The brides-to-be look through the scores of wedding dresses displayed on racks in two large rooms of a converted brick Victorian house — Alfred Sung, Maggie Sotero, Paloma Blanca and Madison, to name just a few — imagining how they’d look walking up the aisle in each. They’ll find two, three, five or more that they like, and Yvonne Hauth, an attendant at Sinders Bridal House in Carleton Place, will help them try each on, carrying the dresses to and fro and tying, pinning and tucking the bits that need to be tied, pinned and tucked.
After the fiancée has tried on each of the gowns she’s chosen, Yvonne, who has been paying close attention to each woman’s body type and what she has liked and disliked about each dress, will suggest a couple more, fetching from the racks ones that initially were missed, overlooked or simply didn’t stand out.
Often it’s one of those that the bride is married in.
“Usually we get them to try six to eight dresses on, and we get to see what really suits them,” Yvonne says. “Then it sort of clicks … we know our dresses, and we just go and start picking the dresses that we know are going to suit her, and that we know she’s going to love, too.
“I just know what looks great on them.”
Now 65, Yvonne was in her mid 50s when she began her career as a wedding dresser at Sinders, leaving the position of clerk she’d held with Beckwith Township for 15 years. That was in 1999, and she estimates she’s since helped thousands of girls find their perfect dress. She’ll spend hours and hours with customers — as long as it takes, she says, to find the perfect match.
“I never knew I had that gift,” she notes. “I got that right at the very start, and I’d never worked in retail before.
“When the girls come in all excited, I love it,” she adds. “It gets me all excited, like I get right in with them. I could be really, really tired that day, but if they’re excited, I seem to wake right up. And I feel so good when I leave here. I just feel great.
“And when they find their dress and they’re so excited that they give you a hug, oh my gosh it means a lot, it does. And I never get tired of that.”
As one of seven siblings — four of them girls — growing up in Pembroke, she recalls having just one doll to share among her sisters. “And I never had any girls,” says the mother of two grown sons, “so this is almost like dressing dolls.”
The story of her own wedding dress is much different than that of most of the brides she helps.
When she heard of a neighbour who was selling her wedding dress, Yvonne’s mother sent her along to inquire. Yvonne was five foot nothing and a size-10. The neighbour was five foot eight and a size-18. But she only wanted $25 for the dress, so Yvonne bought it, and spent an additional $10 to have a seamstress alter and bead it.
“It was a beautiful dress,” she recalls. “A Princess dress, and I just loved it.”
At the request of a persistent friend, Yvonne tried on her dress after taking it home — almost a full year before the wedding — to discover that the seamstress had neglected to alter the front of the dress, which Yvonne says “just fell off me.”
After getting married the following July in the re-altered dress, Yvonne lent the dress to friends to wear at their weddings. One — a size-14 girl — returned it with all the seams opened up.
“When I got it back, I just hated the dress,” Yvonne recalls. “I just hated it. But another friend wanted to buy it, so I said, ‘OK — 25 bucks and it’s yours.’
“So I sold it, and spent $10 on my wedding gown. But I was happy with it.”
In her nearly dozen years helping women choose their wedding attire, Yvonne has seen different styles of dresses go in and out of fashion, and largely credits (or blames) the Academy Awards ceremonies for driving those changes. Last year, for example, Hollywood’s red carpet was awash in big, poofy dresses. This year, that’s what brides want.
“The dress is the most important thing in the whole wedding,” says Yvonne. “Everything is focused on the dress. When you go to a wedding, everybody just waits to see what the bride is wearing. She wants to be her prettiest, her best that day.
“It has to be perfect,” she adds. “Like if I’m doing beading, that dress has to be perfect. I will work on it hours and hours to make sure. I wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t.