Stacie A. Sanders Martin: A Wedding Business Entrepreneurial Role Model To Follow
Stacie A. Sanders Martin is the owner and principle designer of Sparkle & Sass by Stacie. Her eye for fashion and obsession with quality shows in each piece she creates. After styling friends and clients for over a decade, and being laid off from her corporate job at 36 weeks pregnant, Stacie took a leap of faith and opened Sparkle & Sass Bridal and Formal Wear out of her home in Sandy Springs, GA. It was through the showroom that she realized that it was incredibly difficult for clients to find the perfect dress, for both bridal and evening, and almost always wanted to customize dresses. Stacie then took classes on fashion design and pattern creation to begin designing custom dresses for her clients and launching her own collection.
Stacie A. Sanders Martin, Owner of Sparkle & Sass
Under the Stacie A. Atelier brand, she works with her client's one on one, to understand exactly what they want for their dream dress and creates the magic of the perfect dress through every tiny detail and sparkle. Stacie then works with her factories personally to ensure the highest quality fabrics, laces, beading and haute couture technology is leveraged with passion for each and every piece. Her friendly personality and desire to provide the highest level of customer service ensures that every bride or evening gown client fully understands the process and has a stress free experience.
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Q & A with Stacie A. Sanders Martin from Sparkle & Sass
What would you say were the three key steps to launching your bridal & formal wear business?
Three key steps to launching are research, funding and developing your people skills
Research is key for starting any business but especially true for the bridal and formal wear industry. You must have a clear understanding of your market including how many other stores are in the area, what those stores carry, who they cater to, and how to set yourself apart from others in your area. You also need to be sure to set your pricing competitively and market your unique selling points.
Funding is crucial for opening a bridal and formal wear store. Most designers require a Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) of between 10-75 pieces per order and you need to have the money to pay for this up front plus shipping costs. This is a very expensive business to be in and it takes a while before you start to see a profit. My recommendation is to have 6-12 months of overhead saved up prior to opening.
Finally, dealing with the public is a challenge. You are going to encounter people from every walk of life and sometimes they are not as friendly as you would hope. Most of our clients are an absolute joy to work with and we have been extremely fortunate to have such wonderful people to work with; however, you will have complaints, bad reviews and rude customers from time to time. It’s imperative that you learn how to communicate with people, make them feel comfortable with you and/or your staff as well, to handle challenging situations.
What would you say has been the greatest challenge about working in the bridal wear industry? What has been the most rewarding?
The clients are the biggest challenge we face. Again, most of the time our clients are great, however the bad ones can completely ruin your day if you let them. For example we had a bride who had gained a considerable amount of weight between the time we took her measurements and ordered her dress, tried it on in the store and took the dress home. It had been 6 months since she picked up her dress and now it no longer fits a few weeks before her wedding. She was irate that there was nothing we could do for her. She didn’t understand why we couldn’t just exchange her dress for the sample in the store. Samples are always larger sizes so that they allow us to fit more brides. Situations like this are unfortunate, however they do happen as there’s a lot of emotion involved in purchasing a wedding dress. Store owners as well as staff members must be able to keep calm and do their best to appease the bride in any way possible.
What makes Sparkle & Sass By Stacie stand apart from other bridal wear businesses?
We are not a traditional bridal or formal wear store and each client has the entire showroom to themselves. We cater to clients who want the personal experience of customizing a dress and working with the designer and stylist one on one. We take the time to get to know our clients and really understand their needs, personalities, love languages and more and combine all of this into an unforgettable unique experience and custom one of a kind wedding dress. As the owner and designer, I meticulously critique each and every bead, lace placement, fabric selection, cut style of all of the pieces I design.
Do you have any plans on expanding Sparkle & Sass? How so?
Absolutely! My goal is for Sparkle & Sass by Stacie to have at least 3 US locations, Atlanta, Dallas and LA. I’m creating a national brand and fashion house with my designs and want brides from all over the world traveling to work with me! I’m also in the process of developing styling classes and webinars on how to style brides and running a fashion business.
What advice would you give to someone interested in going into the bridal wear industry?
Have patience, patience, patience, more patience and money! Seriously, the first thing you need is a vision and goal. When I started I had no idea I would be designing my own pieces but I had a vision of what I wanted my business to be. It took a lot of trial and error as well as several years before my business turned a profit. I had to learn to be flexible and give myself a bit of grace. I started out of my basement and have grown over time but it wasn't and still isn’t easy. This industry is always changing and there’s a lot of competition. Plus there are always new styles and trends and then add on challenges like we’ve seen with COVID supply chain issues, you have to learn to pivot your business and make the best of every situation.
You are also going to need patience because working with the public is hard but when you mix in heightened emotions of wedding planning, you are in for a rollercoaster ride! I recently had a mother of the bride purchase a dress 5 months ago, had it altered but didn’t like the way the alterations worked out and called demanding a refund since the dress we sold her couldn’t be altered the way she wanted it. Obviously, she didn’t get a refund, but this is just one of the many examples of emotional clients and needing a lot of patience.
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