La Belle Mariée, a family-owned boutique in Langhorne, is celebrating 5 years of brides saying “yes to the dress” in their Parisian-inspired bridal salon.
At La Belle Mariée, brides can shop amongst designers like Pronovias, Hayley Paige, Maggie Sottero, and Muse by Berta. The salon carries a large selection of stunning designer dresses that are difficult to find outside of larger cities like Philadelphia or New York. But owners Michele Frederico and Gabrielle Devine claim that it’s important to them to offer a wide range of styles, options and price points, including more budget-conscious options in addition to higher end designs. Each bride is unique, and La Belle Mariée is dedicated to providing a stress-free, luxurious experience for every customer.
What started out as a dream between mother and daughter Michele Frederico and Gabrielle Devine has evolved into an incredibly successful boutique offering high couture style with the charm and personalized attention of a local business. Over the past 5 years, the LBM team has evolved with marriages and babies of their own, and after just 1 year in business, they even had to expand their space – doubling in size! But one thing has remained the same. Every bride receives exceptional service.
Every customer is made to feel special – from that first meeting between the bride and the La Belle Mariée consultant, to a champagne toast and photos when the bride picks her gown, to all of the little details that happen before she walks down the aisle.
“We are there to assist her with everything, from accessories to gown fittings, with our goal being to provide her with the dress of her dreams! We truly treat every single one of our brides as if they are family!” ~ Co-Owner, Michele Frederico
Behind the Scenes with La Belle Mariée Bridal
We chatted with Gabrielle Devine about how La Belle Mariée began, some of their secrets to success, and the future of the salon:
Tell us a little about how you got started. Is this something you always knew you wanted to do? What was the most exciting part of getting started, and what was the scariest?
My mom and I always dreamt of owning a business together. It's something we would talk about as our pipe dream. I ended up going to college for business in the hopes that one day our dream would come true. As my career path was evolving my mom was devising her plan. She came to me out of the blue with her master plan to open a bridal boutique. Without hesitation I said I was in and joined forces to create La Belle Mariée! Every moment, every step, every decision was so exciting in the beginning! Luckily we had a brilliant bridal mentor to guide us but mistakes were definitely made in our first year and it was scary. However we did everything and anything to resolve any mistakes that were made and people could tell how genuine we were and how much we truly cared. We always turned a wrong into a right.
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You’ve established yourself as a premier bridal destination in Bucks County. To what do you most attribute your success?
I believe we have success because our bride's can see and feel that our hearts are in this 110%! We care SO much! We care about our brides! We care about what they want and how they feel in the most honest and genuine way. I think people can sense that. Another huge part of our success is our team here at LBM. Our consultants are extensions of my mom and I. They care just as much and work just as hard as we do to give our brides an outstanding experience well beyond the “yes to the dress” moment.
“We go above and beyond to make girls happy, from when they say yes 'til they walk down that aisle.”
~ Gabrielle Devine
What’s your favorite part of what you do?
I have so many favorite parts of what I do!!! I always say this job is like getting to play dress up with your friends every day! I love working with brides and hearing their unique love stories and learning about their weddings! Every person is different so I never hear the same thing twice. Every day and every bride are so interesting! I also love building this business! I love collaborating with my team and with other people in the industry to come up with fun new ideas to expand on what we do! And finally, I love working with my mom. This time in our life is so special to me. We are living our dream! We started LBM from nothing and have worked so hard to get here. There have been ups and downs and honestly the ups mean more because I get to celebrate them with her and the downs are easier to get through because I have her by my side.
“It's just been the best thing we ever did. It's just been such a great accomplishment. It's been a whirlwind, but so much fun, so exciting. So it's really been great and heartwarming with all the wonderful people that we've met.”
At this point, you’ve sort of found your niche with the designers that you work with. What helped you get to this point? Is it attending bridal market, talking to Brides, doing research of your own … how did you get that “magic sauce” you mention?
To curate the collection of gowns we have today has taken years! We take into consideration so many factors and one of the most important is what our brides are asking for in terms of designer or style. We research the latest trends and try to predict the upcoming trends. Then we go to market and see the designers and their collections in person! That's when we decide which looks we are bringing into the boutique!
What has changed the most over the past 5 years? (Either about the bridal business in general, your shop, or Bride’s shopping habits.)
Year after year social media's presence in retail continues to grow. It's effect on the bridal industry is becoming more and more significant. Brides are preshopping on Instagram and Pinterest for their dream gown. This definitely has pros and cons. It is beneficial to our brides to get some idea of what they are looking for and it's helpful when they show us these pictures so we can guide them to styles they would like! On the flip side – social media can put too much pressure on brides to find the most Pinterest-worthy gown instead of the gown that makes them look and feel great! As a business we have found that social media has helped us reach and connect to more brides than ever before. It has become one of our main sources of advertising! As it evolves, so do we and that has been a fun challenge!
5 years is a great achievement. Can you give us any insight as to what you have planned for the next 5 years?
We have a lot of exciting things planned for the next 5! One of them is a bridal app I'm creating! It's called Gownzie and it will be a more interactive way to search for your dream wedding gown! I will be sharing and posting about it in the next few months as we finalize all the details! A goal I have for the next 5 years is to create our own bridal line here at LBM! I have so many ideas and concepts in my head and now I just need to bring them to life!
“La Belle Mariée is turning 5 this year. And with turning 5, we're hitting the ground running. Coming up with new ideas, coming up with new designers, and making changes for refreshing old things. And we're coming at it with a brand new light in our eyes.”
La Belle Mariée Bridal is located at
14 Summit Square Shopping Center in Langhorne.
To request an appointment, call 215-860-6300 or
complete the online form.
La Belle Mariée Bridal is our 2019 Happening List Winner for Best Bridal Boutique.
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