Meet our team!
Laura
Laura remembers constructing her first dress in 5th grade with help from her mom who taught her to sew. The sewing machine in her childhood home was the centerpiece of her dining room table where her mother also kept fabric for patterns. Laura's love for sewing began watching her mother sew furiously for days to make something out of nothing that she treasured. One of these treasures was her favorite doll Babbette who had black yarn hair and wore green to cheer on Dad's favorite team the Eagles! She was fascinated with the number of things the sewing machine could create, almost like it was magic!
Laura's favorite thing about owning and working for Becoming Bridal is always evolving, though she particularly loves the bride's satisfaction with her gown at the final fitting and getting to know the girls at each visit. She loves that she doesn’t know the girls at their first fitting and then by their final fitting she feels a connection to them through chatting at the fittings, spending hours working on their gowns, and thinking of the girls while she does it. She loves that a wedding is a big part of someone's life that she gets to be a small part of.
Laura is always ready to take on a creative challenge. Her favorite project to date is making a keyhole back from scratch! She says that if she wasn’t running a business with her best friend Bea she wouldn’t love it quite as much. Outside of sewing, Laura is an avid gardener with quite a green thumb! Her dream is to design her yard to provide her family and friends sustenance for years to come through fruit trees and vegetables. She’s passionate about all things growing! Brides regularly admire the wide variety of things Laura is growing.
A Fun Fact about Laura: She loves lizards! She says she has never met a lizard that she didn’t love.
Owner
Bea
Owner
Bea grew up watching her Mom and Grandmothers sewing making her all sorts of treasures from clothes to Raggedy Ann dolls. She began sewing herself during the sewing unit in middle school and she says she was terrible and didn't enjoy it. Then in High School her Grandma taught her to cross-stitch and she found the detailed work it required she really enjoyed! She made her own cross-stitch pattern of a bookmark she made for her parent’s anniversary. Bea says she found professional sewing by accident when she ended up with a work study position in the costume shop. Her boss very patiently re-taught her everything about sewing machines and walked her through every step of all the costumes they made and altered her freshman year. Her teacher's attentive and kind teaching inspired Bea so much that by her sophomore year she began helping to design for shows and drafted and constructed whole costumes by herself to start building her portfolio. After college, she worked for an insurance office and did some sewing work on the side, mostly altering bridesmaids' dresses for friends of friends. When she moved to NC, she knew she just had to get back into sewing full-time. She luckily found an opening at a bridal alterations shop where she learned to do bridal sewing vs costume sewing which was really different! It didn't take long for her to realize that she adored bridal alterations.
Her favorite part of owning Becoming Bridal is the freedom and flexibility she has to tailor the experience to each bride. She wants every client to feel like she and Laura are really listening to what they want and how they want to feel in their dress. The thing she finds the most satisfying about her work is seeing everything come together and watching the bride's eyes light up when the dress is finished and they feel beautiful.
Fun Facts about Bea: She and her husband designed and publish a board game called The Secret of John Nebthos and she says they have a few more ideas they want to work on when they have time. She also loves to plan musical movie nights, play tabletop games, and cook way too much food for people who come over.
Kara
Kara started interning with us when she was just 14. We love that she always saves the day and rises to meet every challenge! She has such an eye for detail and is always eager to learn new things. Kara has been sewing since she was 5 years old when her Mom and her Grammy started teaching her on pillowcases. Her favorite style of dress to work on is satin with long sleeves because she thinks that they look very elegant and have clean lines. She thinks the best part of her job is getting to see all of the pieces come together and start to make sense. A Fun Fact about Kara: she loves studying dog breeds and psychology! We’re very thankful she's a part of the team.
Seamstress
Ashley
Ashley has been sewing for 15 years since she learned in high school when she took apparel development classes. When she graduated college and became a teacher she taught the same class she learned to sew in! Her favorite part about working at Becoming Bridal is how rewarding it is to do things with her hands. She loves making things and thinks it is so satisfying anytime she gets to opportunity to create. She also loves the people she gets to work with which she says makes all the difference. Her favorite thing to work on is traditional bustles. She loves to see the transformation of the before and after the bustle is added and thinks it is so satisfying to see when it is complete! Fun Facts about Ashley: by day she is a preschool teaching assistant, she has three kids, and she just celebrated her 10th wedding anniversary.
Seamstress
Amanda
Seamstress
Amanda started sewing by hand in 2009. Her comfort with the fine details in hand stitching allows her to focus on dresses with a lot of detailed lace work. Her favorite part of working at Becoming Bridal is her coworkers and the positive and welcoming atmosphere. The style of dress she enjoys working on most is any lace dress and any dress with lots of sparkles! Right now Amanda is working on making flowers and other DIY elements for her wedding in March. Her dress is currently being redesigned by Laura and Bea who are also bridesmaids in the wedding! She also says she has a pile of mending to get to which is a common theme at Becoming Bridal. She finds the most satisfying part of her job is how valued she feels by Laura, Bea, and the brides. Fun Facts about Amanda: she loves Anime and her current favorite show is One Piece. We are so grateful for Amanda’s eye for detail with lace.
Wendy
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Presser
Wendy learned to sew when she was in middle school. Her grandmother encouraged her to sew and bought her first sewing machine. She also inspired Wendy to do needlepoint, cross sitch, embroidery, and crewel which is a type of embroidery with wool. Wendy’s favorite part of working at Becoming Bridal is working with Bea and Laura. She loves that they are so easy going, kind, patient and very talented. Previously Wendy also assisted on alterations in addition to pressing all of the dresses. Now, she strictly presses and spends the rest of her time watching her granddaughter and babysitting other kids. When she used to help with alterations she loved doing any hand work like sewing on beads and lace. She thinks that kind of work is very therapeutic and satisfying. Her favorite side project is making quilts for babies and her family. She thinks the most satisfying part of her job is seeing the dress all pressed and ready to go when she can see the full beauty of a dress with no wrinkles! A Fun Fact about Wendy: She loves going to the beach which is her happy place and she really loves being a Grandma!
Renee
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Seamstress
Renee has been sewing for about 10 years. She started learning to sew from her Grandmother and then had a sewing class in High school. She didn't start sewing seriously till she began hand-sewing costumes for theater projects. The thing Renee is looking forward to most about working at becoming bridal is getting to know her lovely coworkers and getting to work with her "seester" Bea. Renee's favorite style of dress is a silky fabric; specifically, she likes working on the bustle! When she is not working at Becoming Bridal Renee edits videos for a local media agency. Renee finds the most satisfying part of her job to be hearing the feedback from brides at the final fitting! She thinks there is nothing better than a bride noticing how well she's hidden a bustle or re-arranged the lace details on their gown. A fun fact about the wonderful Renee is that she is a huge nerd she loves complex board games, collaborative video games, role-playing games, sci-fi, theatre, etc! We're so happy to have the marvelously talented Renee here at Becoming Bridal.
Kelly
Kelly was originally one of our brides turned friends turned employee! She’s a native Floridian and went to the University of Central Florida where she graduated with a BFA in film. She found her way to Raleigh by way of Michigan and Minnesota. Her favorite part of working at Becoming Bridal is the brides! She loves getting to see how happy they are at their last fitting and remembers how happy she was to take home her dress at her final fitting! She also loves getting to see the wide styles of dresses we get in. In her free time, she can be found at new home in Oak Park streaming movies with her husband JP, shopping estate sales, or working on her small business @oddity_station A Fun Fact about Kelly: She has 2 cats named Richard and Pickles Parker that she walks in an enormous double cat stroller.