter was so late, there were 5 local proms all scheduled for the same weekend. That spells H-E-L-L. Luckily I didn't have any wedding parties scheduled for that weekend as well.
Similar situations happen with popular wedding weekends and I have no way whatsoever to predict which weekends are going to have multiple weddings. For a normal summer weekend I am usually working on 2-3 different wedding parties. A busy weekend could mean 6-7 wedding parties or parts of parties.
So to get back to the main point - no your dress isn't done yet. No, I haven't even started it yet. In fact, there is a pretty good chance that I have no idea who you are when I'm talking to you on the phone because I don't really remember the names as much as I do the color/style of the dress. So please don't be offended if I ask you to remind me of those details so I can figure out who you are. And I promise I will try not to be short with you when I tell you your dress isn't done yet:-)
*Disclaimer* I have to plead with you my state of being human. In all seriousness, if it is the week of your event and you haven't heard from me please, please call and double check with me. As much as I try to keep everything in it's proper event order, every now and then something gets hung in the wrong place or I just plain old miss it.
No comments:
Post a Comment