Full service
New bridal boutique in south Reno
Part salesperson. Part wedding planner. Part therapist. Tiffany Harker really loves all the pieces of her job. That was clear as soon as she started talking about her full service bridal boutique, beaming the whole time.
Back on Sept. 20, the doors of Tiffany’s Bridal Boutique and Formal Wear opened, complete with a formal ribbon cutting and all the works. Harker moved across the country from Ohio on April 20 to open this store, and she has high hopes for it.
“This has all been seven years in the making,” Harker said. “I got my degree in professional bridal consulting, and I started doing it out of house. I started doing small, little events. I got into big corporate events, really large weddings. And this is what I wanted my whole life. It’s been baby steps getting there. I started doing invitations, shoes, jewelry, things like that, then linens, chair cover rentals. My husband slowly got pushed out of every room in our house.”
When the couple had a daughter two years ago, Harker talked to her husband about moving and opening up her full service bridal boutique. The original plan was to move to Charlotte, N.C., but there were too many bridal shops in the area to open hers. And after some convincing from her aunt, Harker decided Reno would be a great location for her shop and convinced her husband to move across the country.
Reno has fewer bridal and formal wear shops than many cities its size. Because of this, some go out of town for a larger selection of shops, making Reno a great fit for Harker’s shop.
“Full service is going beyond just the gown. It’s being the wedding planner, the consultant, offering invitations, shoes, centerpiece rentals, linen rentals, chair cover rentals,” Harker said. “I even do ceiling drapery treatments with the lighting, things like that, so everything needed for your wedding and reception venue, like the glassware, stuff like that.”
She offers different packages to couples seeking her services for their wedding. She can be the wedding planner from start to finish, the wedding day coordinator or they can choose from her services a la carte. She loves helping throughout the wedding planning process but misses it because she hasn’t been able to do much of this for the last year while trying to get the shop off the ground.
“I just love seeing the faces on brides,” Harker said. “It’s such a happy moment. It’s such a—I don’t know—it’s just a once in a lifetime moment event, and I just want them to be happy. And just to see their face, that’s my reward, is just seeing the smile on their face when they’ve found the gown, or walking into their reception and seeing their vision a reality. The best part is when they walk in and see their dream, their vision become a reality.”