Long Island Bride Wins Lawsuit Against Seamstress Over Broken Zipper

CARLE PLACE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Most little girls dream of walking down the aisle in the perfect wedding gown. But for one Long Island woman, her wedding day became a nightmare when the zipper on the back of her dress broke.

WCBS 880's Sophia Hall reports

"There was 13 or 14 inches of my back exposed," Samantha Shea-Falcone told WCBS 880's Sophia Hall on Tuesday.

The bridal party watched in horror.

"We were bustling Samantha underneath and then we go and zipper her and the zipper slowly started to split open from the bottom up," bridesmaid Josephine Abbatiello told CBS 2's Jennifer McLogan.

"I couldn't go out like that. Luckily, the hotel in the city I was at sent two lovely ladies up," Shea-Falcone said.

Two housekeepers came to the rescue and sewed the dress. The work was so tedious, Shea-Falcone said the workers' fingers bled.

"The dress was so thick and the sewing needles were so small -- to force the needle through, sometimes they were poking themselves so then we had to get the Band-Aids out," Shea-Falcone said.

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Shea-Falcone and her new husband ripped open some of their wedding gift envelopes to pay the hotel staff for their emergency sewing job.

The bride wound up being two hours late to her own wedding.

Adding insult to injury, Shea-Falcone said the minister charged an extra $100 for the wait, McLogan reported.

The bride took the seamstress to small claims court. The judge sided with Shea-Falcone, awarding her $1,500 for alterations and last-minute fixes.

Seamstress Dalia Cohen declined to comment after court. While announcing the decision, the judge said the seamstress, of Bridal World in Baldwin, was remorseful in her testimony.

CBS 2 spoke with the seamstress by phone. She said she told the court that she was devastated by the incident and offered to drive to Manhattan to fix the gown but was told there was not enough time.

At the end of the wedding reception, Shea-Falcone said she was pretty much torn out of her gown, which now sits in an evidence bag inside the judge's chambers.

"We went on with the evening and it was the best day of my life," Shea-Falcone said.

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