Trial by fire. Simply put, that's how I learned on my first day on the job at The Bridal Emporium, a full-service bridal salon, found right along the main street in town. The owners of the shop are a mom and daughter team who I just love; they are truly beautiful women, inside and out. Oh, and crazy to hire someone with no experience except being socially awkward. That I know I do well. Maybe I'm their community project for the year; you know, like the whole "My Fair Lady" thing. They're going to take my awkwardness and lack of social graces and turn them into confidence and congeniality. Good luck with that.
Now, as to my first day as an employee, I didn't even know what my title was. I was hoping for a name tag that said "grunt" on it. I'd be the one running around, doing this and that, doing whatever needed to be done to allow the owners to spend more time with their clients. Little did I know that "this and that" meant working with brides my first day. Say what?
I expected to be broken in slowly, you know, start with having me read the store's policy and procedure manual, followed by viewing the mandatory 3-minute OSHA dvd on safety in the workplace. Then I would follow someone around all day, seeing how a real professional does her job.
Nope. Didn't happen. One minute I'm bringing dresses into a fitting room for a bride-to-be, and the next minute, my boss is asking me if I would feel comfortable working with her client...alone. I knew that she was really telling me that I was going to work with this bride, because that's how you learn the job; by doing it. Wait a minute, she is asking me, who used to zip her daughters' chins up in their coat zippers and accidentally poked them with safety pins when they were younger. And now the owner of the store is asking me to zip, lace and pin clients into thousand dollar dresses? You are one trusting individual, lady. Or just insane. Nonetheless, I found myself saying "sure, I don't mind" and off she went and left me to BS my way through my first bridal appointment.
I figured the best way to start out was to introduce myself and get some general background info from her. She and her fiance met while they were in college. She was from western PA, and very much an outdoorsy type of girl. She didn't really know what kind of dress she wanted, but the owner had picked out some for her to start with. One thing I didn't realize was that she had to strip down to her undies and bra in order to try on dresses...awkward. I just met this girl and she's now practically naked in front of me, patiently waiting while I figured out how to get the dress on her before she realized that I had no clue what I was doing.
I had her step into the dress, shimmied it up her body and zipped it without drawing any blood. She looked absolutely beautiful. She had the type of figure that would look good in any dress, but this one hugged her in all the right places and gave her an amazing silhouette. She couldn't hide her smile nor the fact that she loved the dress.
Her entourage consisted of her mother, her sister, and her best friend/matron of honor. They stood out in the viewing area waiting for her to make her appearance in her first dress. She came out beaming and confident; until she saw the faces of the women, causing her whole countenance to change. I could have slapped them all. Here was a beautiful girl in a gorgeous dress who just wanted some encouragement, some sign from them, especially her mother, that she approved. Instead, her mother walked up to her, eyed the dress up and down and never said a word. None of them did.
My poor bride. She lost her confidence and started fidgeting with the dress. She then began to talk herself out of liking it, so I got her off of the pedistal and back into the fitting room before she started to cry. I knew her heart was crushed. The appointment dragged on with the same reaction from her family until the best friend snuck into the room to talk with me. She said that the bride is waiting for approval from her mom, but the mom is waiting for her daughter to come out and say that a dress is "the" dress. What? Is that it? Just a lack of communication? Geez. So much time and emotion wasted due to mixed signals and unspoken feelings. Today was a perfect example of just how deeply woven into the relationship between mother and daughter is the desire for acceptance and approval.
The bride didn't find "the" dress that day and I don't think she came back. I did end up working with a seventeen year old girl later that day, who was two months pregnant. After trying on a couple of dresses, she decided on a gown from the discount rack. She told my boss that I was really nice and that she was going to get her bridemaids dresses from here. I guess maybe I do have some customer service skills after all.
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