Wedding dreams come to life
Apr. 6—WINDHAM — Jennean Mason was 11 years old and home sick from school when she picked up a pencil and spiral-top notepad out of boredom.
She could not stop scribbling fictional wedding dresses that day, she recalls now from her own design studio in Windham.
In a sense, she has not taken a break since.
"I got my first copy of Brides magazine when I was 12," she says. "I just remember loving it so much, being captivated by it, gushing over the lace in particular."
Within a few years, a home economics course taught to all eighth graders would start to shape the rest of her life. Hands-on with a sewing machine, Mason recalls stitching assignments with ease.
She went on to take every similar class offered at her Cape Cod high school.
"My teachers knew that it was what I wanted to do," Mason says.
A local seamstress called the school one day looking for a student interested in an after-school job. The teachers came up with Mason's name in unison.
"I was hired on the spot," she remembers fondly.
She worked there until graduation, going on to earn a college degree in textile science and fashion merchandising with a minor in costume design.
To this day, the history and design aspects remain her favorite part of the job. That is clear in the vintage gowns draped on mannequins and near antique sewing machines — one dating back to the 1880s — in her studio.
When a bride brings an heirloom dress to be reinvented or incorporated into a newer design, Mason's eyes light up.
Her own mother made clothes during Mason's childhood, but it was a grandfather's work with furniture design that inspires her work more often.
"I've learned to do with lace and fabric what he did with wood," Mason says.
Lessons also came from jobs after college in a few Boston bridal departments.
The Cape Cod native made her way to Windham alongside her husband, David Mason, and remained after his unexpected death in June 2012. The town had quickly become her home, too.
The following year, with grief and shock still fresh, she found her way back to the career she so loved. With encouragement from former co-workers, she started an alterations business out of her home.
The 45 gowns that quickly accumulated made clear that she would need more space, and she has now run J Mason Design from her studio in Golden Brook Crossing on Lowell Road for several years. Two employees, Olivia Marotta and Erin Brink, join her.
The three are closer than ever after enduring the already-busy business that Mason has built, especially through pandemic times that temporarily shuttered a lot of weddings.
"Some 2020 brides are still not married," Mason says. "Three or four of their dresses are still here."
In 2021, 90 brides were turned away strictly because of the workload Mason and her team had already taken on. In 2022, 200 more were turned away.
Still, Mason and her crew have a new offering, one that takes them outside the studio.
"Day-of wedding gown services is our latest venture," Mason says. "I'll show up with your dress and bring it to the bridal suite. I help with the hooks and buttons, work with the photographer to get the best shots of the dress. It's really a set of eyes specifically on the dress."
She takes care of the bustle — neatly gathering up and fastening the train to keep it off the floor — and sees a bride off to her first dance at the reception before leaving.
Mason's team praises her knowledge and teaching abilities.
"It's stressful, definitely, just getting started," industry newcomer Marotta says. "She has so much experience and is hands on with teaching. I was comfortable, but definitely still nervous, the first time I cut into a dress."
At the end of the day, it is a feeling that Mason wants to instill in others. For her workers and brides, it is that confidence.
"Especially on a wedding day, I want the bride to feel her best," Mason says. "Everyone should be feeling the most confident in that dress. And we work really hard to deliver it."
