Wedding Dress Shopping in St. John's and Area

No time like the present! I say this knowing that I haven’t even sent out thank you cards yet. Call it what you will, at least I still intend to send them. I was surprised to learn that many don’t. Not that I do,in general, but a wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime thing and they can be expensive to attend. Plus, it just feels unfinished to me unless we’ve “talked” about it with all of our guests (god knows we didn’t get to talk to them at the wedding itself, not even some who came from out of town).

But that is not the point of this post.

The point of this post is twofold. One: to assist @BogTrotterGirl with scoping out bridal salons here in St. John’s and area, and two: to get started on my wedding/vendor recap, because it seems like a waste to have done all the research and planning and gone through the frustration of not finding enough local content and inspiration without passing some of it along. Giving back a little Google karma.

So, here is what I personally found when shopping for a wedding dress. Shopping for a wedding dress is a unique experience, because you generally end up having the full customer experience with only one shop. I can’t advise on how alterations went for any of these (except the Bridal Salon) because I was lucky enough to buy my perfect dress right off the rack. Also, I’m not affiliated with any of these vendors. They’re just lucky (or unlucky) that I was able to link to them online for you.

Model Shop (St. John’s)

I went to the Model Shop many times and at different times of day, because I work downtown and they don’t require you to make an appointment. They have a good selection of dresses so it’s a good place to start to get a feel for the shape and style of dress you want. If you’re going to the Bridal Salon, it’s across the street, so drop in before your appointment to make sure you have all your bases covered. Note that they generally only have 1 or 2 bridal consultants working at any given time, so be prepared to wait. I suggest avoiding it on the weekends, if at all possible. There should never be 6 or more brides-to-be in one room! I had no problem getting assistance with fitting rooms (except on the weekends – again, avoid!) and the salespeople were not pushy at all. Seriously, I went there like 20 times and never felt uncomfortable.

Bridal Salon (St. John’s)

Meh. I spent a lot of time preparing for my adventure to the Bridal Salon, because it’s supposed to be the “best” bridal place around, with all the designer gowns. I pored over styles and, as suggested on their website, sent the consultant pictures of what I was interested in, with comments and all. So, I was surprised and annoyed when I met my consultant and she said, “do you have any idea what you’re looking for?”, then proceeded to bring me the exact opposite of what I’d requested, and in styles that were completely wrong for my body shape/type. With all the implied exclusivity, it would have been nice to have been prepared for as an individual client, you know?

Formal Sales and Rentals (Mount Pearl)

Formal Sales and Rentals also had a good selection of dresses, with the bonus of having a lot more space than the Model Shop. This was where I ultimately bought the dress (you can see pictures at www.colinpeddle.com/janet-sean). They were good in that I was able to take my dress home if I wished, or leave it there in storage. Steaming of my dress the week before the wedding was complimentary and everyone I worked with there was friendly enough. They were flexible in price (within reason - asking for tax in is a good place to start). My issue with them was the fact that even though I bought an expensive dress there and they knew that I had a need for accessories and bridesmaids dresses,they would not measure my bridesmaids for dresses without a fee of $20 per girl (which would be deducted from any purchase, but if you decide not to buy there, you lose the fee). This really irked me, because we could have had any seamstress or tailor do measurements for $5-$10 a pop. Just an unnecessary additional charge that actually worked to ensure that I would not be purchasing any other wedding items from them.

Ever After Bridal (CBS)

From the beginning of my dress hunt, I had my eye on the Watters Wtoo collection. I was not interested in making the big trip to TO for my dress and sadly, no shops in NL carried that line... that is, until Ever After opened and I had already purchased my dress. Oh well. This is a gorgeous little shop with a real boutique feel and excellent selection of gowns, bridesmaids’ dresses and accessories. My girlfriends and I felt so relaxed and excited to be shopping there, thanks to the attentive (but not too pushy) owner. Well worth the visit!

Bridal Suite (Carbonear)

This was the first place I went to try on dresses (well, the first place after I went to some lady’s house in Airport Heights thinking I’d find a perfectly cromulent second-hand gown before realizing that I’m not Kate Moss and therefore “vintage” and “sophisticated” pieces do not quite flow off of my bone rack the same way they would on a more willowy physique).

This is where my bridesmaids’ dresses were ordered from. The customer service was excellent, with Lori responding to emails and taking the time to work with us in the shop. The dresses also arrived about 6 weeks earlier than promised. Unfortunately, they fell down in the alterations department (which I understand are outsourced to a local independent seamstress); they did not go as well as hoped. I would send a warning to anyone considering purchasing a dress here or anywhere that it be a priority to have the seamstress who is working on your dress do your measurements. In this case, the shop did the measurements and sent the dresses out, so the seamstress had no context for the alterations, resulting in a poor fit. I really believe if we'd taken the dresses out for alterations ourselves, we would not have had the fit issues.

Croix Hill Bridal (Spaniard’s Bay)

I only went here long enough to see that most of the dresses were for a younger and more trend-oriented bride than I. The interaction was short, as I only tried on one style, but the salesperson was very helpful in suggesting other shops to check out and in showing me their catalogues of accessories and other dresses. Lots of more budget-priced options here!

If anyone has questions or comments on the various bridal shops in St. John's and area,please feel free to post! I'd also be happy to answer any questions about my dress shopping experience if this gloss is not enough!

- Janet

PS: some helpful hints for wedding dress shopping:

• Don’t get caught up in a particular style until you’ve tried them on. I ended up in a princess gown. That was... unexpected, to say the least.
• Allow lots of time and patience - especially when shopping on the weekends. Fill up your water bottle and take some deep breaths. Frustration is going to get you nowhere.
• Try it on with similar shoes to the ones you will wear on the day. Of course, you are going to look great when standing on the platform in the store - it makes you look 6 inches taller than you are! Standing flat on the floor with appropriate shoes will give you a more accurate view.
• Get your picture taken: front view, back view, side view.Wedding gown sales are generally final - this means you want to be positive that it looks good from all angles!
• Bring a friend. Then revisit alone or with a different friend before you buy. My girlfriend wept when I walked out of the dressing room with the dress on. I still didn't believe her. When I brought a different friend a few days later and she wept too, I knew it was the one.

I'm looking for a food dehydrator. Dreaming of dry days hiking with a pack full of dry stuff like moose jerky or Partridgeberry-apple fruit-on-the-go. All manner of rings and chips and bits.

I think the general rule of dehydration is, you have to have a better machine if you want to be drying meat in there, so (thanks to @HeritageRowReno), I'm looking at higher-end options like those at The Sausage Maker, which will have to be ordered online and therefore require more planning and consideration than buying the only dehydrator in town on a whim for $69.99 at Sears. That is the kind of dehydrator you buy and try to use once and it stinks the house out so you put it on the patio and it rains that night and then you forget about it and it attracts flies and then cats and you end up kicking it to the proverbial curb in a Billy Boot like so many Ronco Rotisseries. And that would be a waste.

Anyhow, if anyone has any experience with food dehydrators, I'd be interested to hear your advice.

The sad reality of the grocery shrink ray

Last night, I went to Dominion on Stavanger to pick up a few items, one of them being orange juice. They had 2.63L plastic bottles of Tropicana on special, but I try not to buy plastic bottles if I can avoid it. The next available size was a Minute Maid concentrated juice in a 1.75L carton, priced at $3.99 -- a per-100ml price of $0.28. Right next to it was the PC-branded orange juice in the same size container, also priced at $3.99. All things being equal, I generally go for the 'not from concentrate' option, and while picking up my carton of PC juice, I noticed that the per-100ml price on the shelf label for this product was listed as $0.21.

Math and I are not the best of friends, but I quickly figured out that one of the prices had to be wrong. Turns out I was wrong. The PC juice per-unit price was correct indeed, based on the shelf label information, which listed the carton as being 1.83L. Looks like the grocery shrink ray has struck again! There was no one available at customer service to speak with, but it really made me think about how important it is to read labels, compare prices and generally be aware that shelf prices may not always be what they seem.

I want everybody to tell everything. But do you think it's okay to name names when commenting on your customer service experience in a public forum?

Review sites like Trip Advisor allow names, but they say that personal insults are not tolerated. I generally feel the same and won't retweet or otherwise promote comments of a personal nature.

In fact, it's no secret that I hope to highlight positive customer experiences as often as or more frequently than bad ones. I encourage people to name names and tell bosses and talk about the fact that friendly, polite, professional, genuine, customer-oriented folks do indeed exist in the customer service industry. And I pass it on. Why should the opposite message be censored?

If you think it's out of line to comment in detail (including names) on bad customer service, feel free to leave a comment here or continue the conversation on twitter.

@ishopandtell on CBC Crosstalk with Ramona Dearing

If you're here, you've probably already heard this, but just in case:

@ishopandtell on CBC Crosstalk with Ramona Dearing

Enjoy,

Janet

#goodservice - Riddle Fence

I just had a lovely experience with Riddle Fence. I tried to purchase a subscription online the other day, but I had to stop halfway through the payment process because I hadn't updated the banking info associated with my PayPal account. By the time the prenote cleared, I had all but forgotten about my intention to subscribe.

But Riddle Fence did not forget me! The Executive Director, Sarah Smellie, emailed me this morning asking me whether anything had gone wrong with the site and offered to personally add me to their list so that I'd receive their next issue.

When was the last time Martha Stewart or Wired or even the beloved Walrus reached out with such prompt and personal customer service?

Incidentally, if you have $40 and a reader/writer type in your life, I don't think you could go wrong with a few issues of homegrown essays and poems and art. Apparently, they offer exclusive online content when you subscribe (which must be really cool, because their website is already more comprehensive than I would have expected).

IF (and we all know that's a BIG if) I can get my act together in the coming weeks, I'm going to try to write a little about local businesses and why you should (or shouldn't) include them in your holiday consumption.


Feel free to share your experiences with me, because, let's face it - I won't do any real shopping until, like, December 21. That's just how I roll.

Take care,

Janet

How can you do e'r t'ing when you got n'er t'ing to do e'r t'ing with?

As usual, this morning on my way into work, I listened to the St. John's Morning Show on 640AM. I caught a story about how retailers in NL are experiencing a shortage in staff, especially since many students are currently in "back to school" mode. This is no secret; all over town, you can see "help wanted" and "now hiring" signs. Apparently, this year is even worse than normal, because the number of people entering the workforce is significantly lower than the number of people leaving the workforce. The guy on the radio (I forget his name, but I'm sure you can find the podcast here) speculated that in the coming years, we are going to start seeing more and more automated customer service, similar to what you see now in self-checkouts at Dominion and the self-checkin kiosks at the airport.

I thought about this for a little while, and although I don't like the idea of having all human interaction replaced by machine interaction, if no one else wants to work in these jobs, the solution probably lies within some measure of artificial intelligence.

Then, a Facebook friend posted this job ad that she found, and I wondered if part of the reason behind recruitment difficulties here might be the attitude of some employers. While I'm sure that the hiring manager had a good reason for specifying such requirements, most likely based on his or her experiences with previous, less than motivated employees, is this really the way to address the situation? In my opinion, if you are looking for an employee with a higher level of professionalism, you (as the employer) need to exemplify that same level of professionalism. You also likely have to bust out a little more than 2 bucks above minimum wage.

Otherwise, bring on the robots.