Modest Wedding Dress without a Train

In St. Louis there are private schools that require girls to wear a white wedding dress for the graduation ceremony.
I've had two board members from schools in the shop to inquire about our modest wedding dresses. I've been told that there was a wardrobe malfunction mishap at a graduation ceremony. (Yikes).

We've had many brides this year request a train removal or opting for shorter trains. There are many styles already in the store, but I wanted a wider selection.

These lovely wedding dresses will be in the shop in September.

You can find examples of the gowns here: Gallery 5 at Chatfields

Let me know what you think of the styles. Would you wear a wedding dress without a train?

Last Minute Brides

Most bridal stores ask that brides choose a wedding dress anywhere from 9 months to a year before their wedding date. Ha, ha, ha. I laugh because I don't believe I've ever had a bride with that much time before their wedding date. Typically my brides range on average 2 to 6 months.

In April, I had a bride that came into the shop on Tuesday and her wedding was the following Friday. That was 8 days prior to her wedding date.

Last night, I had a bride that is getting married on Saturday! That is only three days. My lovely bride takes the prize! She had purchased another bridal gown which wasn't modest enough for her and was going to add a jacket. Her friend found our store and called us. Can you believe the dress almost fit her perfectly? No alterations needed.

Of course we try to accommodate our brides schedules and we often offer our sample dresses as a solution.

Best Bridal Shop in St. Louis

I am absolutely thrilled that Chatfields Bridal Boutique won the Best Bridal Shop in St. Louis award by KTVI's CityVoter.
A great big thank you to our brides that voted for us.
My mom and I have also read the reviews that were posted. Another thank you for all the kind words.

Link to KTVI CityVoter - Best Wedding Dresses in St. Louis.

How exciting! A Modest-Only Bridal Store won!

Harry and David at West County Shopping Mall

I am so excited to be the wedding dress provider for the display window at Harry and David's store located in West County shoppping mall. Our modest wedding dress, a lovely sheath gown with lace and beadwork is vintage-inspired.
Our wedding gown will be on display for a month until April 10th.

Here is a picture of the dress on display:
En Vogue 3983

I'm so happy when other retail stores choose to display modesty! A big thank you for the additional exposure this front window will give us.

The Bride Makes the Final Decision

You are the bride. You make the final decision about the single most important fashion piece you will ever purchase. You can listen to your maid of honor, or mom, or sister, or the bridal consultant, but you are the one to make the decision.

I offer this advice because of several funny stories I've had recently with brides.

I served a 50+ first time bride. Typically I direct them to the section of "non-princessey" looking dresses. However, she purchased the largest, poofiest dress in the store. She looked amazing - and what a fun bride.

One bride went to Hawaii for a destination wedding. Knowing that she'll have to either mail or hand carry her wedding dress onto a plane, I directed the bride to bridal gowns made of chiffon. I've been to Hawaii it's not 60 degrees year round. But once again, I was surprised that she selected a very heavy bridal satin gown. She loved it and the pictures were amazing.

Another bride was an alternative size 22 bride (I don't care for the phrase plus-size) and was very shy. I showed her several A-line dresses that are super flattering to any shape. It wasn't until she tried on the body hugging, hiney shaping, mermaid style that she beamed. Embrace your curves - it's your day! Funny because she said absolutely no mermaid style dresses. HA She also sent me photo's and looked wonderful.

You should listen to the advice - but that doesn't always mean you have to take it!

Finding a Wedding Dress that FITS!

In the last 2 months, I have seen 4 brides that had no intentions of purchasing a modest dress when they originally found my store. These four brides were very large breasted and a strapless wedding gown was totally out of the question for them. (that's what was expressed to me by each bride) They all found bridal gowns here that fit them. Several of the brides said they were going to remove the sleeves - but when the dress came in none of them did.

Each girl explained to me that they didn't want to be "hanging out" of their dress, they didn't want to be constantly pulling up on a strapless dress.

If you are uncomfortable or looking to minimize your bust area, consider a more modest wedding dress.

I'd love to show you options!

Pure Fashion St. Louis Show

I am so excited to be part of the Catholic Pure Fashion Show. The Fashion show is March 27, 2010 at Spazio's Salon in West Port Plaza.

Pure Fashion.com
Pure Fashion is an international faith based program designed for girls 14-18 to help young women re-discover and re-affirm their innate value and authentic femininity.

Pure Fashion is a character formation program that enhances not only a young woman's external appearance, but more importantly, her interior beauty and balanced self confidence.

Our goal is to emphasize a young woman's inherent dignity and therefore create in her a desire to dress and act in accordance with that dignity. We understand that many young women today are losing their sense of innocence at a very young age, and Pure Fashion aims to reverse this trend by offering a fun, exciting and effective virtue formation program that can impress the hearts and minds of young girls at a very critical stage in their lives.

OneWed Best Vendor of 2009

Yesterday I received a letter from OneWed, (one of my favorite bridal websites), that Chatfields Bridal Boutique won the Best of 2009 Vendor award! Yippee!
Chatfields Bridal at OneWed

A special Thank You to many of our brides that wrote a glowing review about the store.