About a week after our initial consultation, when I was certain that I had lost the booking, I got an email from Michelle. She said that she’d had a “change of heart about the dress…. well, about the whole wedding!”
Apparently she had gone home with her mom after our meeting and was trying to figure out whether she’d go with me, or go with a store-bought dress; whether she’d change the budget or change the design etc…. Her mom suggested that she stop thinking about the dress and that they work on some other aspect of the wedding, so they moved on to the guest list. This also began to overwhelm.
Michelle began to realize that the wedding that she really wanted was much smaller than the wedding that she had been planning.
She made a bold and happy decision to cut the guest list in half and have a full dinner for their reception rather than the cocktail hour that they had previously planned. There will be no ‘wedding party’, just the couple standing at the ceremony which would be moved to a more remote part of Duke Gardens. She and her fiancé were both really happy with the decision as it was much more ‘their style’.
Lucky for me, this eliminated the need for the strapless ball gown and let Michelle have a more “casual-chic” dress design for her wedding. In her email, Michelle described her new design ideas. She wanted an elegant, stylish, knee-length, pencil-skirted, fifties-style shift. She and her mom both hoped that I’d be willing to collaborate on the design and possibly create it!
Yes! Of course! As I was reading the email and smiling I was thinking “Right Answers, Michelle!”. These completely unexpected revelations not only bring out Michelle’s personality, they really reflect some of my favorite aspects of design. I will have no problems at all delightfully coming up with a design that she will absolutely love, that will look great on her, and will be well within her budget. I could not wait to start researching for our Design Consultation!
