AO shopper: Ashley Jo Green, wedding stylist and owner of To Have and To Hold
Here at Amber Ostrich Estate Sales, we have many shoppers who are business owners and come to our estate sales to buy for their businesses.
This shopper profile is the first in an installation of a new blog series about our shoppers who are also business owners.
To Have & To Hold: Wedding Stylist who buys antiques and vintage items
Even though she is not married, Ashley Jo Green’s creative space feels like the idyllic married haven upon walking in, you are greeted by lace, milk glass, silver and romantic charm.
Ashley Jo Green, a wedding stylist, and owner of To Have and Hold, in Buda, is one of our shoppers and first came to us looking for milk glass.
Her business is unusual in that she sells a look, a certain feel, for brides who wish to revisit a simpler time. Her term for this look is “whimsical” and “timeless.”
Upon entering her showroom, one gets the feeling that you’ve entered a simpler time. Lace hangs along old doors, collected and used to separate her work room from her sitting room. Old books, black and white photos, tin bird cages, and vintage suitcases are her stacked decor. Mirrors with fading paint give the room a country charm.
These things, and more, are all for rent to brides who are looking to give their weddings an old-fashioned appeal. Green says they usually don’t want to buy these things, so she rents them out.
How She Got Here
Green studied fashion at Baylor and at the time, fell in love with a blue, antique door owned by her roommate.
“I’d always see that darn, blue door. That got me hooked. Now, I can’t get enough,” she said.
The door was eventually given to her and it became her muse. After college, she opened a bridal boutique using this type of decor. Customers continuously asked if they could use her things at their weddings. At the time, she was making bridal dresses, but realized that this could also become a part of her business and also feed her desire to seek out new, old things.
“I love this; I love old things,” Green said.
She was inspired also by her mother, who died from breast cancer when Green was just 14. Her mother’s spirit inspires her to stay creative, she said. “Mom was always very creative. She could make something out of nothing.”
And so it seems, so can Ashley Jo Green.
Not only does she make bridal dresses and style weddings, but she has also started doing wedding photography for her clients, a passion added to her business.
Happily ever after.
When asked what she will do if this type of wedding becomes less popular she said that while she doesn’t think it will, given that Texans have long loved the romantic feeling of the old days, she is always open to exploring new avenues.
“I’m always doing something new,” she said. “I think you have to mold and shape your business with the way things are changing.”
If you are a small business owner and also an Amber Ostrich shopper, and you’d like to be profiled on our blog, please contact Deb Larsen, deb@amberostrich.com
