And that attention to detail begins from the minute she walks through the door of Sewly Yours at 2 Church Street, removes her shoes, dons a pair of white gloves and passes through the wrought iron arbor into a world dedicated entirely to brides.

Sewly Yours moved to the former Banana Republic storefront in the fall of 2001 after a 10 year residency in a much smaller space upstairs in the same building.

Coincidentally this classic Church Street brick block was the home of Abernathy's Department Store, serving the needs of generations of Vermont brides for a hundred years in simpler times before closing forever in the late 70s.

LaFromboise has been honing her craft for more than 20 years. "My grandmother taught me to sew very young. I was doing costumes right out of high school and sewing for the complete wedding party," she said during a recent break.

She no longer does bridesmaids dresses and other members of the wedding party "but we do flower girls because they are so much fun," she laughed. For the wedding party dresses, "we recommend ECCO, Monelle, Ann Taylor, Talbots or Banana Republic. We have so many great places in Burlington," she said.

These days, her business is a combination of complete custom design of bridal gowns, a collection of original vintage bridal gowns from the 1800s to the 1960s and gowns from a select number of custom houses like Priscilla of Boston and Justina McCaffrey. "While we do ordering and fitting, we still do one of a kind gowns that take anywhere from 30 to 70 hours. We do a lot of embroidering and hand beading."

"We work with a small group of designers and we have a lot of flexibility. We can make pattern adjustments and customizing so that once a choice is made, they will come back for three fittings." Delivery time is 12 to 22 weeks while full custom gowns require ordering six months in advance."

"With full custom, a girl came in the other day with just a picture. We can do that. Some come in with a piece of fabric. Recently a bride who was a dancer came to Sewly Yours and ordered a gown lined in bright red so that when she danced at her reception, the red lining showed. There are so many options," she said.

Designing and creating a full custom gown may require anywhere from eight to 12 fittings to complete and, yes, they sometimes get orders from out of state and brides fly into Burlington for fittings that are adjusted for their convenience.

Bridal gowns at Sewly Yours range in price from $1,400 to $4,000 with their most popular gowns averaging $3,000.

"This is an important event and this is a very special piece," said LaFromboise, noting that trends locally are very different in Vermont than you would see nationally. She sees simple and elegant as the look most often requested.

"People choose a simple lifestyle here. You can't buy a beaded gown on Church Street. A lot of brides are getting married in a field in a tent, and they are unique in wanting something elegant and simple and sophisticated."

A custom made bridal gown from Sewly Yours may be elegant, simple and sophisticated, but behind the scenes it has been expertly designed and lovingly crafted to play a starring role in a once in a lifetime production.