Kleinfeld Bridal: Day One

With a huge blister on my heel and my day two outfit chosen and ready, I'm sitting down after my first day of my internship, eager to write about that happened!

So... Even though my commute into work is only about an hour, I decided to leave an hour and a half early this morning, and I'm glad I did! I had the wrong bus time so I missed the first bus, stood at the wrong track and therefore missed a train (it comes to a different track during rush hours apparently), and then was held for about five minutes in station when I got onto the transfer train. After all of that, I was still somehow about 15 minutes early, so I wandered around Trader Joe's and borrowed their bathroom.

I arrived to Kleinfeld around 9:55 (I was asked to be there at 10), and then waited around until 10:30 when the other two interns that were starting today showed up. I guess I got the wrong memo! I didn't mind waiting though, I let my eyes wander around what I could see of the dresses on the floor from the waiting room and listened in to the conversation a TLC producer was having with a bride that was being filmed today.

Somethings I learned about the filming for Say Yes To the Dress: regular appointments are 1.5 hours long, except when you're being filmed the appointment is allotted two time slots (3 hours). When signing up for an appointment at Kleinfeld (it is by appointment only) you can also fill out a form to apply to be filmed by TLC. From there, if they are interested in your story, you will be interviewed and then possibly selected to be on the show. The film crew acted very much in the background and wasn't a distraction for everyone else in the store. I was also told that since they're there everyday but Sunday, many of the Kleinfeld staff members become friends with the SYTTD film crew. The girl being filmed today brought two friends and her mother, and they were all very excited! While I didn't pay much attention to the appointment, considering I had another one to pay attention to, the bride tried on a ton of dramatic dresses, and said "yes" to one at the end. It will be cool to see that episode air in the winter! I'm sure I'll see many more... Maybe you'll catch me in the background ;).

Anyway, back to my story... I met Julia and Alexis, two other interns that were starting today. After getting lockers, we sat in on the daily morning meeting (if you watch the show, I'm sure you're familiar with them, and yes, they do actually happen every morning). This morning, Michelle Roth, the designer for the trunk show happening this weekend, gave a speech about new beginnings, in lieu of the Jewish New Year.

After the meeting, I met tons of people and tried hard to remember as many names as possible! While only a few consultants are shown on SYTTD, there are over 20 that work at Kleinfeld. Today, I was paired with a consultant named Lisa who has worked there for almost 5 years! After chatting for a few minutes, we received our first bride. I'll call her Madeline (don't want to somehow get in trouble for using real names). Her wedding is going to be sometime in April or May of 2014 and will be held in NYC. Lisa asked her a few questions about her fiancée, venue (which has yet to be decided), budget, and ideal dress, and then we took her onto the floor to look at the Michelle Roth trunk show dresses.

I learned how to carry the dresses (there's actually a certain way to do so...) and carried a bunch of them into the fitting room. Once Madeline was done looking, I assisted Lisa by helping Madeline change in and out of dresses and clipping her into them. While it was my first day, I feel like I learned a lot from Lisa, and was allowed to be relatively hands on. Although Madeline found a really pretty satin dress with pockets that she liked, she left the appointment without saying "yes". Truthfully, I don't think she'll be back for it, it didn't seem like it was "the one."

After lunch, we had our second and final appointment. Usually each consultant has 4 or 5 appointments a day, but today was, as I learned, oddly slow, and our last appointment ran long and into the last time slot. This bride, we'll call her Anna, came from Amsterdam, although she is originally from Argentina. She brought along her very critical sister, her friend, and her friends friend. The friend & friends friend were very awestruck by the whole store, and after hearing them talk a lot about SYTTD, I think they were there because they wouldn't pass up an experience to see the store. Anyway, Anna was model-thin, and wanted a sheath, lace dress. Because her wedding is so soon in the bridal world, February 8th, Lisa had her look at stock dresses (they can be brought home that day) and a few other dresses by other designers that can be rush shipped for an additional charge.

After trying on a ton of dresses and running over her time, Anna didn't say "yes", although she may be back tomorrow morning to purchase a dress by Hayley Paige (I'm adding a picture of it). It looked great on her; she was considering having material added under the beaded straps, because she believed the top looked too open in the front.

I'm glad it was a rare, slow day at Kleinfeld. It gave me the chance to start understanding the flow of the store before I'm really thrown into the busyness of it all. I had a great time with Lisa today; she was really nice and taught me a lot! Every day the interns are paired with a different consultant, so I'm excited to see what tomorrow brings. Time to paint my nails and snuggle on the couch!



Hayley Paige Dress from Anna's Appt.