Gaby Bayona of Ellebay Bridal >> One to Watch

This is the first post in a series we’re doing that features Vancouver Wedding vendors who are doing amazing things. Today: Gaby Bayona & her exquisite wedding dresses.

I am a fan of lovely.

For quite awhile now, I’ve been absolutely in love with the wedding dresses that Gaby Bayona & her mother design, sew, & sell out of their New Westminster Bridal Store, Ellebay Bridal.

Ellebay’s dresses are locally made (By Gaby & her Mom), completely customizable, modern & incredibly lovely.

I first met Gaby in September. I’d been admiring her creations from afar & thought that it was high time I met her in person. We had such a good chat & Gaby is incredibly warm and inviting. I love fashion & was happy to talk with her about lace for fifteen minutes, learn about the ins & outs of running a bridal store, and also learned why and how she got into it in the first place. From there, we decided to partner on some fun projects together (more to come on those in the future) and also planned to interview her in her store and create a lovely blog post & magazine article to share with the world how fabulous she is. Because, she really is fabulous.

How did you get into owning a bridal store and designing dresses?

My mom’s been in the industry for my whole life. I’ve always been surround by it. Ten or eleven years ago, my Mom opened her first store on Hastings. It never fully interested me, but I’d always help out in the store-with the sewing & cleaning. When I graduated high school, I had plans to go a different route. I also needed a grad dress & and I asked my mom to make me one. I threw out a couple ideas of what I wanted & we settled on what we could do. I went out to fabric stores, I looked for materials & it was so much fun. I was so surprised!

I took a year off after high school and started working in the shop more. The dress I designed ended up being our biggest seller. Over the next couple months I designed four more dresses. Then, I started designing more and more. I was going to go to UBC but I put that on hold and started working in the store more. Found out-I really, really love it. I realized, oh my goodness, I get to talk to these really cool people & I’m surrounded by dresses all day. I learned to sew and realized how much I love sewing. Since I’d always been in the bridal industry, I had a bit of a sixth sense for the whole Bridal thing. Now I am doing it full time and it’s so much fun. The people you get to meet. The brides you get to meet. The dreams you get to be part of. It’s a really good vibe.

What’s one of your biggest joys with your work?

A job well done. When you finish a dress and the bride puts it on and she’s just so happy-her face is overjoyed. It’s a really good feeling. Especially since you’ve been with the bride through this six to seven month process; because, we actually do get to meet and know our brides. You see them through all their stages of wedding preparation. When they finally get their dress and they’re happy about it, I would say it’s the best feeling.

What’s your favourite fabric to work with?

Chiffon! Chiffons & laces. Chiffon-It’s a bit whimsical. It’s pretty. I love the drape of chiffon. It’s so versatile. You can do full chiffon dresses and each one can be a bit different depending on how you drape the skirt or how you drape the top. Lace. Lace is so beautiful. I don’t even think I need to say much about that one. It’s just the most gorgeous. You can get something soft and at the other end of the spectrum something a more sturdy. It’s got that two dimensional thing going on, and for brides who don’t like sparkle, you still have that interest with lace.

What’s your favourite fabric to wear?

It depends. Can I say stripes? I like anything striped. I’ve got a bit of an obsession with stripes. I would also say cottons because they’re breathable.

Current Favourite Dress?

That’s hard. Honestly, whenever we make a new dress it’s my favourite. Right now I love the Cristin and Kirsten.

What are your main sources of inspiration when you’re creating/designing?

Our brides always inspire us. We’ve got our dresses here & a lot of our brides end up mixing and matching & I go with their vision. Since I also work storefront, I can hear what they want-what they like. And, some of them have certain looks. You look at somebody and you know they would look good in a certain style. You know how artists have their muses? Our brides are our muses.

I also don’t like looking too much at bridal stuff because I don’t want to be generic. I like looking at New York Fashion week and seeing more of the ready to wear stuff, but elements of it, you know?

Fabrics inspire me. I see materials and think they would look nice together. I always think of what I would want to wear.

So if someone walks in with an idea in their head of the dress they want, you could custom design that for them?

Yeah, definitely. Some people bring in pictures and some even bring in a binder; it’s very impressive. We’ve got the basic shapes so I’ll get them to try them on & we’ll make customizations from there depending on what they want-shapes, material, colours. It’s so seldom that we make two of the same dress.

So people can walk away with a one-of-a kind?

Yeah, most of the time that happens.

What can a bride expect when they walk into your store as an experience?

The first thing people realize when they come in here-especially after going to other bridal stores-is that there are not as many dresses as the other stores. It’s not as overwhelming coming into here. They can tell there’s something a bit different: a lot more boutique than other bridal shops.

I’ve also heard from brides that they haven’t felt as much pressure walking in here. They also tell me their experience is different in terms of bridal consultants, some consultants as almost a bit cold. I’m very passionate about it because I actually make the dresses. I know all the dresses, I’ve worn all of them, I know how they fit and how they feel. So, I’m able to give a lot more in-depth insight into the dresses which brides really appreciate.
Because I’m young, I relate really well to the brides and because my Mom is here, she relates really well to the parents of the bride. It’s very much a family atmosphere.

Can you give me a few words that describe how a Bride will feel on her wedding day when she wears one of your dresses:

Whimsical
Understated
Soft
Beautiful

Phrases I’ve heard a lot: You’re wearing the dress, the dress isn’t wearing you. The dresses aren’t so blingy and so overwhelming and big. Our dresses very much play up what the bride likes about herself.

So, why is your store better than all the other stores?

[Laughs] Our dresses are unique. All are exclusive to our shop. All of our dresses are custom. They’re made by us, locally and we’re really passionate about it and we love what we do; we wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.

And you’re a local business, so people are supporting local business when they buy here.

Yeah, exactly. All of our materials are from Canada. A lot are from Montreal. We go to local fabric shops. Our jewelry is local. We get everything locally.

If there was something you’d like people to know about owning a bridal shop, what would it be?

With owning a bridal shop; it’s a lot of giving up your life for half a year and being painfully bored the other half. Lots of long hours. You’re putting in all-nighters for sure, and you’ve just gotta make it work when you’ve got people depending on you-you can’t take that lightly.

It’s a lot of stress. It’s a lot of pressure. Because this isn’t just a t-shirt, right? It’s somebody’s wedding dress. Something people really think about and dream about. And you don’t want to be responsible for ruining someone’s dreams.

Any advice for brides shopping for their wedding dress?

The main thing people don’t realize is how far in advance they need to order their wedding dresses. We’re a bit more flexible, but it’s about 8 months with other stores. Plus a month buffer for alternation time. And you don’t want to pick up your dress the day of your wedding, so you’ll get it a month before. Ideally you need 10 months to order a wedding gown. It takes a long time and it’s a long process.

Another thing people don’t take into account are the additional alteration costs after buying a dress. With custom, all of our alternations are included-all the small adjustments included as well. Why not get your dream dress rather than buy something and then you have to alter it to make it fit your vision-it’s not going to be the same.

Be sure to visit Ellebay’s website & like Ellebay on Facebook as well! Ellebay also designs custom grad, mother of the bride & evening dresses.

Do you know someone who we should interview? Is that someone you? Just write an e-mail to [email protected] We’d love to hear your story.