LA BOUTIQUE CONSIGNMENTS

In the early 1980’s, Eve Faulkner and her husband, Rick, began opening their 1906 Victorian home to host weddings as a creative solution to raise money for their church’s building program.  Within 12 years, they had hosted more than 800 weddings.  Rick would put on his top hat, tails and assist in any way possible.

The brides began asking what Victorian women wore on their wedding day.  This was the beginning of a life-long research project for Eve, which drew on her personal love of weddings and the rich, formal customs of the Victorian era.  As Eve studied, she also collected Victorian wedding gowns and memorabilia. 

The couple moved from Upland to Orange County and bought an 1893 cottage which housed 50 gowns dating back from 1835 to 1940 – 100 years of wedding history.  Fifteen years ago, Eve founded The Victorian Bridal Museum, which was for many year located in the Old Towne district of Orange, CA.  When Eve’s husband retired from the Los Angeles Police Department, they bought property in Hemet and San Jacinto.  They discovered Farmers Corner and opened a smaller version of The Bridal Museum.

In 2004, Eve’s collection was filmed by Warner Bros for a movie named “Samantha, American Girl Holiday.”  Shortly after that, Simplicity Pattern Company asked if she would duplicate one of her vintage gowns for their spring catalogue.

Things were going well when Eve’s daughter, Nikki, and a set of twins moved in with them – due to a divorce.  Eve’s focus began to change to help her daughter by turning her Bridal Museum to a traveling lecture and exhibit rather than housing the full collection.  Eve and her daughter started a consignment shop called La Boutique.  The plan was to get her daughter started and she would run the shop.  Well, about a year went by, Eve’s daughter remarried and moved out of town.

Now Eve owned a consignment shop that has been dubbed “Hollywood in Hemet.”  Eve thought she was in retirement, but recently has expanded by opening a bridal consignment shop next door where she provides a dressmaker that can make vintage wedding gowns and costumes.  She teaches to special groups has become a historian on Victorian wedding fashion.  Eve claims, “We’re going green – recycling beautiful wedding gowns.”

Rick is now a licensed minister working for an international program called “Spiritual Freedom,” whose focus is on assisting those who are chemically dependent.

When she has a spare moment, believe it or not, she loves to shop.  As she thinks more and more about the possibility of future retirement, she also enjoys sitting on her back porch watching her roses grow. 

Looks like Eve is back in the wedding business! 

Her shop is located in the historic Farmers' Corner, 2535 San Jacinto Avenue in San Jacinto.  Please call: (951) 487-6088 or (951) 255-4411 (cell).