Hope’s Bridal strives to bring the personal touch

Brides-to-be, their wedding parties, and high school prom goers have been coming to a big pink barn along Highway 30 for more than 50 years

“Tomorrow, I have a bride coming in to have her gown fitted,” Diane Niebuhr said one recent afternoon. “Her mom did her wedding dress with us.”

Niebuhr, 64, of Blairstown, hasn’t been there for all those years, just the last 40. She and her husband Mark bought Hope’s Bridal and Prom from founder Hope Kolsto in late 1985.

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“I was doing some part-time wedding sales in a Cedar Rapids wedding store,” she said. “My husband was farming, and I just loved bridal. We heard this was for sale, and used what savings we had and bought the business. It was pink when we bought it.”

Niebuhr found the pink barn on the prairie — it housed dairy herds through the 1940s, then stood vacant a few decades before Kolsto moved in — helps establish the business’ identity.

“We’re out away from any city, and any business that’s stand-alone has to do something to draw traffic,” she said. “Bridal years ago was a destination shopping experience, and that’s changed. Now, it’s how many shops can you go to in a radius and a time frame, but a gown is something special so people would travel. We’re very fortunate that way.”

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The nature of a bridal gown purchase favors a brick-and-mortar store over online options.

“We stay competitive because a bridal gown needs some TLC,” Niebuhr said. “It needs to fit a certain way, and the majority of women still want to try on and see styles and fits. They need good people to work with. I think we’re small enough to be friendly, but big enough to offer a variety.”

The high school prom trade helps build the wedding business, too.

“Prom is my future bride,” Niebuhr said. “If I handle her with dignity and courtesy, she will be back. I tell them, ‘Wait 10 years,’ and they laugh.”

About two dozen of those people work for Niebuhr.

“Never that many on one work day,” she said. “We staff more heavily on weekends. Weekdays are less busy for shopping, busier for some of the services.”

Being open by appointment makes scheduling easier.

“Calling ahead and setting appointments make it a better experience for our customers,” Niebuhr said. “But we’re not going to turn you away.”

Six employees staff Hope’s second location in Davenport, opened in 1993.

“We needed to have it far enough away that we didn’t pick from our own customer base, but close enough that we could easily get there in a day,” Niebuhr said. “That was the location we researched and figured it could handle another shop. It’s never the same when you don’t have an owner on the premises every day, and I can’t be in both places every day, but it’s good.”

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Niebuhr’s three daughters keep the family tradition. Her oldest, Johanna, lives in St. Louis but handles the store’s marketing. Moriah and Ariel are bridal consultants, with Moriah also managing ordering.

The family has tracked fashion trends and shopping habits over the years.

“We have very clean looks,” Niebuhr said. “I would compare that to the Sixties — Jackie O, Katharine Hepburn. That look is in. On the other end of the spectrum, you can wear a ballgown and have as much sparkle, ruffles, and glitter. So there’s both extremes.”

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Traditional June weddings aren’t as popular as they once were.

“The patterns have changed because weddings have changed,” Niebuhr said. “It’s less seasonal, it’s more spread out evenly. October’s become a huge month.”

Wedding formats have changed, too.

“A lot of our brides have gone to destination weddings,” she said. “We have one bride now who’s getting married out in Jackson (Wyoming), the Tetons. We fitted her dress with hiking boots because they’ll be hiking up to where the wedding is. That’s just the person that’s doing the wedding, and the bride and groom, and the witness.”

With a veteran staff and her daughters behind her, Niebuhr has no plans to step down.

“I have a hard time letting go,” she said. “I do enjoy it, and I love working with the staff that I have, and I love my customers.”