As you know, Runaway Brides 5k Fun Run’s mission is to support two wedding-related organizations that are in the VA/MD/DC area. One of those awesome and inspiring organizations is St. Anthony’s Bridal! They are about to open a new building in Northern VA and we are excited to have them participate in the Runaway Brides event!!! They have an amazing and unique mission to help brides give them the wedding of their dreams.
Today, we are featuring St. Anthony’s Bridal and a little bit about who they are! We are so honored to have them!!!
St. Anthony’s Bridal exists to help brides afford a beautiful wedding. We give brides hope.
Susan Jamison of Poolesville, MD had been providing lunches to those experiencing homelessness when a volunteer suggested that brides with super low budgets would really appreciate free use of a wedding gown and reception items so they could have a beautiful reception to start off their marriage. Current President Melanie Cameron has been running the organization since 2009. Author of a low budget wedding planner, Christ on Your Guest List, Melanie sees a need to increase the dignity of engaged couples in order to build strong marriages. Time and again, brides express a deep desire to grow closer to their fiance, yet so much of the wedding industry isolates a bride and puts great pressure on her to be perfect and to plan the event of the century. St. Anthony’s Bridal wants to give brides hope that planning a reasonable, appropriate, and beautiful reception is not impossible and that planning the details with her fiance will build a strong marriage from the beginning.
One of our past brides brought a newly engaged friend who wanted to have a Game of Thrones themed wedding. The bride came in for one weekend from Chicago, hoping to find the gown of her dreams. The two searched through our inventory and found a regal, shimmering gown that would easily fit on the set of Game of Thrones. We cried, they cried, and we sent the bride off to get married and have a beautiful marriage.
Oscar de la Renta heard about us in 2014, and told his distributor, “Send them the old shoes.” (By “old” in the fashion industry, we mean “last season.”) So our organization was abundantly blessed with over 100 pairs of shoes each worth well over $500. The generosity was surreal, and the heartfelt gift from a generous designer was so inspiring. We continue to pray for the repose of Oscar de la Renta’s soul, for comfort for his family, and for the continued success of his company.
We have brides with no budget, no hope of anything beyond a picnic reception who walk into our doors. They’ve often been laughed out of gown shops, been hung up on the phone by caterers, venues, florists, DJ’s, etc. St. Anthony’s Bridal is an oasis of hope with resources for low budget brides. There are no gimmicks. We have seriously accomplished wedding professionals who love our mission and love our brides and who want to give back within the wedding community by either offering discounted services and products directly to our brides, by hosting events that directly benefit our mission, or by partnering with us to run workshops – giving brides the empowerment they need to achieve the low budgets they have set.
Big plans – We are thinking big. We want to be THE resource for budget brides across the US, setting up bridal shops in every major US city that can support our mission, creating a real low budget wedding magazine, and establishing DIY workshops that help brides make it happen. To this end, we are working fiercely on establishing a scalable model that is effective and efficient. We believe we can change the culture of the wedding industry and bring hope to brides while strengthening new marriages.
We also are accepting donations at the Expo today, just visit our table. We can take donations via cash, check, or credit.
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