(Blue Velvet collage from IMDB)
And the bride wore Blue Velvet, bluer than velvet was the night…This post is nothing like the song.
Aside from Saks in the email Emily had sent me with some prospective places to search for a wedding dress, she included a little shop called Blue, as you learned in that last post. I’m starting off with Blue for a couple of reasons – it was in the initial email Emily sent and I also like to get the bad news first and end on a good note. I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this one…
The description she had sent me from New York Magazine online sounded interesting to me, so I thought I would give it a try. It mentioned hip brides; custom-made. I looked up the designer online and saw good things. Not many, but good. The only thing that irked me a little was the one Blue user review…it was scathing. Written by the husband, no less! Here’s an excerpt:
“…we had a *very* negative experience…My wife asked for the dresses to be ready 2 weeks before the wedding…The dresses were delivered 2 days before the wedding, leaving no time for alterations…Many details were off. For example, the hems on 3 of the dresses were quite uneven. On others the zippers were poorly installed, such that they caused the material to bunch…Of the six custom-made dresses, only 2 fit well. One fit so badly that it was unwearable…sloppy craftsmanship.”
(Source: http://nymag.com/urr/urr.pl?rm=view_review&urr_review_id=863333)
I read that and thought, “Whoa” but remembered that it’s only one review and I hadn’t really come across anything else too negative, so I dialed the phone and made the appointment. But I did have my doubts.
My appointment at Blue was the second, and last, appointment that I scheduled for the day Emily, Melissa, and Donna were with me in the city. It was after our time at Morgane Le Fay (fabulous!!!) and after a great lunch at The Mercer Kitchen. We headed over there, with high hopes.
As we walked, I realized it was near the sketchy Tompkins Square Park, where I had spent some time on set for several films I’ve worked on. Most parts of the park stank like urine. Other parts are alright. In the nooks and crannies of the park you have a very eclectic mix – people practicing Tai Chi (alone), pre-school classes, local street musicians, the homeless, and plenty of crackheads to boot. Nice location, right? But really it’s not that bad, actually. It has a bad reputation from things past, but has improved a lot in recent years.
A lot of cute and fun shops exist in the east village. So I continued the “benefit of the doubt” aim I was going for.
When we approached the front door, I was still a little skeptical. So we went in and there was a group of women – it looked like a mom, daughter, maybe an aunt and a friend – all talking about dresses and saying their goodbyes to the woman that worked there.
Upon our entrance, the woman (turned out to be Christina), asked me if she could help us…I told her yes that I was looking for a wedding dress and had an appointment. At that she asked me what I was looking for, and dumbfounded, I simply said, “Something to wear.”
As they left, the mother turned to me and said “Good luck” but not in a cheerful, friendly way. The wheels in my head turned faster.
The place was in total disarray. Not too many dresses anywhere and to the immediate left seemed to be the workroom, partially hidden behind a large curtain. Oh, and it looked nothing like the cute photo above leads you to believe.
The woman asked me when the wedding was, looked me up and down and said, “Something A-line, something flowy” which was right on the money. OK, a little relief there.
She took me back (maybe 10 feet away) and basically told me to strip, in front of her, without even a dress to try on. I’m not really the modest type, so I put my trust in her and did as she asked (looking at a photo on the wall of her and Linda Evangelista…)
Oh, by the way, none of my friends were allowed back there with us.
She came back with a dress, which resembled an unfinished version of the infamous white number that Marilyn Monroe wears over the subway grate in The Seven Year Itch. She actually had to pin it on me, and in doing so, stabbed me in the boob!
I came out and no one really had a reaction I wanted — and I didn’t resemble Marilyn either — I think we were all a little taken aback by the place. And the woman wasn’t really what I had envisioned, and I’ll leave it at that. She was nice, abrupt, and very fast.
I felt out of place, a sense of dread, and I thought I was probably getting some strange illness from being stabbed in the boob. I got dressed as fast as I could and we were out of there.
I made sure to thank Emily for that one!
When we left, I asked my friends where she even got the dress, as I didn’t see anything around. One of them quickly replied, “From the floor!”
Yes, it is true my experience at Blue was wretched and I wouldn’t personally recommend it to anyone else, but maybe it’s right for someone else. I’d like to meet that girl.
XOXO
M, J, and S
P.S. A month after we had our appointment at Blue, I noticed that there was a very positive review of the shop. So maybe it’s just hit or miss with this one. You’ll have to go and see for yourself.
Wedding Whirlwind 