t's a question that's baffled brides for generations: How do I go to the bathroom in my wedding gown?

Basically, there were two options: Wrestle with yards of satin and tulle on your own or have your maid of honor and a few bridesmaids accompany you to hoist the dress out of your way.Neither was ideal, but there wasn't much you could do about it - until now.Meet Heather Stenlake, inventor of the Bridal Buddy.Stenlake, who owned and worked in a bridal shop for several years, heard the bathroom question over and over again."I figured that there had to be a way to solve that problem," the Kunkletown woman says.The Bridal Buddy is a half-slip the bride wears under her gown, which has the ability to bag up the fabric and hold it out of place while she uses the restroom.Stenlake originated her idea in 2002."It truly just came to me," she says of the winning concept. "There had to be a way so (the bride) could do it on her own, bag it up and get it out of the way. I kept it underneath the dress, hidden."Stenlake worked on developing the idea until she had children. She put it aside until last year when she came upon it in her basement, in a box marked "bridal slip invention.""I saw it sitting there and I thought 'It's time.' " says Stenlake, who is now a single mom. "I got it out and started on it, but I made it simpler."While the concept of the Bridal Buddy is the same, she streamlined the design."I started with a full one-piece bodysuit with the skirt. This past year, I cut out the body slimmer and just kept the skirt."Another change is it now has armholes. Once the dress is in the bag and drawn up, the bride slips her arms through the openings, which holds up the gown, leaving her hands free.And the best part, the bride can manage it all by herself."If it's a really big dress, she might need a hand, for the weight, but normally with any average dress, she won't need help."Business boomIn January of 2015, Stenlake applied for a provisional patent. Last year was dedicated to getting the business up and running. She dealt with legal issues, sourcing materials, manufacturing and making inventory. Her manufacturer is headquartered in Bloomsburg, although the Bridal Buddy is manufactured in El Salvador.The money to launch came from her savings."This was an investment for me. I had to go all in," she says.Stenlake began selling the Bridal Buddy in January. After only a month, she won an award for Best New Product at David Tutera's "Your Wedding Experience" bridal show in Philadelphia."It was quite an honor," says Stenlake, adding that Tutera not only loved her product, he predicted it was going to be huge.He was right."At the Philadelphia show, someone took a video of my model, Marissa, doing a demonstration and shared it on Facebook. It went viral. It's up to 8 million views."After that, the Bridal Buddy just took off. By the end of February, her sales totaled $23,000.And she just got another bump when she was on the Steve Harvey Show."There was a casting call for mom inventors a few months ago," says Stenlake. "I had a few auditions. Eventually they picked me."Stenlake says the entire experience was a dream come true, especially meeting fellow entrepreneur Joy Mangano.During the show she and Marissa demonstrated the Bridal Buddy, after which she was surprised with a check, courtesy of Green Dot Prepaid Debit Cards."They gave each mom $5,000," says Stenlake. "I had no idea."In the few days following the show, which aired April 11, orders were double what they normally would have been during that time period.She's been so busy, she now focuses solely on the Bridal Buddy."I feel like I work on it all the time, but I'm still a mom. While they're in school, I work all day. When they go to bed, I work again."In addition to her model, she has two other employees, her mother, who handles shipping, and an accounts manager.Stenlake markets the Bridal Buddy at bridal shows and by word of mouth, but mostly on social media."That is our biggest form of advertising. It's been absolutely surreal the way it's been happening."To learn more about the Bridal Buddy, visit

http://bridalbuddy.net.