SWP Episode 009
Looking for a wedding gown? Start here!
On this episode we have Aimee Schneider. Aimee is the owner of UnVeiled Dress Co. Aimee is also known in Saskatoon for her philanthropy, and involvement in the community. Her passion to take care of the people around her has influenced the entire experience UnVeiled Dress Co. Is known for. Her shop is a full service boutique! They have built a great reputation around their one of a kind experience, that brides from across Canada come for.
Transcription of the episode can be found below the photos.
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TRANSCRIPT
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Matt: Hello, you are listening to The Sask Wedding Podcast. If you're a bride to me, or just love weddings, we created this show just for you. I'm your host, Matt Ramage. I'm the owner of MJ&Co. Stories, a photography and film company based in Saskatoon. On today's episode, we have Aimee Schneider. Aimee is the owner of UnVeiled Dress Co..
Aimee is also known in Saskatoon for her philanthropy and involvement in the community. Her passionate to take care of the people around here is influenced the entire experience. UnVeiled Dress Co. Is known for her shop is a full service boutique. They have a great reputation around there. They're one of a kind experience that brides from all over Canada come for.
So thanks for being here on the show. Thanks for having me, Matt. Awesome. I wanted you on the podcast today because. I have never bought a dress and I'm assuming most of the people who come into your store and buy a dress, it's their first time too. And so I wanted to get your insight on what that experience looks like.
I know for photography, when we're having our, we call them discovery calls. So we chat with couples and for most of them, it's their first time having photography. And I'm like there's so many firsts in this industry. And I thought we could maybe know. Reveal a little bit of that mystery into what that experience is like.
Sound good. Perfect. Let's do it. Okay. Tell me about your shop. Now you have two stores UnVeiled Dress Co., which I mentioned and
Aimee: The Dress Co.. So we rebranded our previous boutique, which was called tonic just to have a more cohesive feel and the way that we've done things in our new space, it's a bit more intimate for.
And so what I wanted to do was pull the formal wear out of the bridal store itself. And so we removed the bridesmaids moms flower girls from the bridal side of things, just so that their brides had this elevated. Private experience. And then our formal wear store is a little bit more loose and fun.
And so The Dress Co. by UnVeiled is where you're going to get all of the formal wear for the rest of your bridal party. But we also carry cute little white numbers for your state get, and your shower, your rehearsal, dinner, all of those fun events and wedding guests can shop there. So it, Everyday dresses.
And then we have formal dresses for every event in your life. And so we combined our formal wear bridal side and our formal wear store to create this like one-stop shop for dresses.
Matt: That sounds awesome. It's fun, dude. Do brides, like it being like the w the dedicated bride side, not having, the dresses, like the bridesmaid dresses in the same sh it's the same space, but it's divided.
Aimee: Do they like that? I think so. Yeah. I think it's just a bit more. Calm, I think in a sense where it's like, there's not as many distractions, there's not as many people, so you don't have other groups walking through the space. You don't have the noise, you don't have the distraction. Cause it's hard. When you're getting tied up into a course, that address, we're in the change room for 10 minutes, getting you in there, your bridesmaids are up wandering and they're touching and feeling the bridesmaids dresses.
And so this just is a calmer, more dedicated experience for the bride. And so the focus from. On her, which I think is easier for the day, for sure. If girls are doing a long bridal shopping day.
Matt: So you tell me about your experience, like you said, your experience is that's the thing you've built everything around.
Yeah. Which I, as you know, an owner of a boutique style business myself, we, we don't just send a web gallery to our clients. Like we invite them in the studio, we show them their photos and videos on our, like in our space. We love that kind of thing. So tell me about maybe just your passion about that type of client journey you want to create
Aimee: for them.
So I guess it started if always wanted to be involved in bridal. And when I did my bridal shopping, I traveled and so I didn't stay in Saskatoon. And I'm such a local supporter, so that was a terrible of me. But I got a different experience than when I shopped here in the city and I think.
Some of the bigger centers have smaller stores actually. And that provides a little bit of a different experience. And so it doesn't feel like bridal, shouldn't be like walking into garage clothing and there's, seven change rooms next to each other and everybody's coming out and they're comparing and trying on the same dress.
Like you want it to feel very you. And so our experience with our intimate space and this private space. Is that. And I think to a lot of brides, they look forward to this day forever. You have the girls who just, aren't dressed girls, but we're four and we're playing dress up in bridal gowns.
Like they want that moment. They want that experience. And it is, it's something that you get to share. There are moments along your bridal journey, the engagement that proposal is a big one, bridal shopping planning the wedding, like in general. The showers, the stay gets all of these events.
These are moments. These are memories that you're creating. And so I didn't want a Walmart experience if I can use that word to describe bridal. I wanted it to feel like that memory, that moment that you were going to keep with you forever. And I think the biggest thing is the privacy. In our previous location, we had three podiums and six change rooms.
And so girls were coming out and they're sharing the space and going back and forth. And you're getting feedback from girls who don't know, and everybody's like back and forth. And I think this is just a little bit more focused and calm and it gives you the head space to be emotional.
Matt: I put on it.
I'm going to come out. I'm not going to see any other brides. Nope.
Aimee: We take one bride at a time, so we don't even book more than one bride at a time. So it's a very focused one-on-one experience. So you get a personal stylist for yourself with the restrictions lifting here in Saskatchewan, we're back to our champagne service.
So you get champagne and munchies non-alcoholic drinks, and there's a nice couch. Like it's spacious, your group gets to just sit and enjoy for people
Matt: who like to, do the treat yourself thing.
Aimee: That's that this is the next level experience. Yeah. I love it. I'm that
Matt: kind of person.
Perfect. Yeah. Just tell me what I need. Let's make a thing of it that so people are coming in. Is this, you said it's not like Walmart you're not looking at racks yourself. I'm assuming
Aimee: like someone's it was another thing with the start of COVID. In all of the beginnings when they were like, don't touch things, right?
Like we, they thought that we were going to be starting to transfer this virus by touching things. They had removed that element of our bridal experience was the girls weren't allowed to shop. And I found it really beneficial. Like we have almost a thousand gallons in our boutique. And if you Huck certain girls into that pile of tool, one of two things is going to happen.
She's either going to be super excited and want to touch and feel everything. And so you have. Time constraint of your shopping appointment. And it's like an hour and you're like, girl, we're like, we got to get you in dresses. Like you got to stop shopping. Or you get the girl who's I don't even know where to begin.
They all look the same on the hanger. I don't know what I'm looking for. And so the, what we've done is we've created this personalized questionnaire where we walk the girl or we get the girl to walk us through or our bride. I guess it doesn't need to be. Our bride to walk us through the day and what that's gonna look like so that we can provide a little bit of guidance on what fabrics are going to suit the formality and the venue the best.
And then she shows us some inspiration pictures and. We go from there and we pull the dresses and they feel like what that does is it curates the collection down to a more meaningful and manageable number. So the bride's actually getting dresses on her body that she wants on her body and what it eliminated as a lot of the fluff.
Grandma's I love sparkly ball gowns. The spot is going to put on 15 sparkly ball gowns. And by the end of the appointment, the brides only tried on one or two things that she's really liked because everybody else has been picking and influencing those choices. And I think. By eliminating that shopping process.
I think it, it lets the girl out of that extra stuff. And so then she gets to compare truly worthy gowns back to back.
Matt: And so like how long are we talking? Like an hour,
Aimee: 30 minutes, Saturday appointments are shorter, sadly, just because we're trying to get as many girls through the door as we possibly can, but our weekday appointments are two hours.
And so I think that gives us a good amount of time. To digest the questionnaire and takes 15 to 20 minutes just depending how much planning the girl has done and how much she wants to share with her experience. And it probably takes me two minutes to pull dresses for her. And then I just keep pulling as we're growing together and learning what she's liking and not liking.
And I would say that we get down to a good selection of favorites by about an hour into the appointment. And then she gets that extra hour to read. Style and digest the favorite dresses.
Matt: So if you want the no pressure, go on a weekday. Yes. And then take that time. Yeah. I like that.
And then as far as like bringing people in and you said restrictions are changing right now, what's a good amount of people and maybe talk about outside voices you talked about grandma,
Aimee: so we actually limit our boutique to bride plus four for bridal shopping. And I think by keeping it at that number, it keeps it, I a manageable number of people and a manageable number of influential people in your life.
Less is more, in my opinion, when you start to get the bigger groups coming together, it's ha it's hard to reel in excitement. They're pretty dresses. And like I said, a lot of girls dream about this. And so the excitement level starts to raise and then it's harder for. To be in the bride's shoes.
Like we want, this is for her and not really for us as the guests in the event space. And so I feel like keeping it at the lower number keeps that element of bride focus, but it also gives the girls a reason to not have everybody there. And I love that bridal bridesmaids reveal photo.
Like that moment when the bride's on the wedding day, keep it a surprise. Not everybody needs to see your dress. It's a you moment. Your dress needs to reflect you and only you, and only your love for that gown. Nobody else's opinion matters because if you wear it confidently, they're not comparing you to any other dress.
Like they've only seen you in this one and if you're radiant in it, because you're confident and They're looking at you first dress. Second love to say that it's all about the dress. It's definitely about the bride. I
Matt: find that so interesting. Like just the less is more I know on wedding days, like when we have more people like bigger wedding parties, like it we're like, how big is your wedding party?
Cause like it slows it down. Yeah. Cause everybody's having fun, which they should be. Yeah. But the more people. We're herding cats and stuff and yeah, I can totally see like the whole three people, you have too many people, three people are having their own conversation.
They're not even paying attention to the, bride's not getting the attention
Aimee: she wanted. And yeah. And it's a little bit easier for us as stylists to and I don't want to see that we technically manage your group that comes with you. But sometimes I think that we need to like help guide people through the experience a little bit, because a lot of people come in with the idea that they're here to give you opinions and they really shouldn't be.
Yeah, sure.
Matt: Some advice for the bridesmaid or the, the mum or mother-in-law even, maybe.
Aimee: Yeah. But they're there to support you and that's it. So I think it's easier to eliminate some of the people who make. Wouldn't understand that when the limit of people in the store is a little bit less it's another thing that kind of came out of the whole COVID experience was just having to limit those guests, like guests in the shop and it just works.
It works so much better. We'll show up and walk in with nine guests. And it's just like first off, where are you going to sit? Like we're squishing you guys all in here, your guests aren't Uber comfortable, you're trying to like rally together, all of these people for the day and the schedule, like this is just easier.
Just be as easy as possible.
Matt: And so now you mentioned they're not there for like opinions now. I think we've been trained by TV shows, particular. What was that one? Say? Yes to the dress. The whole thing is based around drama, right? That's not,
Aimee: no, I think you, you literally have to meet a certain dramatic criteria to get on that show because it's not really like that in real life.
But yeah, I think that's the biggest thing is you get a lot of, and I see it. I think the biggest thing that I see is the girl who's I really love this dress, but what do you guys think? And then. The honest mom or mother-in-law bridesmaid, who is I really like it, but it's not my favorite.
And
Matt: is that maybe the worst
Aimee: thing to say is absolutely the worst thing to say, because that bride, in that moment, once the dress she chooses to be everybody's favorite, and the reason we have a thousand dresses is because it's never going to be everybody's favorite. Everybody is different when it comes to what they like.
And don't like and I think the biggest thing is that you're the one wearing the dress. Not them. And so it's not their favorite cause it's not what they would wear. And that's what makes you unique. And that's what makes you your own bride. And so I think that's the hardest thing is people think that they're doing justice by being honest.
And you're really not like you just rip the carpet out from underneath her because she wants the best dress in the boutique. And the only person who can determine which dress is the best is the bride.
Matt: I love that. For people like you make that choice. I'm assuming in the buying experience, you get a ring, you say yes.
Is that like within the first month people are getting married within, 12 months to, years. W do you need to do this right
Aimee: away? I guess it really depends on the engagement and that how long that's going to be. So my recommendation, if you are getting married in Saskatchewan and you're shopping in Saskatchewan, shop a year in advance, so shop exactly in the month that you are going to be getting married and because your hair, your skin, your tan, all of those sorts of things, knowing that you're walking in from plus 35, and you're going to wear this gown on a plus 35 day.
That's hard. So when you're getting in these dresses, you're going to be able to be like, I can do this for 14 hours. I can be outside in this. I can be comfortable in this. It's a whole new experience to shop in minus 35 for a plus 35 day. And so that's what I would say is your best bet is the 12 months in advance.
But by no means is that the delivery timeline on a dress. And so standard timelines are six to eight months. But another beautiful thing that came from COVID is nothing is standard anymore. So we can make any timeline work for the dress. But to me, The sooner, the better just to give yourself that freedom to style and plan and choose accessories and stuff around the dress.
But yeah, 12 months is perfect. 10 months is cushy.
Matt: I love it. Now if you found the one, how do you like back to that whole being in the store where a year out. You found the one, your wedding day is quite far away. What advice do you have for a bride who, my wife's an indecisive person and I'm like the opposite type of shopper, how do you, what do you advice you have for someone who, so they don't feel any regret or like second thoughts?
Like how do you help them have that confidence in their choice? That's going to last them the 10 months to the day.
Aimee: I think the beauty of a wedding dress. It is a focal point for the bride on the day. So once the bride is committed, it's almost like the love for the dress girl. That's our hope.
So I feel as you start to plan around it and you start to visualize like the walk down the aisle, when you're starting to picture all of the little details coming together, you're visualizing it in that dress. And so it just becomes more yours as you go. And I think a lot of girls have the fear that, there's going to be something better.
And truly, really there is, new dress designs come out every single day. There's hundreds of thousands of them. And so it's if you continue to shop, you're going to continue to. Something better. And that's something that might suit you in this month and for this wedding and for this season.
And you're just, it's ever changing, but once you commit, because it is such a heart disease. Your love for it just grows. I had a bride in yesterday for example, and she was shopping for a second look and she wanted to put her dress back on and it's been a couple of months and she committed to her ceremony dress and it was so cute.
Cause I think there was like a little bit of nerves that she was going to maybe not love it quite as much. And as soon as she put it on, she was like, Still the one. And it was that there was a confidence that she had she strutted out of that change room, like yep. And she's I'll keep this one.
And I'm like, that's good. Just it's your dress. So
Matt: I love it. Now for getting ready for your F your, like for your appointment look, what tips do you have for people like wedding gown is the most dressed up a person will be on there probably in their life, should they do, should they go get professional makeup?
Should they they'll probably don't want to top not, they probably want to have nice hair and look good. So that it's all, you got a bit of a look going when you,
Aimee: yeah. So no to spending money on hair and makeup, like by no means my recommendation is for girls to come feeling their best self.
Yeah, you probably don't want to toss your hair. Top not when it's wet so that you don't feel your kind of prettiest self. My biggest thing for brides when they're shopping is I tell them if there's anything set in stone. So if you're wearing grandma's pearls on your wedding date, that's a really big thing for you.
Bring those with you. If you're wearing your hair down on your. Wear your hair down to shop because it's going to change the neckline. It's going to change the look of the dress. If you're super up in the air about all of that stuff, come prepared to kind of change, bring a scrunchie with you so that we can tie the hair back if we want to see it with it off the neck.
But yeah, you want to feel good? You don't
Matt: like your friends all come into. And you don't want to party the night before? Probably
Aimee: not. No. It happens. It's an event in the end. The girls get together, especially our out of town, girls who travel the night before and they want to do the city things when they're here, if they're coming from smaller centers, but yeah, it's, you can see it in them, the tiredness the next day.
You're not there.
Matt: Okay. So brunch, maybe a couple, 104 what's orange juice and champagne.
Aimee: You said you were extra.
Matt: My wife is yeah. Yeah. So I have a good morning and make an event of it. I love the idea of building, like all the parts up to the wedding day is like respecting them as their own type of memory.
I asked you a question in your. In the booking appointment in one of the things you said was that brides need, like brides tend to put too much. Or the biggest mistake they make is putting two. We're getting too many things. What did you actually say?
Aimee: I think we set cram in the schedule just
Matt: over-scheduling the day and yeah and I was just talking to about it, talking about that same thing with Joanne from twig and bloom.
I asked her should brides make their own flowers and same kind of thing. Do you want to enjoy your wedding day or do you want to be sitting, making flowers and worrying about putting them in coolers and whether they're going to bloom and where to get them and, yeah, I like really the idea of.
Couples thinking of the whole buildup from saying yes to even actually before that, when they're ring shopping or teasing about maybe getting engaged, like they're all moments, they're all part of that little package of, to be excited for him to enjoy. So I really like your approach to that experience.
Tell me about one of your clients. That's just had one of maybe your, one of your favorite client experiences that you've had like a bride's come back and told you
Aimee: So one of the things I obviously with our new space and the way that we're doing things now is definitely the experience.
And so we love hearing that girls love the experience and that has been the best for them. But I do have a favorite bride. I actually sold her grad dress, so that's aging me just a smidge, but I sold her grad dress. And I remember having her in the boutique for her grad dress and she was.
The struggling kind of with some body image issues and stuff. And I just asked her to let me take over. And I said, I don't you're not picking any more dresses. I'm picking them for you. And I put her in a really tight kind of salt tree number that just, it did her all of the wonder. She looked amazing and it's the dress she ended up going with.
And I think just building that confidence and eight years down the road and here she is getting married and she comes back to me because. That was something that I gifted her was that feel good moment. And I think we were able to do the same thing for her bridal moment.
And I'm just, I'm so excited to be able to watch her grow. But yeah, it's definitely, I think the self-conscious issues are my biggest, my big I've never had an ugly bride ever, not one, and it's you're all here because somebody loves you unconditionally. Every interview, every scar, every.
Curve every all of it. They love everything about you. Why can't I just wish that they could see it the way that we all see it from the outside. And so that's the biggest thing for me is just being able to build these women up. And I love when you see them leave with a little pep in their step
Matt: at this moment.
That's your favorite? Late or can you even tell, like they put the dress on and you don't even need to hear them say it that you just can hear?
Aimee: Yeah. So I'm obviously behind the girl a lot. Cause we help do up the dresses and stuff and you can see it in the shoulders. There's like a moment where they're like super nervous and you're putting them in something that maybe was completely unexpected.
And as you zip up, it's like they lift. Oh, yeah, I'm a snack in this. And yeah. It's you can see a lot in the shoulders and just the way that the girl carries herself. Cause like all of a sudden she's just got this air, this lift inner and it's definitely my favorite moment, especially for a girl who's I can't wear fitted.
I just can't. I just don't have the body for it. And then you put them in a fitted dress and they're like, Ooh, maybe I can.
Matt: Brad comes in, no, leave the ideas they have about the experience on like at home or whatever, come in. Let you take care of them. You suggest the dresses. They can show you the must haves or the, the grandma's pearls or whatever it is.
And then you you just take care of the rest for them.
Aimee: We were talking about this before Matt was. Like who you bring with you and that sort of thing. Everybody has a very different bridal experience. And I think if you let the consultants take over a little bit, it's we've seen all of those bridal experiences unfold.
And so we haven't just had the one moment. And so we don't have just one takeaway and one piece of advice to offer you. We have it all. And so if you let us. Just guide you through the experience, then we're going to be able to morph it to you and what's working for you. And that's, I think the beauty of it is we're going to help you grow through this experience and learn what works and doesn't work for you.
And so I think just leaving the notion. I'm going to know right away or I'm going to choose something completely different than what I thought that the biggest one we everyone's oh, I came in with one idea and I left with something completely different because some girls come in with address and they're like, I want to try this one.
I saw it on your Instagram. I'm going to love this dress. And they put it on and they love it. And other girls put that dress on and they're like, Next please. So it's, every girl is so different that I think if you just let us guide you through the experience, then it's going to be your experience and not your sister's experience, not your mom's experience, not your bridesmaid's experience, your experience.
Matt: And that I'm assuming carries right onto the wedding day, feeling good, feeling pretty. Yeah,
Aimee: I hope so. The, you get to be there. You get to see it. I don't, you send me the photos after, but we don't get to, we don't get to be in that moment. And in that feeling, which is the sad part, but yeah, I feel like we, we got the girl bride through the experience right up until the day, and then we just let them go.
So I love
Matt: it. I can just skip I I like this question, this just give me maybe a short answer, but like for that bride who doesn't know what they mean. Just give you the phone call. Yeah. Just
Aimee: you take care of them. Like we're totally happy to answer any questions that a girl has. And some inspo pictures like girls will come in and they're like, I'm all over the map.
And it actually helps because it's you might have a ball gown and a fitted and an a line. And you're like, I really don't know what I want, but they all have some sort of a similar detail that I can start with, that I can pull for you. And then we'll grow through that experience together. So you don't need to know what you.
Matt: That's good. I'm a very very indecisive person as far as like I know what I like when I see it, but I don't really the shopping part. It's I would have a hard time picking it. Yeah. I would just I would just know when I see it, and I'm 35, so I've lived long enough.
See see an outfit on a mannequin in a store throw on the outfit. I'm like that, that does not suit me. And then it's like the, salesperson's try this try this shirt on, like not, I looked at him, I put it on. I'm like, oh, I'll just wear that every single day for the rest of my life.
Perfect. Yeah. I love it. I love it. Reach out 10 months early ish, maybe the full year. Yup. How do people reach out to you? How do they find you?
Aimee: Our Instagram page is probably the easiest, just because I feel like most of the information is there. So we've got a link tree there to our website, which is going to take you to frequently ask questions.
So if you want to do a little bit of research on your own, it's there, but I'm the one who answers the social media questions. So Facebook or Instagram, you're going to get me. And I'm happy to walk through any of those questions that you have. And you get to see on our Instagram page, like some of our happy brides, but also a lot of the collection that we have in store too.
So I feel like Instagram is the easiest.
Matt: Love it. I feel like if I were in the market, I'd feel very safe in your hand. I would, I love the idea of you taking care of taking care of me. So awesome. That's it for today? Highly recommend go going and following UnVeiled Dress Co. on Instagram and checking out what they're up to.
They have a beautiful new space in downtown Saskatoon here. Reach out to them if you're in the market and I'm a hundred percent confident they're going to treat you well. So anyway, thanks for being here.
Aimee: Thanks, Matt.
Matt: Okay.
