14 The Best of Monterey Bay ® Wedding Guide 2024-2025 Evynn LeValley Photography Fashion Michael Dadula Some brides bring a lifelong dream of their perfect dress, down to the details, to their engagement. Some bring a blank slate and have no idea where to start. Wherever you are on that spectrum, specialists at bridal boutiques and tailors can help develop a concept from scratch, or dial in the details for fit and comfort. Ericka Engelman is mostly a seamstress, but she’s also part counselor—listening to what a bride (or the mother of a bride or a groom) hopes to feel like and look like on the big day, then channeling that into what is possible within the constraints of fabric, zippers, buttons and such. “We all have a different idea of what we want and what we look like. I’m not here to change that, just here to make that happen,” Engelman says. “I just have to figure out a way to make the dress you’ve given to me into that ideal in your brain.” Her business, Ericka Engelman Couture, is about 60/40 alterations/ custom-made dresses. She works out of the modest living room in her home south of Salinas, a setting that belies the ornate designs and ball gowns that are growing in popularity these days; Fashion Forward Wedding style takes a turn away from simple. It’s time to embrace big, fabulous dresses. By Sara Rubin Evynn LeValley Photography
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