Monday, July 19, 2010

Dog Days of Summer

Ah...summer.

Time to lay back, relax and chill.

Take your time, there's no hurry, cause it's summer.

People often come into the store and say, "it's wedding season, you must be very busy!"

Nope. People don't buy their dresses during wedding season, they buy their dresses just after engagement season, which means the store is SLAMMED just when the credit card bills start arriving from our Christmas shopping. Works out well, actually, since I do work on commission.

But summer is slow. No one wants to put their sweaty body into heavy dress after heavy dress, especially with an audience. I can hardly blame them.

As much as you have heard me repeat how much I love my job, the summer is the one time when I look out the window and dream of being elsewhere, prone on a chaise, fruity drink in hand, the kind that wears an umbrella. I watch the cars drive by, get excited when one hesitates outside the window like it might stop and release a flood of brides with wallets held aloft and a hungry look in their eyes that can only be fed with tulle and crystals. Yet no one stops. Window shopping does not satisfy my need for human interaction, or my more basic need for a paycheck of a certain size.

I look down at my appointment schedule and see that I have a return appointment for a bride of mine who has bought a beautiful gown from me that will be arriving in the store in a couple of months. She has an appointment for an unspecified purpose, right at the time of day when I might actually get walk-in traffic, and my heart sinks with the realization that this is the dreaded "dress visiter". Yes, she loves her dress, and I am glad for it, but I have convinced her so much of my wonderful service that she has decided to bring someone visiting from out of town (could be Mom, bridesmaid, Aunt, doesn't matter, it's always the same) to come in so that I may put her in our sample again and she can stand and stare at herself in the mirror and ask her friend, "do you love it?!" which, by the way, is a NON question because there is only one correct response when the dress has already been ordered!

But what is the one saving grace during the dog days of summer? They get out of their cars with a sense of purpose, open an organizer and show me. It is filled with pictures of dresses they both like and despise, notes are written in two ink colors, red for wedding gown info, blue for bridesmaid info. They attack the store with a drive similar to Captain Von Trapp in the Sound of Music, giving each member of her group instructions, "Sally, you hold my purse, Jane, you take that row of dresses in the back, and Mom, you come with me. If anyone sees something they think I'll like, whistle twice in succession and I'll come look. " She is on a mission, and she plans on buying dress, if not today, then in the next couple of weeks. They have this down to a science you see, because they have exactly two months in which in which they plan to organize their whole wedding even though it won't be until the following summer. Have you guessed yet?

In the summer, I pray for the arrival of the teachers!

3 comments:

Erin Janda Rawlings said...

That's awesome! As a former teacher, I can appreciate that comment :)

Rieshy said...

Very funny. Hope you get a little chaise time along with a car load or two of teachers.

Madison said...

While you are waiting for the teacher brides to come in, maybe you should take a look at this wedding dress video I found on http://expinspira.blogspot.com/2010/07/ditte-isager.html
and see what you think. I'd love to hear your opinion as they seem a little out side the normal population to me.