Estimated read time: 9-10 minutes
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Jill Mozdzen has everything she needs for her July 7 wedding - except a gown.
"The first dress she tried on, as far as I was concerned, was gorgeous," says her father, Chuck Mozdzen, who is in charge of quality control for a company that makes plastic and rubber parts for cars, and has an uncanny eye for bridal fashion, especially when it involves his only child.
But the manufacturer discontinued that dress, and of the 35 or 40 Jill has tried on since at six stores, none have seemed right.
Which is why Jill, 29, her father, 53, and mother, Pat Mozdzen, 52, are at Dior Bridal Salon in Dearborn, Mich. - along with a gaggle of other brides who slip, and sometimes struggle, into dress after dress (there are about 450 on the racks in the store), march out of the fitting rooms in the back, climb onto the carpeted pedestal in the main showroom and look in the mirrors while friends, parents and even other shoppers exclaim:
"No!"
"You look like Barbie!"
"That's the one!"
It's high season for brides, and Saturday - the day the Mozdzens are shopping - is generally the busiest day of the week. By the time Dior closes its doors at 6 p.m., 20 brides - twice as many as an out-of-season Saturday - will have tried on dresses.
Nationwide, there will be nearly 2.3 million weddings this year - more than 60,000 are expected to occur in Michigan - and most of those will take place in June, July, August and September, according to theweddingreport.com, a Web site that monitors the bridal industry
Which means it's decision time for Jill Mozdzen and other women who are planning to marry this summer or early fall. If a bride wants a gown that's not a floor sample, that no one has tried on, she needs to order now to allow time for it to arrive and for alterations.
"Most manufacturers require four months. But we do have some that are six or nine months. Everything now comes through China. If they have a slowdown through customs ..." sighs Barbara Schlaff, who owns Dior - which is not affiliated with designer Christian Dior - and has been outfitting brides for as long as she's been married: 37 years.
From a two-story, 5,000-square-foot building with big windows, seven especially spacious fitting rooms, granite countertops and opulent-looking ceramic flooring, Schlaff and the other women who work at Dior Bridal have dressed thousands of brides. Thank-you notes and wedding pictures are tacked to a bulletin board near the first-floor dressing rooms.
'IT'S FEMININE AND IT'S STYLISH'
"I like pretty," Schlaff says. "Bridal is a uniquely pretty job. It's romantic. It's feminine and it's stylish. ... I wouldn't do anything else."
Adding to the bustle today is the fact that the Christmas and New Year holidays are a popular time for engagements. And in addition to brides, including one who mutters the word "annulment," the store is swarming with mothers and sisters and friends of the brides, brought along for help and moral support. One woman arrives with an entourage of seven people, including an 11-month-old baby. Most of the newly engaged women can't wait to start searching for a gown.
"That's one of the first things you want to do," says Dawn Lefko, watching her friend, 28-year-old Jamie Brickley, who got engaged on Christmas Eve and plans to get married in June 2007 - not to the man she'd dated for nine years but to another she met a few months ago - try on dresses.
"If you get stressed out, it ruins the excitement," adds Lefko, 29, speaking with an air of authority. She says her own wedding - which took place in September 2005 - "was a dream I looked forward to my whole life!"
This isn't so much about shopping for a dress as it is shopping for a fantasy, for something that will that will turn every bride into the princess she wants to be.
Because even if she denies it, every bride thinks of herself as a princess and every bride wants to be beautiful and to believe she and her charming one will live together happily ever after.
'IT'S ONE-ON-ONE ATTENTION'
Fantasy comes with a price.
Nationally, brides spend an average of about $850 on their dresses - and that doesn't include alterations, which can run a couple hundred dollars. Or headpieces. Or veils. Or undergarments.
Or shoes. (Jill Mozdzen's shoes cost $160 and her mother jokes that she's going to have to wear them every single day for a year to get her money's worth.)
At Dior, the gowns start at $99 for a sample or sale dress and go up to about $3,000. "We cater to a mid-price range," says Schlaff.
The average bride tries on 10 or 12 dresses at the store and often makes return visits before deciding. She is assigned to one sales consultant. (On this day there are five on duty at Dior, plus a store seamstress.) Appointments aren't required - though they're a good idea - and usually take an hour, more if the bride is really indecisive or has special circumstances. For example, Schlaff has been mailing dresses to Arizona so a bride who lives there - and spotted the dresses on the store's Web site - can try them on.
"It's not just retail," says Schlaff. "It's bridal retail. It's more demanding. It's one-on-one attention. Lots of these girls need to be guided into their dresses. ... If it was that easy, I wouldn't be here."
Most brides have an idea of what they want.
Jill Mozdzen, an elementary school teacher, is set on a dress that laces up the back like a corset. (Her father isn't so keen on that style and hopes she will pick something bit more modest.) She also wants a tight waist and a full skirt. Something princess-like, something that reminds her of Cinderella, because she and her fiance, Gary Kathan - she's known him since grade school but they didn't date until they ran into each other at a church festival 3 1/2 years ago - are planning their wedding around a Disney theme.
One 21-year-old bride says she wants something with lots of lace to fit in with her Irish-themed wedding. She tries a gown with long, lacy sleeves and is unhappy. "I look like a 40-year-old in a wedding dress," she moans.
After a few more dresses, her mother announces: "We'll go home and think about it and order the one we like."
"The one I like," the bride corrects.
'THINK OF YOUR PICTURES'
Brides can be quite exacting as they try to bring their fantasy to life.
Schlaff can tell a lot by the way a bride-to-be tries on a dress.
"You listen to the little things," says Schlaff. "You realize they're not even considering their parents or their fiances ... those are the marriages that don't make it. You can't go into marriage like that."
She adds: "We do get repeat business. They do come back for the second and third weddings."
Otherwise, Schlaff says, "The biggest advice I give girls ... 'Think of your pictures 25 years from now. What do you want your children to see you in? You don't want them to say, "Mom, what have you got on?" You want timeless classic elegance.' "
And when a bride finds the Dress, everyone knows it.
Monique Hawkins, a 28-year-old business school student, who says she has been engaged for 10 years but didn't feel ready to commit until recently, was anxious to find something with lots of beading.
She and her future mother-in-law, Jan Foster, who is 49 and also is engaged, arrived at Dior 10 minutes before the store opened at 10 a.m. and waited in the car in the parking lot.
Hawkins tried on a half dozen dresses and looked most stunning in a strapless, sparkly dress with a pleated ball gown skirt.
"I think this is my dress," Hawkins says. (Later she explained, "I just knew. I felt it. I pictured how my fiance will look when he sees me. He's going to cry.")
Jill Mozdzen's parents, who are watching, tell her she looks lovely.
So does her future mother-in-law.
"That is gorgeous!" says Jill Mozdzen. "I want to try that on when she's done!"
'THAT'S MY FAVORITE DRESS'
The first dress Jill tries on is strapless and beaded and doesn't have a corset-style lace-up back. The bodice is slightly ruched and the back of the dress has a great pleat.
Her parents - "my best friends in the whole wide world" - are impressed.
"That's the first one I really like in the back," says Chuck Mozdzen.
"The back of it is the best," says Pat Mozdzen.
Jill tries on a tiered veil.
"I like that concept of the veil the best," says Chuck Mozdzen.
"You know what's nice? You can still see the back with that veil," says Pat Mozdzen.
Then Jill tries on the dress Monique chose.
Her parents think she's too young to pull off such an elaborate, sophisticated dress - until they see her in it. The gown can be worn with or without straps, and Jill is using the spaghetti-style straps. It looks different on her than it does on Monique.
"I like this one better than the last one," says Pat Mozdzen.
"That's my favorite dress," says Chuck Mozdzen.
From across the room, Foster, who is waiting as Hawkins looks at bridesmaid dresses, mouths the words: "It's beautiful!"
"I don't think I'm going to find anything better," says Jill Mozdzen, smitten with the gown.
"Thank God!" says Chuck Mozdzen, when he realizes the dress does not have a corset-style lace-up back.
"He was worried about what Father would say," says Pat Mozdzen, explaining that her husband didn't want to upset their priest.
The Mozdzens decide to think about the $840 dress over lunch.
A short time later, Jill Mozdzen returns.
"I don't think she took one bite of food," says Pat Mozdzen.
They order the dress.
Everyone is happy.
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WHAT 2006 BRIDES WILL BE WEARING
Ivory and gold dresses, as well as dresses with pink tints - a great alternative for women who look washed-out in white.
Colorful sashes and trim. Look for light blue to be especially popular.
Strapless gowns still rule, but halter-style tops are showing up more frequently. So are spaghetti straps.
Beading and other embellishments, especially crystal. Expect to see gowns accented with metallic stitching.
Straight dresses with flared, or mermaid, hems.
Bows, ruffles and lace.
Tea-length dresses for bridesmaids.
Source: theknot.com; theweddingchannel.com; Detroit Free Press research.
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Georgea Kovanis wries for the Detroit Free Press. Contact her at kovanis(at)freepress.com.
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(c) 2006, Detroit Free Press. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.
