‘Nice to feel like a million bucks’: Restaurant workers get free wedding dresses in Virginia Beach
Zoie Henry was glowing the minute she put the dress on.
Henry was one of 10 brides-to-be selected for this year’s free gown giveaway for engaged restaurant workers Monday at Ava Clara Couture Bridal in Virginia Beach.
A lead bartender at Oscar’s Oceanside, a restaurant at the Oceanfront, Henry applied two weeks ago and said she cried when she heard of her acceptance.
“I was so surprised and excited,” the 25-year-old said.
Well-versed on what her ideal dress would be, Henry tried on five gowns before she said yes to the dress.
Once the veil was placed on her head, she turned to her mother, Elizabeth Dalton, and future mother-in-law, Patti Driscoll, and let the tears flow.
“You know it’s the one when you don’t want to take it off,” she said.
Henry’s choice, a stunning lace gown made by Casablanca Bridal, carried a price tag of about $2,500.
“This is not a dress I’d be able to afford,” she said. “My budget was around $500.”
Henry’s 2-month-old son, Ozzy, napped peacefully in the dressing room as his mother checked off a major item on her to-do list before her wedding in October 2023 to Ozzy’s father, Robbie Driscoll.
“It’s challenging to plan a wedding. At least this piece of stress is off her plate,” Dalton said.
In the restaurant industry for nine years, Henry knows all too well the stresses that come along with it. At the start of the pandemic, the bar she worked at closed for three months, and she struggled to find another job to make ends meet.
That’s precisely what led Alex Fleear, owner of Ava Clara Couture Bridal, to focus her nonprofit Tulle 4 All on engaged restaurant workers for this year’s giveaway.
In business for 13 years, she said she established the organization a month before the pandemic started. The event focused on health care professionals in 2020 and teachers in 2021.
“We want to say thanks,” she said of the restaurant workers. “It’s a tough field … especially with COVID and them not knowing if they were going to have a job. I know so many businesses have closed. These girls are tough.”
Hallie Spengler, a server at Big Sam’s Inlet Cafe and Raw Bar in Virginia Beach, said the small family-owned business shut down for a few months at the start of the pandemic.
“I found another job in the meantime, but it was not the same type of money I was making before,” she said.
When they reopened, a makeshift dining area was set up in the restaurant’s parking lot.
“It made me a stronger server,” she said.
Prepared to find the perfect gown for her wedding next year to her fiance Cody Hall, Spengler said she cannot wait until the day they say, “I do.”
The couple, engaged at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, set their big day for Oct. 6 at the Lesner Inn in Virginia Beach.
Spengler’s mother, Kelly Ordille, and stepmother, Carly Spengler, shared in the morning’s emotional event.
“You look beautiful in all of them,” Ordille said.
But, Spengler made up her mind and kept going back to the same dress.
Graduating in December from Old Dominion University with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical sciences, Spengler said the free gown is an incredible gift that helps to alleviate some financial stress.
Henry agreed and said money is tight, but their small intimate wedding will be magical no matter what.
“It will be nice to feel like a million bucks,” she said. “Even if we don’t have a dime.”
Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-652-5836, sandra.pennecke@insidebiz.com
