the full origin story
Hey! I’m Christine, co-owner of Urban Set Bride, and this is the full version of the Urban Set Bride origin story.
I grew up as an Army brat, moving every two years all over the US and Europe with my parents, spending much of my childhood in Germany. We moved back to the U.S. in 2000, and I finished my last two years of high school in Stafford, Virginia before heading to VCU to study English, Women’s Studies, and Political Science.
After graduating in 2009, I planned to move to Brooklyn with my best friend, Hunter, and open a clothing boutique together. I’d been dating this guy, Colin, for most of my college career and we were going to take a break to figure out what post-college life looked like and hopefully circle back to each other.
But just days before leaving to go apartment hunting in New York, Colin felt numbness on his left side and went to the doctor. They found an inoperable brain tumor at 24 years old. I canceled my plans to relocate and stayed in Richmond to help him fight. Chemo and radiation were working well and the tumor shrank by 50 percent! He was handling everything with grace and humor and, while we knew cancer would always be part of his life, his outlook was solid and it seemed like he had a long life ahead of time. He was strong, young, active and his care team was very hopeful. And so were we.
In December 2010, he asked me to marry him and I said yes without hesitation. I started planning our wedding and fell in love with that process - it was the first hobby I’d found that worked well with both my type-A side and my creative side. A few months later, his personality started to change, he was forgetting things, always lethargic and just not acting like himself. Updated scans showed the tumor started to grow again and was no longer under control. Colin’s decline was rapid and, after an 18 month battle, we lost him in May 2011.
My friends and family rallied around to support and grieve with me. And at 26, I had to figure out who I was without him and what I'd be doing with my life.
A few weeks after his passing, I was working as a leasing consultant in an a downtown apartment building when I met a woman who needed an apartment immediately while her fiance was in a medically induced coma, awaiting a heart transplant at VCU. She was in the same fight or flight mode that I’d just been in, so we bonded immediately and I got to know her as the weeks passed and she sat in my office to steal our Wifi. Eventually, she worked up the nerve to ask me if I thought it would be cathartic to help her plan her wedding. It may be a nice distraction for both of us, she said. I agreed and we got to work! Her fiance got a new heart, made a full recovery and they got married the next Fall at Pippin Hill… the same place Colin and I were supposed to get married. Full circle healing and the beginning of a new chapter.
I found an amazing grief therapist, took time for myself and then started to date again. Being in your mid-twenties and basically a widow was NOT great, but I learned alot about myself and what I need in a future partner, through trial and many errors.
I continued wedding planning as a side hustle while saving up for something more. My clients and friends kept voicing the same frustration: Virginia lacked inclusive, intimate bridal shops that offered high-quality gowns, size diversity, and openly welcoming LGBTQ+ people. One day, it all clicked. I can do something about that. This is the clothing boutique I’m supposed to open.
Later that year, I was approached by a real estate developer who wanted to hire me to open up a newly renovated apartment building. Originally built in the 1920’s, Hotel John Marshall was a very chic Richmond hotel for decades, then fell into disrepair in the 80’s, finally closed and had sat vacant ever since. They wanted me to help oversee the renovations and start renting out the new apartments until they hit capacity. I told them I’d love the job, but once the building is full, I’m leaving to open up a bridal shop. They almost didn’t hire me because of it, but they did and I kept my word. I lived there for free and learned everything there is to know about running an apartment building with two ballrooms and commercial spaces and then started making plans to open my store.
In the middle of all of this, I met a really nice guy named Lenny on a dating app. He was patient, kind, funny, covered in tattoos (a Richmond requirement) and was incredibly patient with my waves of grief. He felt like the first person who truly saw me since Colin.
By November 2013, I put in my notice to wrap up my property management career and take the plunge into entrepreneurship. I asked my Mom to be my business partner and we found a cute little commercial space in the heart of the city to set up shop. After 5 months of DIY renovations, we opened Urban Set Bride in March 2014, a cozy, private boutique where every kind of bride feels welcome.
The wedding planning company (then called Wood Grain & Lace Events) was also morphing and growing. I met Ciera at a party at the John Marshall, told her my plans to open up a bridal shop and be a full-time wedding planner and she said “Cool. I’m coming with you when that happens.” And she did. She was the first of many planners to join our team and we rebranded in 2018 to the Hive Wedding Collective to better represent our long-term vibe. We are now a team of 5 full-time planners that produce 60+ mid to high end weddings a year in Virginia and DC.
After two years of dating, Lenny and I got married in October 2014 and welcomed our first child, Ellis, into the world in 2016. As covid ran rampant through the world and Virginia was a few days away from shutting down, we welcomed baby boy number 2, Jack, who arrived after a speedy 52 min labor on our bathroom floor. We closed the bridal shop for two months and hunkered down until we were told otherwise.
In the Fall of 2020, as things were masked but getting back to “normal,” a new business popped into my head. After fielding years of “Can I pick your brain?” requests from fellow entrepreneurs, I decided I needed to have the confidence to charge for my advice and experience, so I launched a consulting company. I now work with up to 20 clients annually, manage social media for several small businesses, and mentor two long-term clients.
In 2023, I retired from taking my own wedding planning clients so I can focus on running the businesses and supporting my team. I’d always want to be able to officiate weddings for some of our clients, so I became ordained as a civil celebrant that same year and perform 12-15 weddings annually.
Today, I live in Bon Air with Lenny, our two boys, and our rescue pup Frida Bonita. I love reading (especially fantasy,) spending time with my book club girlies, binging streaming shows for a brain break, a nice glass of wine, trying new restaurants, spending time with my friends and family and keeping my house plants alive.
