Frayed, yellowed wedding gown? He saves them.
By Juanita Cousins
The Tennessean http://www.tennessean.com
A second-generation wedding gown hung in a crowded closet for nearly three decades before daylight shined on its yellowing satin and champagne stains.
Years before, a dry cleaner shredded the Chantilly lace on Cindy House’s gown, also worn by her mother in 1956.
Then Surendra Kumar, owner of Oakwood Cleaners (http://www.oakwoodcleaners.com), gave the gown a transformation fit for Cinderella and her fairy godmother.
“I was skeptical taking my dress to another cleaners after the first incident, but his work is unbelievable,” said House, who spent nearly $400 to have the gown restored for her recently engaged daughter.
Kumar and his cleaners are gaining notoriety among Nashville’s elite and in the wedding industry for his work cleaning, repairing, restoring and preserving delicate garments and family heirlooms.
Kumar, who lives in Mount Juliet, entered the cleaning industry in 1984 as a way to make money as he pursued a medical degree.
Dreams of entering health care unraveled as he found equipment that drastically decreased his cleaner’s waste, and then he became a consultant for the manufacturer, selling machines to cleaners across the Southeast.
These days, he works in the company of 100-year-old baptism dresses, $15,000 couture gowns, lace wedding dresses worn by three generations of women, quilts, table clothes and first communion garb.
Engaged women seek Kumar to have their mothers’ gowns cleaned for their upcoming weddings and moth holes repaired. Brides come in days after their wedding, looking for Kumar to remove mud stains and mend frayed hems.
Kumar’s process for each individual garment begins with a personal consultation with employee Laura Garcia at Oakwood’s Belle Meade location. She hangs the gown on a mannequin and inspects every inch, taking pictures of problem spots and drawing sketches of the gowns.
Source: The Tennessean
Full Article: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200991228014
Home and Abroad
While offshore contact centers offer costs savings, cultural concerns keep many e-retailers local
By Zak Stambor (http://www.internetretailer.com)
Every country has its own wedding rituals. In the U.S., they can include tiaras to unity candles—not the kind of terms people in other countries would often learn when studying English. That’s why wedding products retailer David’s Bridal Inc. didn’t look far beyond the U.S. and Canada when looking for a provider of contact center services.
“It was essential that agents understood the culture, and were sensitive to the experience of investing a significant amount of money in a gown,” says Dwight Klingenberg, the company’s vice president of profit improvement. “With something so essential to our business we couldn’t afford to introduce variables where you have a language and cultural differential.”
That depth of cultural knowledge isn’t necessary when buying a duvet or a vacuum. Overstock.com Inc., which sells such mundane products online, has outsourced a portion of its contact center live chat work to India for the past five years and been happy with the results—and the cost.
For retailers like David’s Bridal and Overstock that decide to outsource contact centers there are a slew of options available—from vendors whose agents work from home, or in U.S.-based bricks-and-mortar call centers or facilities in Canada, Mexico or another continent.
Whether to consider contact centers outside of North America is a question more retailers are likely to face. That’s because a growing number of retail companies are outsourcing this function, says Peter Ryan, an analyst at Datamonitor, a market research firm based in the United Kingdom. In 2007, the percentage of global retailers outsourcing their contact centers was 17%. In 2009, the percentage grew to 18%, and by 2012, Datamonitor forecasts it will reach nearly 20%.
Source: Internet Retailer
Full Article: http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=33001
When it came time to say “I do,” these three couples did it their way.
To say that the traditional wedding went out with June Cleaver’s pearls is only partly accurate. Sure, we’re no longer seeing as many pastel bridesmaids’ dresses with dyed-to-match satin pumps. Pachelbel’s “Canon in D” is just as likely these days to be ousted by rap or rock ’n’ roll. Even the traditional bouquet toss is on the endangered-species list…[Read more]
Capturing the precious moments of life is highly important to enjoy the pleasures of nostalgic moments. Are you a person who often take the past photos and cherish those good old moments? Rafi Michael Photography offers their exclusive services in various kinds of photography including wedding, fashion photography, corporate photography. A wedding photographer must foresee the moments to click the gracious occasions correctly. Photographers in Toronto are very talented and know the nitty-gritties when it comes to their profession…[Read more]
Expert design staff helps customers create unique and original weddings and bridal showers
MENOMONIE, WIS., December 17, 2009 — SimplyWeddingStuff.com, a leading online retailer of unique wedding favors and bridal shower invitations, introduces its new Design Concierge Service, which connects customers with party-planning experts to help in the planning of their own special events…[Read more]
Imagine a bride in a dumpster, or splattered with ice-cream, or in a greasy car workshop – these are the shots that make wedding photographer Edmund Tham stand out…[Read more]
Novell Design Studio, an American wedding band and bridal jewelry manufacturer with over 22 years in the jewelry industry, is proud to announce the launch of its latest online video brochure. This brand new video illustrates Novell’s unique customization capabilities with several wedding band morphing segments which are set to original music composed by Novell CEO Bruce Pucciarello. Any average consumer looking to purchase a wedding band can learn about what makes Novell different from nearly all other manufacturers; the ability to make almost all of their wedding band designs wider, narrower, in different metals (platinum, palladium or gold), with different finishes, and much more. Why settle for ordinary, when only the best American-made wedding bands and bridal jewelry should do. [Video]
Fewer wedding bells were ringing in the Stateline Area this past year, as couples either postponed marriage or found less expensive ways of getting hitched…[Read more]
The International Association of Wedding Industry Professionals is a grass roots organization of wedding professionals all dedicated to promoting the wedding industry. Join our virtual network online at http://groups.google.com/group/iawip
Most weddings are planned about a year before the actual date of the event. I am sure that brides who were engaged this year never realized how a recession could affect their wedding plans…[Read more]
MUSKEGON — Want to have a beach wedding with Lake Michigan as the backdrop at Muskegon’s Pere Marquette Park?…[Read more]
Remember that lovely and interesting dress covered in wind-powered LEDs in the pattern of daisies? Well it seems that was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to dresses that light up. These dresses can be added to the fashion show - one constructed of OLED panels and the other boasting 300 LEDs for a glowing wedding night. Check out a video of the wedding dress illuminated on the dance floor after the jump…[Read more]
At their meeting Tuesday night, supervisors considered the application of a Springfield family, which hopes to establish a seasonal wedding and banquet business at their 42-acre property, located at 1770 Pleasant View Road…[Read more]
My Wedding Jewelry is an online retail store that offers beautiful and cheap wedding jewelry such as earrings, necklaces, rings, bracelets, and anklets at very reasonable prices. My Wedding Jewelry also offers an extensive line of cheap wholesale jewelry that one can invest in to start a personal jewelry business. To fulfill various customized needs of the business, My Wedding Jewelry provides wholesale fashion jewelry, wholesale silver jewelry, wholesale wedding jewelry, wholesale bridal jewelry, and more…[Read more]
OneWed Announces Partnership with SheKnows
Chicago, IL (December 8, 2009) /PRNewswire/ — OneWed.com, the ultimate online source for the truth in wedding planning, announced today their new partnership with SheKnows.com as their primary wedding content provider. In addition to providing specially created OneWed content for SheKnows Weddings, OneWed will also provide SheKnows readers with direct access to their extensive Vendor Directory of over 230,000 local wedding vendors nationwide. Visitors to SheKnows Weddings can choose from over 23 categories of wedding professionals and services, and simply enter their desired city, state or zip code to begin their search.
http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/onewed/41566/
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Every wedding element is an opportunity for brides to personalize and express their unique style
ATLANTA, Dec. 7 /PRNewswire/ — The holiday season — between Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day — is the most popular time of year for engagements with approximately 35-40 percent (550,000-650,000) couples getting engaged to be married over the next 12 to 18 months, according to The Wedding Report*…[Read more]
NEW YORK — Many brides positively know what their wedding gown will look like long before they meet their groom, and they’re not going to let a little thing - OK, actually a huge thing - known as the economy dash their dream dress…[Read more]
