Justina McCaffrey: Wedding Dress Designer Celebrates U.S. SuccessCanada's most celebrated wedding dress designer got her start hand-stitching in her attic. Today, Justina McCaffrey sells dresses across the continent, and she calls it a labour of love ... based on her own marriage.
"It all started when we got married," McCaffrey explains. "I made my own wedding dress. It was a very large and involved wedding dress."
She married David McCaffrey of Winnipeg, whom she first me at the age of six. McCaffrey hand-stitched her gown, which bore hundreds of beautiful silk roses. Everyone wanted one just like it.
"I started making dresses that had no owners," she said. "All these dresses and David was getting angry with me saying: 'What's going on?'"
The couple had three children and David worked for Ottawa's food bank. Then one day, he decided to take Justina's dresses on the road.
"I packed these dresses in the back of this Oldsmobile and I drove across the United States and knocked on every door," David says.
His efforts paid off. In what seems to be a fairytale come true, the couple showed Justina's wedding gowns at New York's Fashion Week. For American buyers, it was love at first sight.
"How did you cope with all the orders?" CTV's Rosemary Thompson asked the dress designer in an interview.
"That's a great question because originally we had no plans to open a factory," M
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