Bridal Chateau
Debbie Daruszka (L) and Beth Clark (R)
Tell us the history of Bridal Chateau.
Debbie: My mother started the bridal shop in 1976. We had a meat market. My father had a couple of heart attacks and couldn’t support the family anymore. It was right around the time I was getting married. My mother said, “Well, let’s look for a wedding dress.” And when we did, we weren’t treated the way we thought we’d like to be. We wanted someone who would care about us. Long story short, we decided to open up a bridal shop together. My mother and father went to New York City, knocked on doors, bought some wedding dresses and brought them back. We had a larger home, so we set up a corner of the house and sold the bridal dresses out of our home. Brides would come and we would give them coffee, we’d fall in love with them. We would go to their house and dress them the morning of their wedding. We’d follow them to the church, and make sure everything was right. It was all based on love and continued that way through three generations.
The business blossomed and we had to move out of the house. We bought this building. It was a burned-out car wash. My husband, brother and cousin built rooms in it, fixed the ceiling, and made it beautiful. It continued to blossom and we had to put an addition on. Beth, my little angel, when she was four years old we’d bring her into the bridal shop and she’d help the seamstresses sort the beads and sort fabric by color, just so she could be a part of it and see what we loved. Now, she is the generation of computers and TikTok and Instagram and strength. I’m still the old-fashioned one, I’m still the mama. If someone comes in and has a problem or a special need, that’s what I gravitate to. Beth has brought us into the 20th century and I’m so proud of her and happy to be her partner and her mom.
If you were to walk into our shop, the first thing you’d see is a wedding picture of my mother. It’s beautiful, in black and white. I show it to everybody. There is also a picture of my grandparents in their wedding outfits in the ‘20s. It was black and white. They paid a gentleman to color it in with colored pencils. So I have a beautiful hand-colored portrait of my grandparents too next to a quote about love. That’s been the whole basis of our business – caring, loving, sharing and also being important to the community, giving back to the community.
Beth: We modernized after COVID. We went and got our liquor license so now we can do champagne appointments. We knew people were going to want those special experiences. We built out a room for that, we have a ‘Very Important Bride’ (VIB) room for those appointments.
We tried to focus more on the minority groups that didn’t always feel like they were represented at bridal boutique. We work really hard to make sure everyone feels comfortable here. We have dress designers that offer up to seven shades of nude. A lot of companies only offer one shade of nude and that’s not reflective of the beautiful array of our brides. We work with “All Bodies, All Brides.” We are trained on that platform to help brides with disabilities, seen and unseen. We learned proper language etiquette and how to help people. We also built a dressing room that is handicap accessible.
Debbie: And we help with lighting and sound. If someone has sensory processing sensitivity or overstimulation. We taught our sales staff sign language. They can ask “Do you say, ‘Yes’ to this dress?” in sign language for the hearing impaired.
Beth: Yes, we’ve learned sign language and we’ve done a lot to make sure that everyone feels represented and comfortable and can have the experience that everyone deserves. We are a smaller boutique, so we do our own thing. That’s why I think marketing and social media are so important because now we can reach people better than we ever have before.
Debbie: We really focus on and love our plus-size brides. We offer sizes 0-40. We have 11 rooms so they can be in their own room and not in the middle of the store. Everybody’s feelings are important.
Beth: And no two brides ever shop at the same time.
How far in advance should a bride shop for their wedding dress?
Debbie: In a perfect world, a year is awesome.
Beth: We call that the Goldilocks. Not too far and not too close. You can pick off the rack, you can special order, and you can do customizations. A year is a perfect timeframe for everything.
Debbie: Virtually, you can do anything you want. A lot of our manufacturers will do that. If a bride wants their train longer, or pink underneath, or sparkle or they want sleeves on a dress that doesn’t come with sleeves. You can do that, but it just takes time. 8 months to a year is the sweet spot for us. However, you can walk in here and say, “I’m getting married in one week and I have $100.” We will find you something. There is always something we can do.
What advice do you give to a first-time wedding dress shopper?
Beth: There are so many different directions that could go. But I think it’s having important conversations with your friends and family, anyone that you plan on bringing with you, ahead of time. People will come in, deer in headlights, and say “I haven’t had the budget talk yet.”
Debbie: Our average is $1,500. You don’t have to spend six thousand or eleven thousand dollars on a dress like Say Yes to the Dress.
Beth: Having those conversations ahead of time and not in front of a group is always a good idea. And setting expectations. Our brides are wonderful, but a lot of the time the shopping experience isn’t what everyone thinks it’s going to be. I think sometimes brides come in hoping, “It’s my wedding, it’s about me.” They’re looking for an experience where everyone will behave and put anything aside, and immediately they try on a dress and someone makes a negative comment or nitpicking the bride’s body. When people get invited to go shopping, they should be told they’re there for support, not to give their raw, unadulterated opinion. One of the biggest things I say is honesty without compassion is cruelty. There are other ways that we can say things.
Are your wedding gowns available for purchase off the rack or ordered specifically for each bride?
Beth: Everything in our store is available to be taken home that day, off the rack. Everything here is for sale. About 50 percent of our brides buy off the rack and 50 percent special order. It depends on your timeframe.
What are your best-selling designers?
Beth: Our Maggie Sottero Morilee collection is definitely our top seller. We love our Maggie Sottero collection because it falls into our ethos of ‘Love for All.’ They’ve been working really hard the last two years on sustainability. Quite a few dresses are made from recycled materials. Sometimes recycled materials feel like plastic but we’re working really hard to make sure we’re bringing in dresses that still feel luxurious.
What else are you doing to help the planet?
Beth: For every dress that we sell is tree is planted. There is a ridgeline that goes along the coast in Costa Rica from where the mountains go to the water which is a really important animal and bird migration area. We focused on that area first and we met our goal and were able to move on to Australia, trying to reinhabit some of the bush areas that were devasted by the wildfires. Once we hit our goal there, we’re going to come back to the States and help fill in some of the forest fire areas here.
Debbie: Connecting with brands that care not only about the bride but about the world is important to us.
Beth: We’re lowering our carbon footprint for the future.
Do you prefer when brides stick with classic designs or play around with trends?
Beth: They’re two totally different brides. I love that we can dress both of them. There’s always a part of me that loves a clean and classic design. We call them the timeless brides. It’s your legacy. When you see your portrait on the wall in ten years and still love it. But trendy brides are SO FUN. Black wedding dresses have been really popular, and color and floral dresses. They’re two totally different customers and I love them equally. The clean and classic are like your palette cleansers, but your grunge bride is full flavor.
You closed your bridesmaids and mother-of-the-bride departments to offer more inclusive sizes for brides. Tell us what inspired you to do so.
Beth: We decided that we needed all sizes in stock. After COVID, the shipping times got crazy. The whole supply chain was wonky for a long time. We thought about how you could find a nice mother-of-the-bride dress or bridesmaid dress at Macy’s or a similar store. But the brides don’t get that option. If they want a wedding gown, that limits options. So, we reallocated the space to carry sizes 0 to 40. We have over 500 dresses in the store. Anyone can walk in off the streets and pick a dress if they need to. Our shortest timeframe was three hours before the ceremony in Niagara Falls. She came in, bought a dress and out she went. We have a lot of last-minute people. This is the Amazon generation where people think they can get everything in two days. Wedding gowns still take six months to be made. So, we decided to carry all sizes.
What trends are you excited to see in the 2025 wedding season?
Beth: I definitely love the jacquard fabric. It’s nice because it has the feeling of lace but it’s clean like a satin.
Debbie: It’s like stamps. Jacquard is like satin stamped with a rose pattern.
Beth: It’s so much lighter weight than I thought it would be. It’s like half the weight the weight of a satin dress. You want to be able to wear it all day. I’m also excited about modesty coming back. We went through that whole phase where everything was sheer and plunge. Now we’re starting to see modesty come back – square and scoop necklines. And really long veils.
Debbie: We’ve been selling a lot of sparkle veils. It’s sheer and sparkly.
Beth: It’s nice because it catches the light but it’s not itchy like beading.
How do you create an environment for brides to feel comfortable and beautiful when trying on wedding dresses?
Beth: We focus very much on the bride. We are working with her; we don’t comment on her body at all. Everyone gets their own showroom area so they’re not trying on dresses next to other brides. It feels very personalized.
Debbie: We do an interview prior to their appointment, online. So we know her likes, her needs. We find out anything that’s important to her. We pull dresses ahead of time for the bride. When you’re passionate and love your business and love your people, it shows. We really hear and love our brides. And we want to make things special for them. We want no pain and no stress.
Beth: One of the more important things we do here is we try to find out their love story and get a picture of the couple before they come in. Because we really want to know more about them. It’s not about selling a dress. For us it’s about being detectives. We’re sorting through their wish list to find what they like.
Debbie: Our manager will ask, “What do you think Tom would think of you in this dress?” We really remember who the bride is marrying, where they’re getting married and if the dress will fit with their venue. We keep that information at the forefront throughout the shopping process.
Beth: Our manager has a super high emotional intelligence level. She can read a room. If a bride says she wants a trumpet dress but has tried on every trumpet dress in the store and tried on trumpet dresses at the last four stores she went to – maybe she’s really an A-line person. It’s good to pick up the cues that they aren’t telling us. Because sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know.
Debbie: It’s amazing how many plus-size brides think they have to hide behind a bunch of fabric, a big ballgown. We’ll say “You have a rockin’ shape, you have curves, try this on.” And they’ll try a slimmer style. As long as it has good structure, you need something that’s not flimsy. I can’t tell you how many times plus-size brides walk out of her with a nice strapless, tight, beautiful dress that they never thought in a million years they could wear.
Beth: It’s about dressing for a shape – not a size. Whether you’re a 6, 16, 26, or 36, it doesn’t matter.
Do you have any particularly special memories of a bride? Please share.
Beth: It’s hard narrowing it down after doing it so long. Molly is one bride that comes to mind. She struggled with eating disorders growing up and she did some shopping before she came to us. She was completely deflated and she didn’t go dress shopping for like six months. It took her six months to mentally recover and to prep herself for getting back in the mindset. She came into the store, tried dresses on in her size, styles that she wanted and she fell in love with one. She wrote the most beautiful review about her experience. And that’s why we do it. We want to be a safe space for everyone. A lot of people come in with past trauma and pain. We don’t take our jobs lightly.
October, 2024
