“Your mama and baba would’ve been beyond upset. Have you told them about the change of plans?”
“Not exactly.” Clarissa’s cheeks color. “We haven’t told anyone. Paddy and I agreed we’ll give our parents a week of warning. That way, we’ll be able to minimize the chaos.”
“Uh-huh. What about your relatives? Won’t there be some coming from Hong Kong?”
Clarissa rubs her temple. “My plan is to hold our traditional Western wedding with the civil ceremony and do a Chinese wedding sometime in summer. Mama and Baba will probably push for the eighth of August.”
“That’s an oddly specific date,” Sonya says.
“Eight is an auspicious, lucky number in Chinese culture.”
“Oh. That makes sense. And actually, that sounds like a fair compromise. You can keep your first ceremony small and intimate and let your parents go to town on the later one. What about Paddy’s mum?”
“We’ve thought about that too. She can have full rein over the reception. Lady Lucy is low-key and hasn’t been the one who’s put up much fuss.”
“Except for getting on with the ceremony,” Sonya says.
“Yes. She’s not-so-subtly hinted she wants grandchildren.” Clarissa sighs.
I sympathize with her. Coming from a multiethnic family, when Cam got married, there were a lot of relatives who wanted a say in the big day. I wasn’t around much, but I do remember him and my sister-in-law Judy being stressed to the max over the details.
I clear my throat. Sitting on the sidelines is one thing, but being responsible forthebig-ticket item—the dress—is another. “Um, I’m sorry to interrupt, but would you be expectingmorethan one dress within that time frame?”
I can craft a garment within a week, but to do it to a standard that would be fit for someone like Clarissa would take me at least four or five weeks. She’s alluded to wanting more than one dress, but exactly how many does she have in mind?
“Minerva, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to ignore you!” she apologizes. “Let’s see, if I’m doing my math correctly, five dresses?”
“Five?” I sputter.
“Oh, you’re right, I didn’t think about Sonya and the bridesmaids. Eight looks in total?”
“Minerva, Clarissa wouldn’t need all eight looks at once,” Sonya quickly adds.
“Oh no! Not at all. I’d like to have this sweet tea-length dress for the civil ceremony and one longer dress for the church service. Sonya would need a maid of honor look too. Everything else could be pushed off until summer.”
“Three looks. IthinkI can pull that off.”
“You’ll have help. Once you decide on the silhouette, your team can take on the patterning, and assist with creating the mockup and the real dress. Your job will be to supervise, which is a lot harder than it looks.” Clarissa winks.
My eyes widen. “Super... supervise? My own team? Like a real designer?”
The women both nod.
“Youarea real designer,” Clarissa emphasizes.
“Clarissa faced a tight time crunch when Clara—I mean, the Duchess of Leeds—approached her about a wedding dress,” Sonya says. “She had four months to have two wedding dresses and four bridesmaid gowns made up.”
“I tried to do everything myself and it was the most stressful time of my life. Ask Paddy. I learned the hard way that for projects like this one, delegating is the only way something of this magnitude could get done.”
I slowly absorb what they’re telling me. Six weeks will be the fastest I’ve ever thrown a small collection together,but if I have a team of experts to help me, maybe, just maybe, this can be done.
“What’s the average turnaround time for your team when someone orders a custom dress from you?”
In the back of my head, I know for anyone else it would be about five to six months. Even in the world of bespoke men’s suits, where the patterns rarely change too much, their time of completion from the measurements to the final fitting is three months.
“Off-the-rack customizations and alterations are done within a week. A full custom order for someone like the duchess, we have gotten down to about three weeks.”
My mouth drops open. “How?”
