A&Bé bridal shop may be the new kid in Loring Park, but co-owners Anna Walsh and Breanna Doll have plenty of experience bustling a gown and selecting the perfect handmade veil. The duo opened the upscale bridal salon Anna Bé in Denver in 2007 before launching the first outpost of the more contemporary A&Bé last year, also in Colorado. The latter features up-and-coming designers such as Anna Campbell and Hayley Paige, with price points all under $5,000.
“We saw the market changing,” says Doll. “There’s a new kind of bride—she’s shopping online, she’s looking on Etsy, she’s a little more contemporary—but she wants to be able to feel her dress and try it on.”
When it came time to open up shop at a second location, Minneapolis was a natural fit. “It was actually a lot of our designers who suggested Minneapolis for our next location,” says Walsh. “Girls were calling them from Minnesota, and the closest they could go to get their dresses was Chicago.” The opening of the Loring Park store brings 10 new dress designers to Minnesota for the first time, typifying Walsh and Doll’s mission to promote up-and-comers.
Loring Park’s charm is in keeping with the idyllic nature of A&Bé—it shares a brick-and-cobblestone back alley, one of the city’s most enchanting spots, with Café Lurcat and the Third Bird. And the shop’s blank-canvas interior has been transformed into a huge hardwood space with rows of taffeta, tulle, and lacy white dresses hanging from copper pipes and a glimmering gold feature wall with the words “So In Love” painted in loopy silver letters—appropriate for wares that promise a fairy-tale romance come true.
1607 Hennepin Ave., Mpls. • 612-238-1300 • aandbebridalshop.com
