Wedding Blog

Wow. What a week!

Earlier this week I posted about the Gown Company shutting it’s doors for good. They announced this on their web site. When I wrote this post, I had no idea what a ruckus this might ignite. For many brides who purchased their dresses from this shop, this was the first they were hearing about this news and they were not happy.

I bought my dress from the Gown Company back in December. I had shopped high and low for a dress. I dragged my Mom from store to store every weekend for about three months(!) before I finally decided on my dress. The shop was great, the dress was great, I was pleased. In May when my dress was scheduled to arrive, I finally called the Gown Company to see if they had any news. I spoke to a new women I had not worked with before, the owner, and she told me that yes, my dress was in and that I owed her the balance, which she would charge me via paypal. I thought it was odd that a) no one called to tell me my dress had been in for a quite a few days, b) I was being charged for the balance of a dress I hadn’t even seen yet and c) I had to pay using paypal (which I had not done to first put a deposit down for the dress), but I went along with it.

After my first two fittings, you may remember I was disapointed with my dress, and in some ways because I shopped around for a day or so for another dress, I think what follows next is a result of bad karma. Bad karma and bad business.

The final fitting for my dress was scheduled for Wednesday night, so when I saw that the shop was closing, I didn’t freak out because I had seen my dress and my fitting was scheduled for the next evening. I figured all would be fine. For some reason though, my Mom was skeptical and told me to take my dress on Wednesday night, rather than waiting for additional alterations and a steaming. I told her she was an alarmist. She said “your wedding is a week away, you should grab that dress.”

I called the Gown Company multiple times on Tuesday and Wednesday to confirm my Wednesday appointment and no one answered or returned a message. Wednesday night I showed up a bit early at the shop only to find the bars on the shop were down, the lights were off and sample sale signs decorated the windows. A young man was also waiting outside the shop. Apparently he had been sitting in his car for two hours hoping to catch the store owner so that he could check in about his fiance’s dress. Their wedding is scheduled for October.

During this time Mr. Grasshopper’s Mom had shown up to meet me for my fitting, and we hung around for a good 40 minutes deciding what to do. First I examined the locks on the gates, but was quickly reminded that being arrested was worse than not having a dress a week before your wedding. With that note, I thought a trip to the Selia Yang shop across the street seemed appropriate to me. If I wasn’t getting my dress, I had better have a back up plan as my wedding is nearly a week away. Selia had some really great dresses (note to the brides who have not found a dress yet), and they were all samples. However, they would still need to be taken in and cleaned in a week. I also wasn’t ready to commit to a new dress without knowing what the deal was with my real dress.

On the way home, I called Mr. Grasshopper to tell him the update. We decided that if my dress didn’t show up, he would ditch his tux and we would both wear oversized badger costumes. I blame delirium on this idea.

When I got home I called my Mom, who called my brother, who called me, as my Mom called my sister and the next thing I knew we had TEAM DRESS making plans to stalk the Gown Company the next day. Mr. Grasshopper’s Mom took over the hours of 9 to 11, my brother made a few bike trips down 9th street, and by 11 a.m. they had spotted the store owner. I cabbed it over to 9th street immediately upon hearing this news, only to find that another bride had called Pablo Guzman from CBS to cover the story. Oh geez.

When I finally got to talk to the store owner, she didn’t mention our missed meeting until I asked about it, for which she apologized, but informed me that she did not have my dress- it was still with the seamstress. She told me she would have it that evening. This would have been fine, but I already had an appointment for that evening. When I asked if we could schedule an earlier or later appointment for me to pick up the dress (8 p.m.) she refused to extend the courtesy. She would barely agree to make an appointment for me the next day. She also told me I had no right to freak out about not having my dress because it was only one missed appointment. I don’t know what freaking out looks like to her, but I feel confident that asking someone to make up a missed appointment at my convenience is not freaking out. She finally agreed to call me when she had the dress in her hands so that I could arrange for someone else to pick up the dress.

Then my Dad showed up. With a lawn chair. Ready to camp outside the store until my dress was ready.

I had to head back to work because in the midst of all of drama, that afternoon I was launching four projects I had worked on for the past year. I left my Dad with his lawn chair and Mr. Grasshopper’s Mom. Other angry brides were quickly catching word that the store was open and had started to arrive at the shop too.

By 3 o’clock my Mom showed up to join the team and to keep my Dad off the news cameras.

By six o’clock, my Mom had my dress in her hands!

By seven o’clock you had probably seen my Dad on several news channels with his chair…

I wish all the other Gown Company brides lots of luck with getting their dresses or deposits back. If you need my Dad to speak to Pablo Guzman on your behalf I think he’d be happy to step-up for TEAM DRESS again.