Bridal shop thrives on making memories

As a future bride opens the door at Chez Lilli Bridal and Formalwear’s Park Avenue store in Houma, a bell rings, informing the eager staff another customer has arrived. The bell has rung many times over the store’s 45-year history, and Chez Lilli’s current owners, Laura and Harold Cancienne, vow to keep it ringing.

Chez Lilli, or “At the House of Lilli,” was named for the store’s original owner, Lilli Claverie. She and her husband, Norman, started the shop in 1964. It was Lilli’s dream to own a bridal shop, but her dream would be short-lived. She succumbed to illness and died just a year after the store opened.

Norman kept the retail establishment going until he remarried in 1966. His new wife, Beulah, took over the operations and under her watch the business began to grow. By the mid-1980s, there were four Houma locations of Chez Lilli – on Main, Barrow, and St. Charles streets and Grand Caillou Road.

However, the next few years would prove to be trying times for the bridal shop, as the economic collapse of the oil industry nearly closed the doors forever.

“We were forced to consolidate the four stores into one in 1987,” explains Beulah, who became a Rodrigue following Norman’s death and her subsequent marriage to Rod Rodrigue. “There were many, many bridal shops back then. Now there are only about three in Houma. I was one that survived.”

A few years later, Rodrigue moved the business to its present 6114 Park Ave., Houma location where it once again thrived. She sold it to the Canciennes in 1998.

“I found that the clientele changed every 10 years, and we had to adapt,” said Rodrigue.

The current owner agrees.

“The way brides shop has changed in the 11 years I’ve owned the business,” said Laura Cancienne. “At one time, brides would come in with pictures from brochures and magazines. Now, they go on the Internet and come in with computer printouts from the manufacturers’ Web sites.”

Cancienne also described the challenge her business faces in a global economy.

“There are no longer factories in the United States. All of them moved to China,” she explained. “That changed our industry.”

She described a time when brides could walk into Chez Lilli and get a custom wedding dress manufactured in two months. Since all manufacturing has now moved overseas, that time has been extended as far as six months.

“We have to allow for extra time, because if there is something wrong with the dress, it has to go all the way back to China to be fixed,” said Cancienne. “Brides now have to shop much earlier.”

Despite the delays, the wedding business continues to be brisk.

“In South Louisiana, we have large weddings. Most of my brides send 200 -300 invitations,” said the shop owner. “Because of our heritage, because of our tradition and because of the feeling for family in the South – I think that is why weddings are such a big event here.”

Rodrigue recalled many extremely large weddings during her tenure. She described one wedding that had 48 bridesmaids and 48 groomsmen.

“It was the biggest wedding I recall us ever having. It was the wedding between a player for the New Orleans Saints and his Raceland bride,” recalled Rodigue, who could not remember the name of the NFL player. “Most of the groomsmen were also NFL players.”

Cancienne said many of her suppliers seem surprised when she regularly orders for 15 or more bridesmaids. “They say ‘Wow, that’s one wedding party?'”

In the 11 years she has been at the helm of the 45-year-old business, Cancienne has already made many new entries into her book of memories.

“I remember at five o’clock one afternoon when we were ready to close the shop, a man walked in. He said he was here to buy a wedding dress,” Cancienne remembered. “There was a young girl in the back trying on a prom dress. He asked her to try on the wedding gown. She did and the man said ‘I’ll take it.'”

“He told us he had arranged a private plane to take him and his fiancée to Miami to board a cruise ship. He planned to hand her the wedding gown and had already arranged to marry her during the cruise. His fiancée knew nothing of it.”

Cancienne’s eyes sparked with satisfaction as she recalled the story. The satisfaction of making a customer’s dream wedding come true is one of the reasons she says she loves her business.

“When people walk into our shop, they walk into our world. Our staff treats them like family, and before their wedding, they know each one of our staff by name,” she said.

Chez Lilli has proven to be a staying force in the local bridal market over the last 45 years, and Cancienne says whenever she decides to pass the business on to the next generation, that person will be well prepared to continue the tradition for the next 45.