(Business name or key word)

Our Newest and Best Edition... over 350 pages!
Order your copy of San Antonio Weddings Magazine today!

Puttin' On The Ritz

6483 Blanco Rd San Antonio, TX 78216-6104 210-342-0002 www.rentaweddinggown.com

When you first enter this classy, elegant shop, it's almost impossible to believe how much money you can save, until you get to the cash register. Puttin' on the Ritz, a bridal and formal wear rental shop, is the only store of its kind in San Antonio. While there are many places that rent men's formal wear, Puttin' on the Ritz is the only store in the River City that rents women's bridal and formal wear. Brides can save hundreds of dollars by renting.

"A lot of places rent tuxes, but we're the only one in town that rents ladies' formal wear. Men have been renting tuxedos for years. I wanted to give women the same opportunity. You only wear it one time, so why not save the money and rent it," said Linda Gilcrease, owner of Puttin' on the Ritz, who acknowledges that as weddings are growing increasingly more expensive, brides are looking for ways to stay within their budget. "We really do try to save our brides as much money as possible by giving them a discount on their accessories, bridesmaids, tuxedos, etc., when they get their wedding dress from us. But all our customers are special to us whether they spend a little or a lot."

Gilcrease has created a full-service shop for wedding attire: her store offers a wonderful selection of informal and formal wedding gowns, in sizes 3 to 30, as well as veils, shoes, jewelry, slips and all the "unmentionables." She also has a great selection of dresses for the bridesmaids, flower girls, mothers of the bride, and formal dresses for the guest attending the wedding. Everything is for rent or sale. Also, as a service to her customers Gilcrease offers in-store shoe dyeing; they hand mix the color to match your dress.

"We have many new wedding dresses as well as used, but you cannot tell the difference," Gilcrease said. "When people come in, they say, what's new and what's used?"

The reason her items always look new is the extent to which the shop goes to keep them perfect. All of her bridal wear is lovingly kept in plastic sheaths so it's pristine for each use. After the gowns are rented they are professionally cleaned and hand steamed at the shop before they go back on the floor. "Hand steaming makes the dresses look so much better," she said. "We also clean and steam wedding dresses for the public."

"Once a bride picks out the dress she wants to rent or purchase," Gilcrease said, "my staff goes to lengths to fix her up with everything she needs for her special day. We want the bride to look good, feel good and be happy, so whatever alterations she wants, if possible, are allowed on the rentals." All rentals are hand steamed and cleaned if necessary, before they are picked up. Rentals are normally picked up on Thursday before the event and returned the following Monday.

Many of her services are helpful for brides who have bought gowns at discount stores, not realizing they weren't getting as good a deal as they had hoped. "Some bridal shops don't steam the gown free and they don't have an in-store seamstress. You just buy your dress and take it, as is," Gilcrease said. "Then they have to find a seamstress and get it cleaned or steamed and they come to me."

Most of the tuxedo stores in town do not have the tuxedos in their shop and will not allow their customers to try on anything on display. All they can do is look in a catalog and guess about what is going to look best on them. "We feel that our male customers are just as important as our brides. We measure them and have them try on different tuxes to see which style and size they prefer," Gilcrease said. "We really spend a lot of time working with the groom."

She cites the amount of repeat business she's had as an indication of how dedicated her service is. "It just brings us all great joy to have a happy bride come in and want us to out fit her from head to toe and then let us help her with her entire bridal party. We've saved her and her bridal party some money and the headache of going all over town looking for everything and I've made some money, so we're all happy about it."

More About Us