Tamzen’s Bridal is your premier, specialty bridal boutique in the heart of downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, featuring wedding dresses and bridal wear for bridesmaids, flower girls and ring bearers, tuxedos, special occasion dresses, veils, accessories and gifts.
At Tamzen’s Bridal, you’ll get the attention to detail and personalized care that you won’t find at other stores. You’re consultant will take the time to learn about your special day and help you complete the vision you’ve been dreaming of for years. Our clients are our top priority, using our experiences throughout our wedding planning process to make sure that this part of your wedding story is a positive and happy one. Our goal is to provide you with choices and designers that you can’t find nearby so you’ll feel special, like a celebrity or royalty!
From the moment you walk through the doors at Tamzen’s Bridal, you’ll get that warm and cozy feeling to set your mind at ease and to be able to enjoy your wedding shopping experience. We will do everything we can to help you find the perfect dress, the perfect tux and the perfect accessories for your most perfect day!
Meet Tamzen and Robert!
Tamzen Butler and Robert Sonntag decided to open a bridal store when they began planning their own wedding. Tamzen wasn’t enjoying wedding dress shopping as much as she had hoped; having both positive and negative experiences with both customer service and options.
She was a teacher for 29 years at the time and had always said that if she wasn’t a teacher, she’d open up a wedding dress shop. Her passion for fashion and the wedding industry grew as she began researching her own bridal gown possibilities. Her fiancé Robert (Doc) had been in Hospital Administration and started a Medical Consulting Firm. His experience with building medical facilities and finding funding spurred the idea that he and Tamzen should actually follow their dreams and open up a Bridal Shop, marrying his business background and her lifelong goal.
So with the support of the 5 children and 2 grandchildren they have combined, they took a leap of faith and started the process of starting a Bridal Store. They chose Carlisle because of the need of a bridal store in the area as well as Tamzen’s relation to the historic Fighting Butlers.
Together they plan to use their experience of wedding shopping all over the world (their wedding is in Austria!) and bring it to the Carlisle, Central Pennsylvania community. They hope their loving spirit and pure enjoyment in what they do shines through to every person they meet along the way!
Where did the name come from?
Tamzen is a descendent of the Fighting Butlers of Carlisle. In 1748 Thomas Butler, a gunsmith, with his wife Eleanor and three small sons left his newly established gun shop in Dublin, Ireland, for Pennsylvania. They settled in Lancaster, had 2 daughters, later moving to the frontier town of Carlisle where they had two more sons and a daughter. Thomas, assisted by his two eldest sons, manufactured Pennsylvania long rifles for the French and Indian War. His gun shop still stands in Carlisle. The five sons of Thomas and Eleanor Butler became known during the Revolutionary War as “The Fighting Butlers” for their great bravery in battle. A historical marker honoring the Butlers is in downtown Carlisle.
