Justina McCaffrey

Not all wedding dress designers believe that they have to move to the United States to make their living. Many can still import their best wares to this country, yet remain in their own, where they may enjoy celebrity status that would be hard to attain here.

Such is the case with Justina McCaffrey, who is considered Canada’s top wedding dress designer. She’s actually been in the business for over 20 years, a favorite in Canada, but didn’t start making her real mark in the United States until 2004. Her dresses are definitely glamorous and lavish, wondrous compositions of silk satins, taffetas, and organza’s, Swarovski crystal beading and French laces. Women both look and feel like royalty in her wedding gowns.

As we’ve heard from other female wedding designers, McCaffrey’s own wedding was the catalyst for her career. People loved her dress to much that she started making wedding dresses in her attic, which seemed strange to her husband because she didn’t have any clients for those dresses. But she had a feeling they would be accepted, and she got a big boost when she and her husband had the opportunity to exhibit her wedding dresses at New York City’s Fashion Week. The rest, as they say, is history.

McCaffrey left home at age 18 and went to the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles, a member of its first graduating class. She won many awards, including both national and international DECA awards, and after graduation, went back to Canada to start creating her designs. She opened her first boutiques in 1996 in Ottawa and Toronto, where she started selling her designs under the name McCaffrey Haute Couture.

In Canada, McCaffrey is a star. She’s regularly featured in magazines across the country, and is often on television and radio. She has been asked to speak at many functions about her design concepts and her wedding dresses in general, and has also designed styles of all sorts for some of Canada’s top celebrities and politicians. She’s begun to make a significant impact in the American and international markets also, as her dresses become more and more popular.

McCaffrey is more than a one trick pony, though. She also directs short movies with a mixture of classical music and dance, anything that helps highlight beauty as she sees it. One of her better known efforts used the music of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and dancers from the National Ballet of Canada.

Because of their hand stitching, McCaffrey’s wedding gowns hold their value well. They will cost you upwards of $4,000 brand new, around $2,900 used. Either way, because of their glamour, they’re worth it.

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