A Touch of Grace bridal shop closing after 27 years
Jun. 27—WATERTOWN — Kathy Lettiere doesn't have any idea how many brides she's helped pick out that perfect wedding dress in her 27 years owning A Touch of Grace.
All she knows is that she has just a few more brides to help until their big day is finally here.
She's closing her shop and retiring after finding "the dress of their dreams" for so many women, she said Tuesday.
"It's like being a fairy godmother," she said. "It's wonderful. It's fabulous. I'm going to miss it."
Lettiere, 61, announced Monday on Facebook that she is closing her shop and this will be the last week that it's open.
The shop, now featuring a pink painted exterior, was originally the home of her grandmother, Jenny Groff, and then later her childhood home.
She purchased the building at 400 Coffeen St. from her father so she could turn it into a place that helped so many women feel beautiful on the day of their wedding.
In addition to all of those wedding gowns, Lettiere helped "thousands" of high school girls pick out their prom dresses every spring.
And some of those girls kept coming back.
One of the few remaining she needs to help is a bride who now lives in western New York and first came to A Touch of Grace six years ago to select a prom dress for the dance at Watertown High School.
Now a bride, she wanted to make sure her fairy godmother — Lettiere — helped her with her wedding gown.
Another bride first wore a dress at her christening and then returned to A Touch of Grace for all of her prom dresses years later.
Another bride got married during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but she's finally going to have a big party to celebrate the occasion, starting with a family dinner at the Clipper Inn and then her belated wedding reception for a few hundred guests.
Every wedding season, about 100 brides came through her door at the shop, Lettiere said. Especially because of the pandemic, the wedding season changed over the years and has gotten longer.
During the last few years, more engagements are happening at Christmas time and on Valentine's Day, so people immediately start looking for a dress, she said.
She's still got a lot of wedding gowns, bridesmaid gowns and evening dresses for those special occasions — in all different colors and styles, some decorated with sequins and other embellishments — still prominently displayed throughout the shop. She's offering 75% off all of her wedding gowns.
On Tuesday afternoon, a few women were browsing through dresses hung throughout the shop looking for one that they liked.
Gabriele Dickinson was inside the changing room trying on a dress when Lettiere went in to help.
"How you making out? Making out OK?" she asked.
After trying on a black evening dress, Dickinson showed off the light tan dress that she ended up selecting for a cruise she and her sister-in-law will go on next winter.
"It looks great," Lettiere told her.
Until a few years ago, the bridal shop also offered religious gifts for christenings, baptisms, first communions and other occasions.
Right before the pandemic, she decided to change her business model and discontinued selling those items. She had the shop renovated and added a room devoted just to her wedding dresses.
On the very day she was to reopen, the state closed retail stores as the first wave of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic hit New York.
The bridal shop had to wait until June 2021 before the state's PAUSE order was lifted and she could start helping women find the perfect wedding, prom and formal gowns once again.
"It was tough," she said.
Since then, however, there's been many brides she helped make happy on their wedding day.
Over the years, her shop offered the Cinderella Program for high school girls who could not afford to buy an expensive prom dress.
Her customers contributed to the program to help pay for the dresses, she said. The girls also received free shoes, trips to a hair dresser and help with their nails.
"Of course, I'm going to miss the girls and my customers," she said.
But she's ready to spend time with her grandchildren and to travel.
If need be, she'll extend her hours until next week if the remaining brides still need some help.
Otherwise, she has no formal wedding plans.
