COMING SOON

PATRICE J. BRIDAL

“A wedding dress is both intimate and personal for a woman – It must reflect the personality & style of the bide”. – Carolina Herrera

Patrice Johnson is the owner/designer of Patrice J. Bridal. Patrice has over 15 years sewing experience creating classic and timeless dresses for weddings, special occasions and prom for women of all sizes and curves. Her frustration when shopping for dresses in retail stores is what led her to start sewing. She found the same frustrations were present using commercial sewing patterns which led her to pattern making, drafting and draping. Fit is key! No matter the size or curves of a woman, looking great on their special day is imperative.

In 2020 Patrice J. Bridal Salon opened, expanding the custom formal wear brand to include the Patrice J. Bridal Studio Collection. The studio is located in St. Louis, Missouri.

Natives of New Orleans Patrice and her husband Ian relocated to Saint Louis after Hurricane Katrina and quickly established roots. They have 2 children, Ian Jr. (8) and Eli (4). Patrice is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.

Patrice J. Bridal has wedding, prom and evening gowns for rent, purchase or custom made.

Patrice J. Bridal

St. Louis, MO

504-237-5753

www.patricejbridal.com

Patrice Johnson, Owner

In a world full of millennials trying to find themselves, more and more people are becoming entrepreneurs, including generation X. A lot of us don’t have the startup cost let alone know where to begin starting our own business. Once we do “get it” and our business starts to flourish we soon forget that we had nobody to hold our hand through the process or money to afford business coaching or mentors. Everybody needs somebody but yet everyone is afraid if I teach him/her this, they may just surpass me or there’s not enough money out here for everybody. Let me stop you right there……

Is this you? Are you the person needing help or the person who feels you’ve already arrived?

In these trying times of COVID19, we business owners all definitely need each other. This is where community over competition comes into play. I truly believe there’s power in numbers. I was recently watching the series on Madam CJ Walker. If you haven’t seen it yet, I encourage you to do so. It’s a four part mini series and when I say it opened my eyes even more, oh boy.

First let me explain who Madam Walker was, she was the 1st African American self-made millionaire. She started her own line of hair care products. Once Madam Walker realized she had a good thing going on, production picked up and she realized she needed a factory. Madam Walker tried every avenue she could think of to get the funding she needed but back in those times, the men felt she should “stay in a women’s place”. It was at the time she pressed her way into a conference of Booker T Washington pleading her case and asking for help and Booker T pretty much told her she was out of place and he would NOT endorse her or her products. Madam was discouraged I know but like myself she had heart and was going to fight for what she wanted at all cost. What Madam Walker didn’t know was that the wives that where are this particular conference all pulled together, came to her home with individual envelopes from each wife with CASH to support Madam Walker’s vision of opening a factory. These women knew Madam Walker wasn’t competition but what she was doing would open up so many jobs for their people. COMMUNITY OVER COMPETITION

When I first realized there were other women in my community doing the same thing I do, wedding & event design, I decided to reach out to see if we could have dinner, bounce ideas off each other and just support one another. They were very standoffish and still saw me as nothing more than competition. I looked at this thing very differently. For instance, I’m so over the manpower it takes for chair covers and bows. I thought, hmm I’ll reach out to these ladies and see if they want to go in on some stylish chairs. If we each purchase 25 each, we’ll have 100 chairs we can use for our events and as we make money off renting these chairs, we can begin to purchase our own. Does this make sense????

When I met my Production assistant Tamika, I knew she was a creative, another reason why I wanted her on my team other than her work ethic. When I met my Executive assistant, I learned she was a creative as well. Keep in mind both of these ladies both create jewelry in their spare time. They could look at each other as competition but I explained to them how they both could EAT! Tamika may need to complete an order and realizes she out of a particular item she needs, Danuta has what Tamika needs and GIVES the item to Tamika. Later down the road Tamika lands a HUGE deal for thousands of her bracelets but know she can’t fill this order herself. She now remembers Danuta’s help, gives her a call, now their BOTH making more money.

I urge you today to start a community and compete to be a better you!

With EXTRA Love,

Kidada D. Miller, Creations by Kidada

Wedding & Event Design