Lady in white
When Rita Yeates or one of her daughters answers the door to their house in Hyrum, the first thing they ask is, “Are you here to pick up a dress?”
If the answer is yes, the Yeates family will invite the person in to what some might call a bridal and prom dress paradise. Hooks on the ceiling and hangers on almost every door help to display wedding and formal dresses in every color and size. Prom dresses are stacked on top of each other in the stairway, and the downstairs is decorated in almost nothing but fluffy, white wedding dresses and shelves that display tiaras.
“I have dresses in every room but my bedroom and bathroom,” Yeates said as she ushered a young girl and her mom downstairs to look at all styles of white wedding gowns. In the meantime, her daughter continued to press a bright pink prom dress in their living room. This time of year is the busy season for her business, Belle Bridal, Yeates said.
“It’s bananas and a nut house around here when it’s prom season,” she said.
Yeates may have up to 14 appointments some days as high school girls scramble to find formal dresses and as spring and summer brides search for the perfect wedding dress.
Shannon Case, a junior majoring in nursing, said she bought formal dresses from Yeates when she was in high school. She wore them to dances and in parades when she was a dairy princess.
“Her house is a little overwhelming. I don’t know how they live like that with dresses stacked up everywhere,” Case said. “But I would recommend people going there. She has really pretty stuff, and the prices are pretty reasonable.”
Caytie Call, a junior in elementary education, bought a wedding dress from Yeates a little over a week ago, and although she said seeing dresses hanging all over the house was chaotic, she said she still had a great experience.
“I just thought this is fun and crazy, and this lady must be passionate and love dresses,” Call said.
` Yeates does love dresses, and her favorite part of the business is helping the girls.
“Sometimes they send me letters that say everything went wrong for my wedding except for the dress,” she said.
She added that selling dresses is a happy business, and she likes to help the brides.
“I want to do a good job,” she said. “I’m honest, and I will never sell a dress one size too big or too small.”
She said too many times, dress shops will sell dresses and tell the girls they can alter them and when all is said and done, the fabric may be cut wrong to make the changes and it still might not fit quite right.
“It’s a nightmare how some places sell dresses,” Yeates said.
Yeates, who moved to the United States from Hong Kong about 23 years ago, has been running Belle Bridal out of her house for the past seven years. Her sister, who still lives on the other side of the world in Hong Kong, gave her the idea. She initially owned the factory that made the dresses, and Yeates decided to give the dress business a try.
“She had tons of European clients, so during the first years I used similar designs,” she said. “But now, they are so weird and I do better when I design my own dresses.”
Yeates said Europeans have begun wearing ivory dresses for weddings almost all the time. In America and especially Cache Valley, young women getting married still want white. Yeates designs all the dresses she sells and travels to China twice a year to the factory that makes them.
She has several books for clients to look at and can do several different styles. She said 85 percent of girls in Cache Valley are looking for modest dresses, but she can design strapless ones too.
“The market here is different, and there are already a million companies that do strapless dresses,” Yeates said.
Every once in a while Yeates will get a woman that comes in wanting something different.
“One girl wanted a gothic looking, black wedding dress. It turned out really cool,” she said. “Sometimes I get really bizarre orders.”
She said she can order dresses in different styles and sizes as long as the bride to be gives her enough time. Twelve weeks is the average to order and get in a wedding dress for most companies, although Yeates said she can get them in within four to six weeks.
“Some girls think they have a lot of time before they are getting married, but really it’s only a couple months,” she said. “I’m always giving my sister rush orders.”
A lot of girls come in not knowing what they want, but most of the time they will buy the first dress they like, even if they go to a lot of other dress shops later, Yeates said. She added this makes listening to what the girl wants very important.
There isn’t really a dressing room at Yeates’ house, just a mirror and a room full of dresses. And every girl is different. Some are picky, Yeates said, and some girls will like everything. It all depends on their personality.
“Some try so many. Some try a million dresses, but they usually come back to the first,” Yeates said. “Dealing with the bride is so much fun. I love to be with the bride. When picking a dress for her, you have to watch how her face changes with each dress and eventually you will know.”
Call tried on dresses in Orem, Salt Lake and Logan before she found Belle Bridal and when she did, that was the end of her wedding dress journey. Yeates was so personable and friendly, and was also the most helpful, Call said.
“She asks you what you want and then when she finds it she throws the dress over the top of you,” Call said. “She’s opinionated too. She would tell me what was flattering and what wasn’t. And she’s not pushy, so it was great.”
Unless the girls are from the area, Yeates said not a lot of people know about Belle Bridal, and since she doesn’t advertise, she depends on word getting around. Call said she heard about the businesss from three different people. Sometimes girls will drive down from Idaho or Provo, and Yeates said she is always surprised at how far some people will travel to come see her house full of dresses. All they need to do is call for an appointment.
Belle Bridal is located on 123 S. 200 East in Hyrum. For more information, contact Rita Yeates at 245-5005.
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