Bridal Store Owner Charging Cousin Twice for Wedding Dress Applauded

The internet has backed a bridal store owner who charged her cousin twice for her wedding dress after she omitted a huge detail that severely impacted her work.

In a post shared on Reddit's "Am I The A******" forum in July under the username u/Ok-Problem116, the bridal store owner said that her cousin, Lucy, who is getting married next month, asked her to make her wedding dress. She originally only charged her for the materials, working four months on the dress for free as a wedding gift.

It's no secret that wedding dresses are not cheap. According to a survey carried out by the wedding website The Knot among brides who got married last year, the average wedding dress cost them about $1,900.

A few weeks ago, Lucy and her fiance hosted a dinner party and revealed they were expecting a baby and that she was over twelve weeks into her pregnancy. While the Redditor was overjoyed for her cousin, the reality of the situation is that the custom dress wouldn't fit her by the time the wedding happened.

When Lucy went in for her final fitting the poster asked her about the pregnancy and explained that it would be easier to just start a whole new dress from scratch rather than altering this one due to the intricate beading and details.

Her cousin agreed, so the poster gave her an invoice for the new dress. It didn't go well.

"I gave her a breakdown and charged her for materials, tailoring, labor, and overtime (still with a discount)," the Redditor wrote. "I will have to work outside my hours to make her the new dress on time as I have a busy schedule with existing clients that pay full price.

"I told her if she had told me about her pregnancy from the second she had found out, I might've been able to adjust the dress then, but it is complete now. She said her fiance wanted to keep it private, which I understand, but I wouldn't have told anyone, and I only needed to know for the dress purposes.

"She called me TA for not understanding where she is coming from and said she will only pay for materials. I refused to back down, and told her that this close to the wedding she will struggle to finalize a new dress she likes and get it tailored in time as she will be pregnant. I also refused to give her the dress sketch, as it was my design and I didn't want her to replicate my work elsewhere."

The pregnant bride-to-be and her mother, the Redditor's aunt, apparently left the store angry, with the aunt calling later and saying that Lucy was upset about not having a dress this close to the wedding. She told the Redditor that she was being "cruel" and the stress wasn't good for the baby.

Author of Secrets of a Secretary: Husbands, Lovers, and Associates, AM Bunny, told Newsweek that the cousin should apologize to the bridal shop owner for not being honest with her in the first place, and thank her thus far for the effort she has already gone to by creating the wedding dress.

"Ostracising the woman from the family will only create more friction and this will create stress for the pregnant woman, so this needs to stop," Bunny said. "If the cousin's heart is set on the dress the woman has already made her, then perhaps the sensible suggestion would be to offer the woman a 'non-discounted' rate to alter the dress to accommodate her pregnant bump.

"This way, the cousin will have what she wants and the woman doesn't have to be out of pocket for making the alterations," she said.

The video quickly went viral on Reddit, where it has so far received over 6,600 upvotes and 620 comments.

One Reddit user, Odd_Task8211, commented: "[Not The A******]. She knew she was pregnant and didn't tell you. You are under no obligation to foot the bill. Sucks that it will cost her money, but actions have consequences."

Redditor SilverPlatedLining said: "I was the bride in this situation, and the person who was working on my dress was a very good friend of my brother. Not someone I would usually tell that I would be 11 weeks pregnant at the wedding.

"However, I knew that for her job to be done well (and for my dress to fit me), she needed to know. I told her, and also told her that it wasn't public info just yet. She made my dress fit me and didn't tell anyone. OP is [Not The A******], but the bride sure is."

ScopeyMcBangBang wrote: "[Not The A******]. You said you'd make her a wedding dress. You have. You didn't say you'd make her multiple wedding dresses at twice the financial and time cost."

Newsweek reached out to u/Ok-Problem116 via Reddit for comment. We could not verify the details of the case.

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