Style maven, radio personality, and all around Atlanta influencer, Cassie Young, began her quest for THE wedding dress last year and was met at some Atlanta bridal boutiques with an unfortunate reality of much of the bridal industry – limited options and sizes for curvy brides.
Any bride over a size 10 is considered plus size in the bridal world, so Cassie, who is a curvy beauty, expected to run into some obstacles. A lot of brides find themselves in this situation. The average American woman wears a size 16, but Bridal hasn't caught on to the new norm. Most boutiques have very limited selections for their non sample size brides. Women are forced to settle for whatever fits instead of having real choices. Or, they feel pressured into "shedding for the wedding", which as Cassie will tell you, "is a total crock".
We couldn't agree more. We believe in a butterfly-in-your-stomach, over-the-moon excited, and tears-of-joy filled proper bridal experience (and champagne – we believe in chilled bubbly for those special moments, too).
Once Cassie made her way to Wedding Angels, she finally had the proper bridal experience. "I knew that I would be seen as a person and feel respected as a bride, without having a single digit size." She had...wait for it....options! Cassie's options opened up so much, in fact, that she had not one, but two beautiful gowns to add to her wedding shine.
But when we spoke with Cassie about her experience, she told us that it was more than just about style options, she described her relationship with us as “professional and home town” and that’s a compliment that we can’t gloss over. Finding your dress is a deeply personal life moment, so you don't want to be just another shopper in a store. "I knew I could call and get an answer and talk to someone if I needed to,” Cassie said.
While we are proud of the fact that we have amazing relationships with designers and carry some of the most well-known names in Bridal, we want our boutique environment to feel intimate from the time you make your appointment to the time you pick up your dress to your last alterations appointment.
That mentality extends to our brides family and friends, too. Instead of shopping at a big-box retailer for her mother’s gown, we pulled gowns from our mother-of-the-bride collections for Cassie’s mom to shop in the boutique for a gown that would make her feel and look beautiful, too.
When it came to Cassie’s wedding party, we were thrilled to get a bit creative. "I had a guy in my wedding party and my husband had his sister in his wedding party and Jacquie helped us tie together little details with the bridesmaid dresses and menswear,” Cassie said.
Many of the grooms we work with don’t think they care about the little details until they get into the boutique and see all of the options available for them to pick from. “We loved that there wasn’t any push back on what we liked or didn’t like, we got a lot of guidance without anything feeling pushy. It was the most painless process ever,” Cassie said.
Once measurements were in and tuxes were settled on, we placed the custom orders and had everything for the guys shipped across state lines, as we so often do for wedding parties dispersed across the United States.
“The entire process made me feel like Wedding Angels was part of my wedding instead of feeling like I was just a client cashing out,” Cassie said.
To say Cassie epitomizes the Wedding Angels Bride vibe is an understatement. This girl is confident, fun, beautiful and full of joy. We were so thrilled to get to know her through her wedding planning process and to call her a friend, and an inspiration as she uses her platform to spread body-positive messaging.
We delight in each opportunity to help brides have the best bridal shopping experience possible, it’s truly our pleasure to be a part of so many amazing wedding memories!