A Woman Owned Business / November 2004
Happy Endings and Happy Beginnings
 Joyce Boone and Cedar. |
By Pat Lawrence
Dee Higgs decided that life just wasn’t adding up to what she wanted, so she resigned her accounting job, took a second mortgage on the house and opened a bridal shop. Of course, it wasn’t quite that simple. The decision to leave an established career was hard, the research into opening a new business, extensive, the economics, daunting. But, like a modern day Cinderella, her story has a happy ending. Dee is celebrating her tenth year successfully doing what she enjoys.
Like many women, Dee was encouraged to pursue a career “in something stable. In high school, accounting was what they suggested for women who could do math. My family thought that was a great idea -I would always have something to fall back on.”
After earning a degree in accounting from Wheeling Jesuit, Dee worked at two public accounting firms, and finally settled into the tedium of accounting for a large retail store. “It got to the point where I was crying all the way to work because I was so miserable. I just didn’t want to do it anymore. I just couldn’t do it anymore.”
Dee had learned to sew as a child, from her mother, a Bobbie Brooks seamstress for thirty years. The skill would be a great asset for what she had in mind. For a year, she researched the feasibility of opening a bridal shop. “I contacted the bridal manufacturers and they helped me plan the inventory and provided online educational courses about inventory control and bridal consulting.”
She passed a house each day on her way to work, “abandoned but still beautiful. The roof was falling in and it was a mess, but I bid on it when it was auctioned. My mother thought I was crazy. There were squirrels in the attic.” It took nine months to renovate, with Mom helping.
Dee moved into the house, but only for two months. Along with the other changes in her life, she was about to get married. Since her fiancée raised Black Angus cattle and Longhorns on a 170-acre farm, Dee decided her house, at the highest point in Belmont County, would be an excellent shop location. “It’s Dee’s ‘Country’ Bridal, since it’s a little out in the country, but, it’s warm and welcoming, like a home.”
Brides and bridesmaids have all their gown and accessory choices on the first floor. Proms and formals are on the second floor. Dee supports the My Fairy Godmother program that provides dresses and accessories for underprivileged girls so they can attend their prom and also donates to Making Memories, a breast cancer foundation that hosts fundraising wedding gown auctions across the country to answer the wishes of terminal breast cancer patients.
Winner of Best Bridal Shop for the past four years in the Best in the Valley contest sponsored by the local newspaper, this year Dee also was voted Best Wedding Consultant and Best Alterations in the Valley. “Winning in all three categories was wonderful.” She and her mother do the alterations and her best friend Jan helps in the shop. Dee’s Country Bridal opens at noon, six days a week, so Dee does most of her sewing and beadwork in the mornings. Although she occasionally is asked to dye shoes, she says, “Most brides are making their bridesmaids much happier with gold, silver or clear shoes that they can wear another time.”
The contemporary fashion is strapless and certainly, sleeveless gowns, Dee says. “But, modest or older brides may add an airy wrap to lightly screen upper arms or too daring décolleté.” Although Dee’s gowns range from $100-$2300, she says, “Our typical bride has budgeted $500 for her gown, expecting the veil, shoes, purse and other accessories to bring her total to near $1000. In some parts of the country, brides anticipate paying ten times that –it’s one reason we ship all over the country. But, most of our brides are from Wheeling, Bridgeport and Martinsberry and they expect our prices to be reasonable.”
Dee keeps from six to thirty dresses from each gown manufacturer. “We have hundreds of dresses, and we order new ones all the time, sometimes twice a season. It’s rare that we have the exact dress, size and shade of white or ivory. But, the bride can see what she wants and we’ll make sure she gets exactly what she wants. The best thing about doing this is watching the girl and seeing her eyes light up when she finds THE ONE!”
Contact Dee’s Country Bridal, 69871 Sunset Heights, Bridgeport OH, 740-635-4177 or deesscbs@aol.com.
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