Stephanie James Couture

Specialties

Custom, hand made vintage inspired wedding dresses, made right here, in Orange County. We have a collection of around 30 styles that you can make changes to to create your one of a kind gown. From traditional, romantic wedding dresses to vintage inspired, to crazy rock and roll wedding dresses, we can do it all! We can also make a whole new design, just for you. Aside from wedding dresses, we have also done Mother of the Bride/​Groom dresses, bridesmaid dresses, and other formal dresses.

History

Established in 1995.

Stephanie James has wanted to be a designer since the age of 4. Growing up on a farm in rural Idaho didn’t provide her with many options for creating beautiful things. Determined to have the best dressed Barbies in town, she was forced to improvise with paper towels, Scotch tape, and Crayola markers. It was not uncommon to find her stomping through the onion fields in cowboy boots and her favorite red and white ruffled party dress, rocking her Shirley Temple curls. Clearly, the farm was just too small for this budding designer.

Luckily, Stephanie and her mother were fated to move out to California, where her fashion sense would be better appreciated. Throughout high school, wanting to make her own fashion statements, she made most of her clothes and all of her prom dresses, avoiding those awkward «who wore it best» moments. She even made her mother’s wedding dress. Little did she know then, that that would be the first of many wedding gowns to come.

Meet the Business Owner

Stephanie James J.

Business Owner

Stephanie attended Brook’s College in Long Beach for fashion design. Just after graduation, as often happens in life, her plans of designing were put on hold to raise her 2 lovely children.

When they were old enough for school, Stephanie «accidentally» became a wedding photographer for the next 10 years. Fate would intervene again, when she met the man of her dreams and decided to remarry and, of course, design her own wedding gown. Tired of seeing the same strapless, white ball gowns over the past 10 years, Stephanie knew she didn’t want hers to be white, long or strapless. She has also been a lover of vintage fashions, so, with that influence, the gown that she designed was absolute perfection. It was tea length with a pleated skirt and V neck bodice. Everybody was so impressed by this dress, that she decided it was time to return to her first passion and start designing. She called it the Mr’s Kennedy and it remains to be a best seller to this day.