Drawing brides from around the country to Port

When a group of representatives of Bon Bon Belle first visited Port Washington last year, they weren’t looking for a storefront for the bridal salon.

They were in Port to check out a potential wedding venue, one near Milwaukee so the business would have a presence in southern Wisconsin’s major communities, Alyssa Schultz, Bon Bon Belle’s associate director of marketing, said.

But then the group was directed to the Boerner Mercantile Building on Franklin Street.

“We pivoted from opening a third venue to a third store,” Schultz said, noting Port reminded the expansion team of Bon Bon Belle’s flagship location in Burlington.

“It’s homey and a destination,” she said.

Bon Bon Belle opened in the former Mercantile Plaza space on Franklin Street on Dec. 27, headed by manager Dominique Huiras, who has a team of seven stylists on staff. Since it opened, the Port boutique has served 117 brides.

Those brides don’t just hail from Ozaukee County or even southeastern Wisconsin. Schultz said 15% of Bon Bon Belle’s business is from outside Wisconsin and Illinois, adding that recent visitors to the Port shop include a woman from Colorado and another from the State of Washington.

They were drawn to Port, she said, in part by Bon Bon Belle’s expansive social media presence. The business has more than 1 million followers across all its social media platforms, including more than 855,000 on TikTok alone.

Virtually all the gowns found at Bon Bon Belle are exclusive to the shop, which draws brides to the salon and gives the business more control over the collection it curates, Schultz said.

The shop also provides custom gowns, combining parts of various dresses to make a unique one that is the perfect fit for a bride, she said.

“Brides today have so much more information than they used to,” Schultz said, noting designers will post their latest creations online while in the past brides  had to wait until collections debuted and were in shops.

“Today, they see all the runway shows, New York Fashion Week,” she said. “They see the gowns months before they arrive in stores.”

Each Bon Bon Belle shop carries more than 300 gowns in sizes 6 to 30 as well as accessories, Schultz said, adding the business works hard at being inclusive.

“Inclusivity is big for us, making sure everyone feels welcome regardless of their identity or size,” she said. “Bridal shopping can be such a meaningful and sometimes vulnerable experience, and our goal has always been to create a place where brides feel celebrated, supported and completely themselves.”

Bon Bon Belle was started by Wendy and Andrew Lynch, Schultz said. Wendy was a personal shopper working at Nordstrom but always had an entrepreneurial spirit, and she acquired what was then Christy’s Bridal in Burlington in 2013.

“When she saw the opportunity, they jumped,” Schultz said.

The Burlington shop moved to its current location in 2017, and later that year it opened its first venue in a space underneath the salon.

In 2022, Bon Bon Belle opened 10 South, a venue in Janesville, and in May 2024 it added a boutique in Madison.

Bon Bon Belle’s “sweet spot” in terms of demographics is someone aged 22 to 38, she said, adding the typical bride spends $1,800 to $2,500 on a dress. Some gowns carried at the salon have a price tag of as much as $6,000, she said, adding that sample sale dresses can be $499.

Before coming in, a bride will fill out a questionnaire that includes everything from styles they like to things they are nervous about, whether that be family dynamics or a body part they prefer not to show off.

When they and their party come to the Port shop, they fill out an intake form and settle into one of four changing suites, where they will receive some chocolate bon bons and beverages.

The bride heads into the fitting room with a stylist, who will pull gowns for her, narrowing the selections based on her reaction to each dress. She then makes an entrance to show off the gown to her guests, and “hopefully she ends up saying yes,” Schultz said.

The average bride will try on as many as 15 dresses during a 90-minute appointment, she noted, adding, “it just depends on the bride. Sometimes she finds the right dress after one or two.”

Once the bride says yes to the dress, the group heads to the “bubbly bar” for a toast and the bride can sign a plain wedding gown that’s on display and put a pin in a map indicating where they’re from.

“It’s very celebratory,” Schultz said.

Schultz said that the Port Washington shop has been well received by the community, noting that people will frequently drop in just to check out the store.

  The business community has also been welcoming, Schultz said.

“It feels like almost every business in downtown Port has reached out to introduce themselves at some point,” she said. “Downtown Port and Port Main Street have been amazing partners to work with.”

Bon Bon Belle, which is hosting a grand opening on Sunday, March 22, is working to be a part of the downtown community, she said, directing guests to Port shops and businesses and providing amenity maps that list things to do in Port to its customers to promote other businesses, she said.

“We are so excited to be part of the Port Washington community,” Schultz said.