New Black-owned bridal shop focuses on affordability and inclusion

A new wedding gown and bridal accessory shop is set to open next month in Charlotte.

Treasured Brides offers wedding gowns, veils, jewelry and more, and will open April 1 at 1251 Arrow Point Drive, Suite C311.

Owner Kaela Moore, 30, told QCity Metro the grand opening was four years in the making, and she’s most excited to help brides find their best dress for wants — and budget.

During the hour-and-a-half appointments offered, brides have the entire store for themselves and can bring up to six guests along as they search for the “perfect” wedding gown.

Treasure at a cost

Moore said she first had the idea to enter the wedding industry in 2018 after she got married.

“I got engaged in 2017, and I started to plan my own wedding,” she said. “Throughout that process, I learned that there was a huge gap, or a huge need, for affordable bridal gowns.”

She visited four shops while searching for her own wedding gown and ultimately found one at $600, but it needed additional alternatives that brought the total amount to more than $1500. Her original budget was $800.

“A lot of brides have to resort to consignment or compromise what they really want, but I think that you can get a beautiful dress, one with lace. all the details, the train and still be within your budget,” she said.

Moore carries dresses from British Bridal and Premium Bridal, among others, who she says are respected dress designers but are not as expensive as some of the other well-known brands. She said she wants brides to consider dresses from lesser-known brands because they often have equal, or even sometimes superior, quality.

The majority of Treasured Brides’s dresses range from $600 to $1,000, but according to a study by wedding company Zola, the average wedding dress cost was between $1,500 and $2,500 in 2023.

“Your perfect dress may not be from a [well-known designer]but still a [talented] designer and you’ll still feel as beautiful as a model on your wedding day.”

The store also offers veils up to six feet long, all priced under $100, as well as hair accessories and jewelry up to $50.

Beginning the brand

“I thought that I was just going to start and open up shop and hit the ground running selling dresses..but that didn’t happen,” she said of her original plans.

She initially wanted to open a physical space when she launched the business but had never owned a business before, and said she quickly learned the idea wasn’t realistic.

“So I started selling accessories.”

Moore said she became a verified reseller for certain designers by offering veils, capes and other accessories through her shop on Etsy in 2019.

And over the next three years, Moore said sales were going “really well.”

In 2023, she opened her first physical space, a six-by-ten-foot retail block inside Painted Tree, a collection of mini-shops and boutiques in Gastonia, NC There, she said, she became more confident in the brand and its potential for success.

“I told myself: Kaela, you got something. People want this, they like it,” Moore said. “And they like it because it’s reasonable and affordable, and the quality is amazing.”

From there, she worked on securing her own permanent space and was able to sign a lease at Treasured Bride’s new location in December 2023.

Moore said he chose the location based on its convenience to major interstates in Charlotte.

“It’s easy access to I-77, I-85 and 485, so it’s easy for people to get to in Charlotte or from Gastonia, Rock Hill and other nearby places.”

Inclusion begins on the rack

Treasured Brides carries dresses in-store from sizes four through 26. Many stores, she said, are beginning to sell expanded sizes, but few of them have the size inside the store.

Moore knows this firsthand. During one stop to find her own dress, she said she left the store in tears because they didn’t have her size.

“I felt like the shop didn’t have empathy for me because I wasn’t sample size,” Moore told QCity Metro. She said she felt embarrassed and excluded from what should have been a positive experience.

“It took away being excited about trying on wedding gowns, and no one should have to experience that. That’s why we don’t only sell through size 26, we have them in the store, on the rack.”

Treasured Brides also has an ‘off the rack’ policy, meaning guests are able to take their dress home the same day.

“When you find the dress that fits you, you take it home that day. You don’t have to wait six to seven months for it to be ordered and come in.”

Dress wait times can be anywhere from four months to nearly a year, she said.

Although she’s willing to order dresses at request, she said she’s hopeful that her in-store inventory is inclusive and varied enough to make her guests happy.

Moore said she decides her inventory based on what is currently trending by following bridal magazines and publications that help her stay in-the-know about what current brides want.

She also previews designer catalogs and stays alert to what’s coming. One trend she predicts for warmer weather is “whimsical” dresses that she describes as “light and flowy,” with some lace and some glitter.

When asked what she’s most excited about, Moore said, “I’m excited about seeing the brides and knowing I’m helping them stay within their budget, but also helping them feel as beautiful as possible on their special day.”