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Bella Bianca Bridal Couture Brings High Tech to Gold Coast Boutique

 The Gold Coast bridal boutique uses technology to streamline operations and share the dress shopping experience with faraway relatives.
Bella Bianca Bridal Couture
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GOLD COAST — When Natalie Bauer and Melissa Russell, the sister duo behind Bella Bianca Bridal Couture, decided to open a second location of their wedding dress shop on the Gold Coast, they knew they needed to make some changes to keep up with the specific needs of their new clientele.

Bauer said the shop's "Downtown brides are definitely distinctive" from the clientele at their flagship location in suburban Oak Brook, near both sisters' homes in Lisle — which just so happen to be on the same block.

"Many of our Gold Coast brides are young professionals, working all the time, and emails or texting might be their preference, so we're happy to communicate with them that way," she said.

 Samsung tablets help Bella Bianca Bridal Couture's staff streamline operations and video conference in shoppers' friends and relatives.
Samsung tablets help Bella Bianca Bridal Couture's staff streamline operations and video conference in shoppers' friends and relatives.
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DNAinfo/Lizzie Schiffman

"They're emailing their stylists Pinterest boards, booking their appointments online through our website — they're definitely plugged in."

Shortly after the sisters opened their shop at 12 W. Maple St. in January 2013, they realized there was another problem plaguing their urban clientele that they could tackle with the right technology.

"So many people moved to Chicago for work, or to be with their fiance," Russell said. "It's not necessarily where they're from."

"At the Oak Brook salon, we have a lot more people who are from the suburbs, or have ties to the suburbs somehow. They're shopping with their mom, their aunts, their friends — everyone is centrally located around this area."

That's not the case for many Chicago brides. So shortly after Russell and Bauer bought Samsung Galaxy tablets for the team to access their customer database on the fly, they discovered a new use for the technology that they say their customers are demanding in droves.

"After we worked with a few brides who were dying to show their dresses to their mom, or their aunts, or their friends who can't be there, we realized we could use [our tablets] to Skype them in," Russell said, referring to the popular free video-conferencing service.

"We use it from the shopping stages all the way up through alterations. We recently had a bride whose mother was from North Carolina — she lived here because of work, and her mom couldn't fly out here to be a part of it," Russell said.

"The bride wanted her to be there as much as possible, so we Skyped when she was shopping for her dress, we Skyped each of her alteration appointments, which last an hour each."

When the bride's mom came into town for the wedding, "she knew every detail of the dress, she knew how to do the bustle from North Carolina, and the bride really felt like she was shopping with her mom, even though she's in another state."

The duo don't consider themselves gadget queens — Bauer said she considers herself "kind of a dinosaur" when it comes to new gear — but said the impact of embracing the intersection of fashion and technology has been a godsend for their business.

"I wouldn't say we're tech-obsessed, but we are obsessed with efficiency," Russell said. "We are very meticulous with details and we expect everyone on our staff to be the same way."

Aside from their revelations about the future of bridal shopping, Russell and Bauer said operating the dual salons has revealed another other major difference between suburban and city brides that befits the Carrie Bradshaw urbanite stereotype.

"Downtown we get a little bit more of a fashion-forward bride, who's maybe able to take a little more risk with her style," Bauer said. "The Downtown girls tend to gravitate toward those edgier looks, which is always fun for us."

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