Annette Hall is the owner of Bridal Aisle Boutique, a bridal shop located in Osseo.
It’s numbingly cold when I enter Hall’s bridal shop, the skin on my hands peeling on account of clashing with the prevailing winds that have engulfed the Twin Cities this morning.
After walking in the front door and momentarily escaping the frigid temperatures, one of Hall’s consultants politely asks me to remove my shoes and slide on a pair of slippers that are conveniently placed near the main door.
We may be in Osseo, my hometown, but we’re definitely not in Waseca, a small town near Mankato, which is where Hall’s story begins.
“I loved growing up in Waseca,” Hall shares, “but I did not want to stay there long-term.”
“I’m more of a big-city gal.”
Hall initially studied to be a veterinarian, but that pursuit ended prematurely.
“Back then, that was a tough industry to get into as a woman,” she says, so she pivoted and enrolled at the Minnesota School of Business to study fashion merchandising.
The plan was for her to later leverage her newfound business skills to assist with her mom’s clothing store back home.
“I never did fashion merchandising though,” Hall says.
Instead, for close to three decades, Hall worked in admin until 2012, at which point, on the verge of getting married herself, she dreamed of opening her own boutique bridal store.
“I told myself that I wanted to open up a bridal shop when we got married,” she recalls.
“But a wise woman told me that I should plan the wedding first, and then plan the business, and so I did that.”
Thirteen years later, Hall is blissfully married (her husband helps run Bridal Aisle Boutique), and her entrepreneurial venture has been successful.
Upon entering their Osseo store, it’s clear that Hall and her team were diligent and methodical in their approach to making the showroom pop, a large variety of dresses clearly on display as Hall walks us around different areas.
Should one take a more thorough glance at the wedding dresses, and their accompanying price tags, they will then be pleasantly surprised to discover that Bridal Aisle Boutique is not catering to the affluent.
Rather, Hall believes every bride who enters her store should be able to walk out with a gown she loves, at a price tag her wallet can appreciate.
“Your day, done your way, at a price you can pay,” Hall says of a slogan that they don’t widely use, but one that still appropriately encompasses what Bridal Aisle Boutique is all about.
Whether you are marrying your highschool sweetheart or finding love later in life, Hall has a wedding dress for you.
“All women,” Hall jokes when asked who her clients are, but it’s true:
She’s not just catering to the bride-to-be.
“Moms and grandmas often are instrumental in selecting a wedding dress, so I’ve been very intentional and creative in how I market my business and who I am trying to appeal to.”
While it may be fair for me to assume that most of the brides who walk into Hall’s store are between 20-30 years old, regardless of age, all clients receive exemplary service when they enter Bridal Aisle Boutique.
“Many brides experience angst and fear when they are planning their wedding, and from the moment they step into our store, we are trying to alleviate that anxiety and make them feel not only good about selecting a wedding dress, but excited for their big day,” Hall insists.
One way the experts at Bridal Aisle Boutique do this is by having their consultants focus on a bride’s wants and needs, and then pairing that client with dress options based on the information provided.
“I have trained my consultants to ask a lot of questions, and to listen carefully and intently, because we ultimately want to match our clients up with a wedding dress that aligns with who they are, both from a personality perspective, as well as an aesthetic perspective,” Hall explains.
Yet, as mentioned, it’s often not just the bride that one of Hall’s consultants is working with to find an ideal fit.
“The bride is not always the decision-maker when it comes to the dress, so by being conscious of not only the bride’s desires, but also those of whomever is advising her, that is equally imperative,” Hall mentions.
For reference, to go through a consultation at Bridal Aisle Boutique costs $25.
“If the client buys their dress that same day, then that $25 fee is applied toward their purchase,” Hall says.
“Also, if the client opts not to purchase a dress that day, then they are simply charged $25 for our time.”
Bridal Aisle Boutique also offers a VIP experience for $100.
With this package, the consultation fee is also applied toward a new wedding dress, and then a bride and her entourage are also treated to a fitting in a more private area of the store, along with various accouterments that Hall and her team have carefully prepared.
Most importantly, whether a client elects a standard fitting or the VIP experience, she is never pressured to purchase a wedding dress before she feels comfortable moving forward.
“It’s 50-50 regarding how likely a client is to buy on their first trip to our store,” Hall shares.
“In the past, I noticed that about 75% of the time the client would buy right away, but the new generation takes more time to decide on the wedding dress that is right for them, and that’s totally fine.”
Typically, wedding dresses at Bridal Aisle Boutique range from $500-$2,500, with the average sale price being between $800-$1,400.
Of note:
To-be brides can spend upward of $10,000 on a new wedding dress, but Hall is quick to point out that clients looking to spend that kind of money are not her target audience.
“I am passionate about a good deal. That’s why I started the business to begin with,” Hall says.
“Ultimately, I want my clients to feel great about the dress that they are buying, without feeling like they have to spend a small fortune.”
Adds the caring yet business-savvy Hall:
“No matter if you get a $500 dress or a $10,000 dress, you are going to look beautiful on your wedding day.”
It’s this level of transparency that endears Hall’s clients to Bridal Aisle Boutique, and it’s this same professionalism that each member of Hall’s team exhibits when working with clients who visit their Osseo location.
“My consultants, they just spoil the brides, and they love what they do,” Hall cheerfully details.
“The atmosphere we have cultivated is extremely positive. There is no judgment when a young woman walks into our store, and again, there is never any pressure for her to buy something.”
In that sense, it’s a people-first approach that Hall and her team epitomize.
“However the consultation ends, is however it ends,” says Hall, tripling down on her stance that her clients are never pressured to buy.
“We prioritize our customers’ wants and needs over any sort of sales goals or other business metrics.”
With thirteen years in business, Hall has undeniably put a smile on the faces of countless brides (and their families), and with that in mind, Hall is looking to make more smiles appear across the Twin Cities.
At present, she has a bridal outlet attached to her showroom, but soon she will leave the comforts of Osseo and move to a bigger location to meet demand.
“Like many business owners, I want more volume and more appointments. I also want to expand my brand and have more people know about what we do,” says Hall, who even though she is nearing retirement age, still has so much love and excitement for what she does.
“I have been doing this for thirteen years, and what’s gotten us to this point is focusing on delivering an excellent experience to our brides, and so anything we do moving forward will be a continuation of that same approach we have always had in place.” QS
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