Fashion, Fashion Victims Unit, Weddings, Women's Issues

A Bride Sues Over Her Wedding Dress Woes -- And Wins!

This bride was pretty pissed when she had to be sewn into her wedding dress, so she sued over it.

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It’s been quite some time since we last wrote in great detail about wedding litigation; in fact, it’s been almost a year. Could that possibly mean that the bridezillas of the world have been happy with how their magical days have turned out? Maybe everybody is happy now that Elie is marrying people. Eh, doubtful. Besides, they’ve probably still got plenty of time before the applicable statute of limitations runs out.

But when a bridal litigant thinks that someone’s actually ruined their wedding day, you can be damn sure that she’s going to sue, and quickly, especially when the thing at the heart of the potential lawsuit is the wedding gown itself. Pretty much every bride looks at the wedding gown — and how beautiful they look in it — as the thing that people will remember most about their big day (but no matter how fabulous the dress, if the food sucks, you’re probably going to be screwed as to what your guests will take away from the overall experience, sorry about that).

Anyway, the plaintiff-bride in this wedding lawsuit was pissed off, and rightfully so, because thanks to the faulty alterations on the gown, she couldn’t even use the bathroom on the day she got married….

Samantha Shea claims she was “robbed … of experiencing the joy of her very special day” because about an hour before the ceremony, the zipper on her dress split in half, and she literally had to be sewn into it so she could be married. That’s right: this woman was pissed off because she couldn’t piss without ripping her gown open. Come on, you’d be mad, too. Thomson Reuters News & Insight has additional details:

According to testimony from a September bench trial, Shea purchased the gown in May for $599 and hired [Dalia] Cohen, a seamstress, for $600 to perform alterations. Between Shea’s last fitting and when she picked up the dress two days before the ceremony, Cohen said she replaced the original zipper, which was broken, the ruling said.

Shea said she did not try the dress on again until an hour before the ceremony, shortly before the reception was scheduled to start on the rooftop of the Gansevoort in the Meatpacking District, the ruling said. When the zipper split, bridesmaid Joanne Zambuto testified that she and Shea were “scared and didn’t know what to do.”

Not to be a snob, but it’s kind of sad that the bride had to sue in small claims court for this. Doesn’t everyone aspire to buy one of those designer gowns that costs thousands of dollars plus your first-born child?

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And the fact that the alterations cost more than the dress itself is especially absurd. It kind of makes you wonder what was wrong with it in the first place, aside from the original broken zipper, which was apparently replaced by another broken zipper. The seamstress, of course, blamed the debacle on “nature.” Try that next time in court and see how it works out for you. “But Your Honor, it’s like, gravity and stuff, you know?”

Here’s some video coverage of the whole affair from CBS New York (the dress is beautiful, by the way):

At the end of the day, Samantha Shea was able to walk down the aisle in style, and collect a $1,500 check for her wedding woes. At least it’s a fun story she’ll be able to tell for the rest of her life — unless she winds up getting divorced. If that happens, she’ll probably have wished she listened to what “nature” was telling her.

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Sewn up: Bride wins damages for faulty dress [Thomson Reuters News & Insight]
Long Island Bride Wins Lawsuit Against Seamstress Over Broken Zipper [CBS New York]

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