Hayley Page can’t remember a time when she didn’t want to be a wedding dress designer.
“I was very lucky that I knew what I wanted to do from an early age,” she says.
For Page, whose full name is Hayley Paige Guttman, it seemed like her dream had come true when she launched her eponymous bridal line in her mid-20s.
Her sparkly and whimsical dresses have made her famous in the wedding industry and led to her recurring role on the reality series Say Yes to the Dress.
Page, 39, told CNBC Make It that it was a “really great chapter” of “thousands of dresses, amazing brides, and brand growth” before she lost ownership of her professional name and intellectual property in a four-year legal battle with her former employer.
Now, Page is back on the scene with a new bridal collection and a new perspective on marrying business and artistry.
Build your bridal brand
Page studied textile science and apparel design at Cornell University and “entered the bridal industry right away” after graduating in 2007.
In 2011, at the age of 25, Page was given the “amazing opportunity” to become head designer for bridal house JLM Couture.
All Paige had to do, she says, was sign an employment agreement that gave JLM Couture the right to trademark her name and brand, as well as rights to her designs and intellectual property. The agreement also included a five-year non-compete agreement in the event Page left the company.
“Basically, I was told that if I wanted the job, I had to sign that contract,” Page said. And she did.
She then put on a “blindfold” and immediately got to work.
“For me, I’ve always been very focused on artistry and the fact that I’m doing what I love the most. So I didn’t focus on a lot of other things that a lot of people would focus on,” she says.
Paige wearing a wedding dress design.
Elizabeth May Photos
Page approached her employer in 2019 to negotiate a new contract as her first contract neared its end.
“A lot has happened in the last almost 10 years. I’ve grown a multi-million dollar brand. I’ve appeared on shows. There were many occasions where I felt like my value wasn’t properly calculated,” she recalls.
Page said she was “blindsided” when JLM Couture filed suit in December 2020 over the use of the Hayley Paige name and Instagram account @misshayleypaige after a year of negotiations.
Page subsequently resigned from the company and fought for ownership of the social media accounts, claiming that he had created them as personal profiles, not business ones.
In 2021, a federal judge granted JLM Couture a preliminary injunction giving JLM Couture control over all social media accounts under Page’s name and prohibiting Page from using her name for business purposes, pursuant to the terms of her original employment agreement. She was also banned from designing bridal apparel.
“In just a few days, I went from being used to the very basics of having a job and being able to use my name to basically being prohibited from using my name in business or commerce, or even publicly identifying myself,” Page says.
From name change to renewal
As the case progressed, Page’s goal was to “not let circumstances dictate my career,” she said.
In 2022, Page launched the shoe brand She Is Cheval and decided to call herself Cheval professionally.
“I realized I needed to find a way to get through this period and get back to design in some way,” she says.
Page said she had “made peace” with her situation while continuing to appeal the injunction, but everything changed when JLM Couture filed for bankruptcy in 2023.
The settlement agreement allows Page to buy back the rights to her name, intellectual property and social media accounts in 2024 for $263,000. Neither Page nor JLM Couture admitted fault under the terms of the settlement.
“We wish her all the best,” a JLM Couture spokesperson said in a statement to the New York Times earlier this year.
For Page, the experience was “surreal,” she says. “I’ll never forget the phone call from my lawyer because I was like, wait, what? Am I going to be Hayley Page again?”
Hayley Page poses with models wearing the latest bridal collection.
Provided by: Alyssa Ryan Photography
Rebuilding the brand wasn’t easy. Paige couldn’t get her old patterns or dress back, so she had to start from scratch with the design.
Still, bringing back the bridal line “felt like coming home,” she says.
In July 2025, Page released her comeback collection, “Twice Upon a Time.” This time, she says, she feels a “stronger, grittier connection” to the brand.
“It’s more of a carefree feeling than a ‘happily ever after,'” Page says. “There’s actually a little more soul and oomph to the storyline, and a little more rebelliousness.”
Page said the new collection received “the most positive, enthusiastic, supportive, encouraging, and glowing response you could hope for” from the bridal community.
“My face hurts when I laugh,” she says.
How is she paying it forward?
Page said she was “really young and naive” when she signed her employment contract in 2011.
Now, she says, her mission is to help other artists understand “what happens if you don’t read your contract all the way through.”
On International Women’s Day 2023, Page launched A Girl You Might Know Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping young creators protect their legal rights.
Hayley Page presents her “Twice Upon a Time” collection at The Colony Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida.
Provided by: La Via Visual
Most artists don’t have the “influence, the following, or the financial resources” to pursue a legal battle like she did, Page said.
“During my hardships, I was very aware that I had a support system that many people don’t have: my parents, my family, my community. And I wanted to pay it back, almost pay it back,” she says.
She says the biggest lesson she learned from the legal battle is that creators need to learn about the business side of their work.
“Unfortunately, we now live in a world where even artists have to actually know these things, because if you only live in the art world, you can potentially be taken advantage of.”
In Page’s view, “many people use the wrong yardstick to measure success by artistry.”
“It’s not about financial success or expanding your brand and getting out into the world and all that other stuff,” she says. It’s important to stay connected to your craft “even when everything goes wrong.”
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