Interior Photo Credits: oliviaduncanphoto.com
What does it take for a bridal store to still be in business – and doing well – after 46 years?
Bridal and Formal in Reading, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, opened its doors in 1979, and being forward-thinking is a large part of what’s allowed this store to thrive.
“Our original owners were constantly looking for the next-best thing so they could provide items as they came into trend,” says General Manager Tina Minshall, who’s been with the store for 35 years. “They wanted something different to set them apart.”
Linda and Larry Hochberg founded the store and in 1986 their daughter and son-in-law, Lisa and Andy Star, entered the business. In 2005, Lisa and Andy took over the business. They’re now in the process of handing it over to their son Zach and daughter Daniella.
Currently, Zach Star handles the finances, orders, back of house, IT, shipping, stock and payments to manufacturers; and Daniella Star handles buying, merchandising, inventory, marketing and social media.
Minshall picks up the slack in the middle.
In fact, there’s not a lot she doesn’t do, says Daniella Star, owner-in-training and director of merchandising.
“I go wherever I’m needed,” Minshall adds.
Changing consumer, changing times
Since it opened, Bridal and Formal has kept up with the times and fended off the challenges of operating in an ever-changing world. Originally 3,000 square feet, it was the first business to open in what is now known as the Reading Bridal District with 13 bridal-related businesses.
Today, the store boasts 45,000 square feet – spanning an entire city block – with two floors, a large staff and around 2,500 bridal gowns, 1,200 prom dresses and 200 bridesmaid outfits at any given time. It sells 2,200 to 2,500 bridal gowns a year, with an average spend of $1,500 to $2,200. Three quarters of brides buy their accessories at the store, too.
Being located in the District among close-quartered competition “definitely encourages us to remain competitive and to keep up with what brides are looking for because if they don’t find it here, they can walk down the street to look at other gowns,” Daniella says.
And this necessitates having a good understanding of their customer at all times, whom Linda has seen change throughout the years.
“Brides today are completely different than brides in the past 30 years,” Linda says. “When I first opened the salon, brides to be would shop with their mothers and maybe one other person. They would talk about how surprised and excited the guests would be to see the bride-to-be’s gown on the day of the wedding. There was an element of suspense for the first glimpse of the bride as she walks down the aisle.”
Additionally, Linda adds, past brides would maybe go to one or two stores and make a decision fairly quickly.
“Today’s bride brings many more guests to each appointment and it has become more of a community experience,” she says. “Instead of going to one or two salons, brides tend to visit multiple stores in their quest for the perfect gown.”
To accommodate this, Bridal and Formal does take walk-in customers “but we highly encourage appointments,” Lisa says.
This represents another change over the past 20 years, when it didn’t even take appointments.
All stock at Bridal and Formal is on display on the floor. Brides can either walk around and select their own gowns; or they can work with a consultant; or they can have the consultant pull dresses for them. The racks are broken down by designer, so it’s easy to shop for a specific aesthetic.
The store also has eight street-level windows where it displays dresses with some others just inside the entrance. These are constantly rotating, because they’re frequently pulled for brides to try them on.
The eye-catching display is important because today’s bridal shoppers are savvy and know what they’re looking for prior to entering the store thanks to social media. But you have to educate customers on the process of buying a dress since brides are more used to shopping online, Minshall says.
Today’s brides are “much more into themselves and it’s like a special experience – more so than ever,” Lisa says. “It’s all about how they feel during the experience and everything they do is so they can put something on social media.”
Social media can also make it harder for brides to make decisions, because they’ve seen so many options.
“But on the flip side, this generation never went to the mall, never went to a store, so they get excited to go into a store so that’s also why it’s an experience,” Minshall says.
All about the experience
To help provide the best possible experience, Bridal and Formal added luxe suites around six months ago. These are private suites on the first floor, which brides can book for two hours ($125) to try on dresses with their entourage. The boutique provides snacks and drinks and the bridal party can bring champagne.
“It’s a good way for customers to have that boutique experience even in our large store,” Daniella says. “We’ve seen great response; it’s about providing that personalized experience. You want to make sure you’re providing something unique and different.”
It’s worked so well, in fact, that Bridal and Formal is considering additional luxe suites for the future.
The suites can accommodate the bride and up to 10 guests (normal appointments allow up to six).To incorporate them, Bridal and Formal condensed its mother-of-the-bride and bridesmaid lines because that business is largely moving online, and this was considered a more beneficial use of the space.
Bridal and Formal also has two open dressing rooms, big spaces where women can try on gowns surrounded by their entourage. The benefit is they can see other brides in their gowns and might spot the dress they want. This room is broken up into five or six spaces for five or six brides and their family and friends. Each features a couch, pedestal and mirror.
Tackling daily challenges
One way Bridal and Formal has managed to thrive is by keeping overhead and inventory costs under control, because both can be daunting, Daniella says.
It’s highly important, she says, to be aware of how much you’re spending, from the gowns you buy and the margins on them, to payroll, electricity and other bills.
“That’s one area you can never slack off; you have to be aware every day,” she says.
And the store stays on top of exactly what’s selling. It runs constant sales reports and if it has an item that’s not sold for six or nine months, it marks it down and sells it off the rack.
Putting those gowns in storage would be an ineffective use of your money, according to Minshall.
“If you mark it down and move it that allows you to fill in items you might be missing,” she says.
Bridal and Formal is very careful not to spend its entire budget at market so there is money leftover if they need to add a dress. To make sure there are no gaps in the store’s inventory, Bridal and Formal employees pay close attention to what brides say.
“The only way to know if you’re making it or not is to listen to feedback in real time and to know if we need to update our stock between markets,” Daniella says.
Changing face of marketing
It will come as no surprise that the way Bridal and Formal approaches its marketing has changed enormously since it opened. In 1979 TV was the hot technology. Then came the internet and shortly afterwards, social media.
In the early days, the salon advertised on television, billboards and in local magazines. Now that money is almost exclusively spent on social media and Google.
“It’s a much more effective use of that money,” Daniella says.
Bridal and Formal runs two or three Google campaigns a year to cater to what it’s trying to promote, such as prom or off-the-rack gowns. Google campaigns ensure the store appears high in the results when someone types in certain words like “wedding dress” and “Cincinnati.”
On social media Bridal and Formal runs some paid advertisements and boosts some posts “to get more eyes on it,” Daniella says. She’ll do a boosted post every six or seven videos, and especially focuses on big sales and designer events.
“Social engagement is a big thing for us and we try to do a lot of video reels and make them as trend-forward as we can,” she says.
Some videos are fun, some are informational, some feature new designers or new dresses. Daniella also loves to collaborate with designers for “an organic and free way to get more views from people who don’t know us but they follow the designer.”
It’s no good using these marketing tactics if you don’t see how they’re doing and Daniella Star tries to look at her analytics weekly, “to see what people are looking at on our website, what people are searching for. If people are searching for a specific style more than once it’s clear it’s popular, for example,” she says.
She works closely with the store’s social-media manager and looks at analytics to see what they should and shouldn’t be posting or how people react to posts.
“It’s like throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing what sticks,” she says. “If you don’t look at your analytics you’re really just posting blindly.”
Tariff talk
Over the past few months tariffs, and discussions about them, have become a thorn in the side of most retailers.
“The increase of cost of goods is a hot topic for anyone conducting business,” Lisa says.
As of press time, Bridal and Formal had seen increases of around 6.5% from some designers and was forced pass that increase on, albeit reluctantly.
“Because of the volume we do it was a pretty big ask to not increase it so we did but it was after a lot of thought and angst and we didn’t want to affect the flow of business,” she says.
She expects to see more increases in coming months.
“Tariffs are a conversation we have every day with customers,” Minshall says. “Customers are nervous. Planning a wedding is expensive and they want to spend their dollars wisely. Our suggestion is that they don’t wait to buy because we don’t know what’s going to happen in a week.”
The recently announced tariffs aren’t good news, Lisa adds. They ”will definitely affect the bridal industry. My hope is that the manufacturers will be willing to split the increases with the retailer so that the brides to be will still be able to afford their dream gowns.”
Happy staff, engaged community
A satisfied staff means happy customers, and Bridal and Formal treats its workforce very well. It has around 40 employees, who are paid an hourly wage plus commission; management staff is salaried.
Commissions are downplayed, Daniella says, because the employees are well paid (including a bonus check) and the store doesn’t want stylists to be pushy with brides just to make a commission.
“We had to find the balance between encouraging them to make sales without them being high pressure,” Minshall adds.
To keep staff engaged and to give them the tools they need, Bridal and Formal runs regular incentives, such as the first person to sell a gown from a specific designer receives a gift certificate or can leave an hour early.
And training happens daily, including seminars, games, dress searches, fun sales meetings and even having employees dress up in the gowns so they can see how they look.
“You have to continually train and do it in a fun way,” Daniella says.
It’s also essential to stay current in the bridal industry through communication.
“The best way of gaining insight and knowledge is to talk to other store owners and managers,” Lisa says. “When you’re at market, it’s the only time you get to spend with people who do the same thing as you. It’s a great resource. If you’re stuck in a rut and can’t think, they’ll give you suggestions or avenues you hadn’t thought about.”
Bridal and Formal tries to work closely with others in the Reading Bridal District, both at a monthly board meeting, where they might discuss anything from social media to advertising, or through casual drop-ins at each others’ stores.
It’s essential to keep networking, all the time, Lisa says.
“Even if you don’t feel you need a lot, keep going to market and talking to other people because you need to know what’s going on out there,” she says.
Lessons from the field
Before returning to Cincinnati to take over her parents’ business, Daniella Star graduated with a degree in business then worked for Vera Wang and Adrianna Papell in New York City.
When she returned to Bridal and Formal she built a new website and made sure it was user-friendly. And she launched live inventory so brides can see all of the dresses and bring images and styles to their appointments.
“That was a big way to get the bride more prepared,” she says.
But Daniella has something else that sets her apart: Her age. At 30, she’s a peer to most of the brides coming to the store, and this helps her understand their behavior and motivations.
“When my parents were in the height of it, certain designers were very important and it was vital to see the labels,” she says. “Then it became important to look good in the dress and the label was less important. Now it’s about having the experience; and they want to post about it and they want to show all the dresses they’ve put on. They want a ‘dupe’ – that duplicate look they see on their favorite influencer or celebrity out there and they want that exact same look and they’ll go anywhere to try and find it.”
But she – and the store – needs to be always cognizant of the current bride, she adds.
“It’s important to understand and listen to the generation that’s getting married,” she says. “If you’re not appealing to that customer and staying up to date with trends and anything that’s going on, you’re just going to fade out and you’re not going to be able to keep up.”
