Wedding Gallery Continues to Expand With Frenchtown Location

Nagwa Abdelghfour vividly remembers relocating her 2,000-square foot bridal salon from a shopping center near Friedens Road and Highway 94 to a spot at 5th and Clark streets. The space was certainly impressive. The new digs were three times as large as the old.

“We said, ‘Oh, this is big,’” she recalled. “We’re not going to need more.”

She was right – for about a year and a half. Today, the Wedding Gallery still has that 6,000 square feet – plus 10,000 more at a facility a few blocks away in Frenchtown.

Square footage issues don’t tend to dominate most people’s retirement thoughts. Then again most people don’t spend their retirement founding an enterprise that’s grown to gross more than a half-million dollars annually after just four years.

Yet, that’s what Abdelghfour has done. After years spent in high technology companies, she and her husband had decided to quit working but wanted to do something fun. Since her grand opening, business has increased by 30 percent to 40 percent every year.

She said those figures often shock others in the profession whom she meets at conferences. Others have been suffering the aftereffects of a brutal recession on the wedding industry.

Of course, they are not the only ones to be amazed by the performance of a business that was originally opened more as a hobby than a moneymaker.

“It has surprised me,” said Abdelghfour, who employs a staff of 13. “They said the economy is bad. I said if we are doing this well when the economy is bad I don’t know what’s going to happen when the economy gets better.”

The latest expansion is the new site on North Second Street. Set up in the old Preston’s department store, it opened in October to house the business’s selection of bridesmaid, prom and mother of the bride dresses.

Most wedding gowns, along with tuxedo rental, remain at the building on Clark, although high-end couture bridal specimens - those costing thousands of dollars - are upstairs at the new location.

Billing itself as the state’s largest full-service bridal salon, Wedding Gallery offers some 2,000 styles of bridesmaids’ attire and about 1,000 different wedding dresses by 30 designers across the nation and the world. Abdelghfour said that in most instances she has exclusive agreements with suppliers ensuring her shop is the only outlet in Missouri to carry a given line.

“When people come here I want them to know they can find something really unique and no one else will have it,” she said.

Originally a native of Egypt, Abdelghfour spent a number of years in California before coming to St. Charles in 2004. Though sad to leave the balmy climate of the Sunshine State, she said she found a new kind of warmth in St. Charles, a town she quickly grew to love.

“I don’t think if I opened this business in California, I would like it because people here are really nice,” she said. “Our best friends are now from St. Charles.”

In some ways, the close-knit Midwestern friendliness that Abdelghfour discovered here is integral to the business plan. She credits good customer service and word of mouth for Wedding Gallery’s success.

“You start with one bride and you end up with her sister, her cousin, her best friend,” said Abdelghfour, who notes that she often gets customers from as far away as Columbia and Springfield. “About 50 percent of our business comes from referrals.”

Plus, she’s made many new acquaintances by keeping in touch with some of her customers after the ceremony is over.

“In the end you become friends. They bring their babies to us, they bring pictures, flowers,” she said.

In some ways, Abdelghfour may have met her business goals but her larger aim is to help the community as well. Last year, Wedding Gallery became a part of Brides Across America donating 100 dresses to help brides of those deployed in war zones or women who are deployed themselves.

The future seems to promise more of the same. She already jokes that her staff tells her they need more room so it’s time to buy another building.

“I’ve tried to make this the bridal center for Missouri,” Abdelghfour said. “Almost every state has one big bridal store that everyone comes to. I want it to be here in St. Charles.”

Wedding Gallery is at 425 Clark Street and 801 N. Second Street. Hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday and Wednesday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday-Friday. Appointments are requested for weekend hours which run 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. The shop is closed on Tuesdays.