G'Day! Welcome to my newest story! I am really excited about writing this and I hope to update once a week.
I am on holidays at the moment, so I am hoping to be updating a little more in the next couple of weeks. Yay!
Enjoy :)
Chapter 1 – Band-Aids and Beautiful Dresses
BPOV
"Ow, shit" I cursed as the needle stuck into my finger, "God damn it...ALICE!"
The scream echoed down the hall until I heard the clicking of my best friends heels against the wooden floors. "God Bella, you don't have to scream!" Alice moaned as she walked into the studio, "I'm only in the front."
I watched as she lithely navigated around Material Mountain, the Cavern of Cotton Reels and the Sea of Sewing Machines. "What have you done now you clumsy girl?" she asked as she looked me over.
I was currently standing with my hand under the bodice of a clients dress that was being picked up today and was having the last of 10,000 crystals being hand sewn on; the other hand however was being held above my head so that none of the blood dripped onto the dress. I looked at Alice and merely cocked an eyebrow as if to say, you can't see what I'm doing right now?
She stared at me until understanding finally filled her face and she quickly ran over to the first aid box and grabbed a Band-Aid.
"Ah, Bella?" I heard her from behind me, "We have a slight issue".
"And what's that Alice? Please keep in mind that my sewing hand is currently losing blood from being held in the air and without it, I can't sew which means no dress, which means no money for us, which means no wine and Chinese takeout tonight."
I may get a little sarcastic/bitchy when I'm tired and am sick of seeing the same dress day in and day out.
"I'm going to ignore that bit of sarcasm because I know you are just being a bitch because you are tired," Alice stated, before moving around in front of me. She quickly picked the dress up, placed it on the worktable, grabbed my bleeding finger and put the Band-Aid on.
"What I was going to say," she huffed, "Was that we have run out of normal, skin colored Band-Aids and that you are going to have to use the Barbie Band-Aids that you were so adamant that we needed last time we had to refill your first aid kit. It's going to look just lovely when you are meeting with your client this afternoon."
She skipped over to the door and giggled at me before flicking me the bird and clicking back down to the shop front.
Don't get me wrong, I love that girl to pieces but God, sometimes I just wanted to push her off her 6-inch Jimmy Choos.
I sighed as I looked at my Barbie Band-Aid, another pinprick to add to the collection. I wouldn't trade it for the world though. I have the best job in the world. My job is every girls dream, designing and making some of the most beautiful wedding dresses that women have ever worn walking down the aisle.
It hasn't been smooth sailing; it's taken a lot of dedication, blood (literally in some cases), and sweat and tears to get us to where we are today.
By we I mean Alice, Rosalie and myself. To put our business simply we take a woman's dream wedding dress and make it a reality.
Alice and I meet with our clients, discuss what they want their dresses to look like, colors etc. I then take those ideas and sketch some designs to show the clients. They then decide what they want and Alice (our expert pattern-maker) will make patterns to suit the size of the client according to my design. I then choose fabrics and all the embellishments for making the dress unforgettable. Once this is done, Alice and I sew it altogether and can spend hours sewing lace and crystals (and in one nail biting case, diamonds) onto the dress. We then get to the stage of where we are now, the client coming for the final fitting and hopefully taking the dress home. They then deal with Rosalie, who is our business manager/receptionist/purchaser extraordinaire to make the final payments and arrange for a photo of the dress on the big day to be sent to us for our portfolio.
To put it mildly, I am the designer and main sewer, Alice is the pattern maker and sewing assistant and Rosalie keeps us all glued together by sorting out the business side.
People ask if working with my two best friends all day, then living with them gets tedious. Yes it does, three women spending majority of their time together does get heated sometimes but we are lucky; not only are we best friends but we are sisters in every sense but biological.
We are lucky Bel Vestito has made quite a name for itself in the wedding dress world. It is not unusual for us to have celebrities and socialites knocking on our door to make their statement wedding dresses. This is good and bad. It means more money for us so we can use good material and make a good profit of our hard work, but it also means putting up with some pretty big egos and major design tasks.
We work hard and play harder and for my sisters and I...that is just the way we like it.
- BV -
I smiled as I finally put the last crystal in place and triumphantly carried the dress out like a baby to place on the mannequin in the front of the store. Besides my studio, this is one of my favorite sights. When we first opened Bel Vestito, I gave Alice free reign of the front of store, the dressing/alteration room and the lounge area. To say that she took the job to heart is an understatement. Not did she make Rose's small office area look like it belongs, but the entire store front looks like it should be one of the huge, expensive hotel foyers that are just around the corner. What can I say; we do things differently in New York City.
The store even has its own runway for goodness sakes!
I loved it; it was the perfect combination of modern lines and materials with beautiful chandeliers and furniture. The curtains were an olive green color with went really well with the off white walls and the light colored woods.
The completed dresses that I make for the ladies who like to try and buy without needing/wanting something designed for them are on hangers all around the room with all our veils, tiaras and fascinators being on the wall facing the runway.
As I walked over to Rosalie to let her know that the dress being picked up this afternoon was ready, I glanced around the room and sighed happily. This truly was the greatest!
"You having a happy moment Bella?" I heard Rose laugh as my happy sigh made it known.
"You bet your ass I'm having a happy moment, I love that dress but I am going to be so glad when it is out of here".
The client for that dress was a girl named Rebecca. She was sweet little thing, who is marrying as she says, 'the love of her life'. She is nice but very particular…just like her mother. Don't get me wrong. I love it when mothers get involved, I mean it's your daughters only wedding (hopefully), but I think some of them forget that it's their daughters day, not theirs. Unfortunately this is one of those mothers.
Rose came out from behind her desk and hugged me around the top of my arm and kissed the top of my head, "So Chinese takeout tonight"
I laughed and nodded my head as I turned to go back to the studio to clean up for the day. Thank god for Rose, she is a lifesaver sometimes.
Rose and I met in very strange circumstances. She and I happened to be dating the same guy at the same time.
Long story short, I walk into my supposed boyfriends apartment to find a blonde Amazonian women sitting on his lounge looking very comfortable and half naked. The first words that I ever heard Rosalie Hale speak were, "And who the fuck are you?"
Lets put it this way, the guy got the flick and Rose and I got pissed in a bar around the corner after putting the douche in his place. Alice, Roses' college roommate at the time got the delightful 3am phone call to come and pick us up and insisted I go back to their loft with her because as far as Rose was concerned, 'Anyone who doesn't scream at a half naked chick sitting on their boyfriends lounge but rather kicks him in the balls in her graceful exit from his apartment is a girl to keep." And thus a beautiful friend ship was formed with not only Rosalie but also Alice as she held both of our hair back on the morning after.
- BV -
"Thanks so much Bella!" my client Rebecca squealed, "Its just perfect, Matthew is going to die when he sees me in this!"
I laughed as I turned her to face the floor to ceiling mirror in the dressing room.
"I added a few extra crystals on the halter straps this morning just for emphasis, to show that they are part of the dress, it was kind of looking like they were just placed there because the front couldn't be held up"
Rebecca's dress was gorgeous if I do say so myself. It was a beautiful white mermaid style dress, the bodice and hip area was covered in thousands of crystals to create an intricate flower and vine pattern which seamlessly flowed into the mermaid dress on the bottom, fell to the floor and created about a meter train with a see-through organza over the top of the satin dress. The straps were off the shoulder and had a thin strap in a halter fashion to hold the dress up a bit better.
I looked up to see the mother of the bride tearing up as she gazed at her daughter. She moved up to her daughter's side and placed an arm around her shoulders and started to whisper in her ear.
I discretely slipped out of the room to give them some privacy, subconsciously hurting from what I was seeing. It was something that was never going to happen when I get married.
I walked out through the curtains of the dressing room into the shop front. Rose turned to look at me, saw my face and walked over.
"Oh honey," Rose sighed, "are they having a mummy-daughter moment?"
I nodded and she pulled me into a hug.
"You'll be ok, you know. It hurts now, but soon you will be able to face that situation again with a smile and happiness. She might not be able stand at your side when it's your turn but she will be right here." Rose placed her hand over my heart and gave me a huge grin.
"Love you, you silly girl."
Well, I hope you all stick around for this story, thanks so much for giving it a go :)
Add to story alerts for the next update, coming your way soon!
Jess xx