about gilded social

Owner & Expert Stylist Hi, I’m Tanya Hartman

Since 2018, I have helped hundreds of Brides wear their dream dress, Grooms look their absolute best, Couples enjoy a stress-free wedding fashion experience, and Travelers plan trips of a lifetime.

Gilded Social Owner

 

Gilded Social: The Fancy Occasion Shop was “reborn” on January 1, 2018. When I purchased the business, it specialized in styling only bridesmaids at the time. I moved the shop to Gay Street in the heart of downtown Columbus, Ohio, and added mother of the bride, flower girl, rehearsal dinner, and more fancy occasion dresses to our racks.

In 2021, I established Gilded Social: The Bridal Shop and new right away I wanted to host Brides outside the hustle and bustle of the city. The collection lived in a pop up at the Buxton Inn in Granville before I found our current home on Elm Street, just a couple of blocks away in Granville's historic district.

To enhance our bridal offerings, I partnered with Mary Ellen Metzger to offer in house alterations and founded my Wedding Day Dressing & Styling service to ensure that our bridal gowns were worn exactly as they were intended when Gilded Brides said YES!

It was a revolutionary approach to selling wedding dresses in Columbus. The most personal bridal experience in Ohio had arrived.

The success of The Bridal Shop and our garment care services, plus the evolving tradition of bridesmaids, led me to close The Fancy Occasion Shop in 2022. The services lived on and made a seamless transition to Gilded Social: Alterations & Wedding Dress Care Studio in Gahanna, which Mary Ellen and I opened together in 2023.

A growing sisterhood of Gilded Brides inspired me to start hosting biannual Gilded Parties for Brides to gather, connect, and make friends. We all know how hard it is to make new girlfriends after school! The energy of this community urged me to find new ways to keep making magic for my Gilded Brides, even after their wedding had passed.

A serendipitous invitation to a tuxedo trunk show in 2024 led me to immediately start offering custom menswear. After years of styling our beautiful Brides, we now were in command of both sides of the aisle. It also gave me a way to connect with a whole new realm of Gilded possibilities - Gilded Grooms & Gilded Guys.

At the same time, and building on my extensive personal travel experience, I became a travel advisor for FORA in 2024 to add vacation and honeymoon planning to our offerings for Gilded Couples.

From before YES to after I DO, I will create magic for your life's big moments, so that they aren't just big - they're instantly legendary. What magic can I create for you?

Fun Facts About Tanya

I achieved the title of J.Hilburn’s #1 new studio stylist in 2024 and was one of only 8 stylists nationwide to earn a trip Thailand & Hong Kong with J.Hilburn in 2025.

I am from Fulton, Maryland and was recruited to Ohio State to play field hockey. You just might catch me one day wearing one of my most prized possessions ~ my B1G Championship ring from 2001.

I have visited 52 countries on 6 continents and, no doubt, have given the travel bug to my husband, Richie, too.

I am a proud member of Kappa Kappa Gamma and served in a number of volunteer roles as an alumna, including chairing the $5 million renovation and expansion of my chapter house.

I was never a dog person until we got our sweet buddy, Chewy. Now, I can't imagine living life without him and swoon every time I see a dog out and about. They really are man's best friend.

I reached the advisor level of FORA PRO, which only 5-7% of advisors reach, within one year of joining FORA.

Richie and I lived in German Village for eight years, then moved to New Albany in 2020. I’m a little more obsessed with all this space than I’d like to admit.

As an Ohio State Senior, I was on Homecoming Court and was awarded Outstanding Senior and Panhellenic Woman of the Year, but certainly my most humbling honor is a room named after me in the Ohio Union.

I owned a fundraising consulting firm named Raising Green Productions from 2010 to 2015 before joining the Ohio Treasurer’s office in 2015. Then, Gilded Social was born in 2018!

I come from a long line of small business owners - at least 4 generations. Working for the man just does not run through these veins. Proud to say I learned how to make it on my own from the very best!

Decades of Inspiration

I've been in love with weddings since I first picked up a wedding magazine in high school. I have a couple 5-inch binders full of magazine clippings dating back to 1997 to prove it. I dreamt of one day planning a wedding worthy of being published in a famous wedding magazine, just like the ones I read about.

When the time came, my decades of research paid off. Richie and I put together a weekend in Jackson Hole for our crew that totally lived up to all the hype - and was published in BRIDES soon thereafter. That gave me all the proof I needed that being a wedding pro was what I should have been doing all along.

Drawing upon my previous career in sales, and with a lot of determination and a little bit of fate, dreams became reality! The opportunity to purchase a collection of bridesmaids dresses came quickly thereafter, and I just knew that this was my chance to do something I really, truly love. The rest, as they say, is history.

Bride with Bouquet
Gilded Social Real Bride Image
Gilded Social Real Bride Image
Groom Suit

I’m pretty humbled, thrilled, and downright ecstatic to have our wedding featured on these fabulous blogs…

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Expert Seamstress & Dressmaker
Expert Seamstress & Dressmaker Hi! I’m Mary Ellen Metzger

The first garment I made was a sexy velvet vest for a folk singer friend who sang in coffee houses. A friend of the singer liked the vest so much, she asked me to make her wedding gown! The bride was so over the moon with how it turned out, she encouraged me to leave my job as a legal secretary to make wedding gowns full time! She even purchased an ad in Columbus Bride Magazine on my behalf to help me get started.

After a move to Mansfield in 2005 to take care of family, I became the alterations manager for David's for 8 years. I eventually went back to sewing custom gowns in 2014 before moving back to Columbus in 2019 and restarting my alterations business.

In 2022, I rented space at Gilded Social to expand my business and by 2023, we had fully partnered to open the Gahanna studio and serve the BEST brides in Columbus!

Fun Facts About Mary Ellen

My dad was one of 13 siblings, and I have over 55 first cousins.

I have an English Literature degree from Ohio State, and I minored in Mandarin. I can actually still watch movies in Mandarin.

One of my favorite trips was traveling to Malaysia, even though I got dysentery while I was there!

I had both of my children at home with midwives.

I am a self taught seamstress, and I started at a very young age! My mother used to put blocks on the pedals to help me reach them.

I am really, really good at Euchre.

I do a New York Times crossword puzzle every day.

I learned to ice skate on my aunt's pond at just 4 years old. I still have my first pair of ice skates at home. They can fit nearly in the palm of my hand!

Expert Wedding Day Specialist
Expert Wedding Day Specialist Hi! I’m Emily Capano

I made a decision, part way through my freshman year of college, to jump into fashion sort of on a whim and wow, was that the right move. I consider myself lucky to have now been a bridal fashion professional since my first internship in 2012, either in a retail/styling or wholesale sales capacity.

Currently I am on the wholesale sales team for amsale, the wedding apparel (we cover everything) design house based in NYC. In this role I am given the opportunity to build relationships with our retail partners, and this was how my Gilded Social journey began!

Since being back in the midwest I have been able to jump in on the Wedding Day Dressing & Detailing Service Team. It's such a blast to be able to work with today's brides as well as the rest of the powerhouse Gilded Social team!

Fun Facts About Emily

My senior project/thesis/collection (at Purdue University) was designing, sewing, fitting and presenting 5 evening gowns + 4 cocktail dresses.

I have made two and a half wedding dresses for friends and family. The "Half" was my mom's wedding dress; I patterned it and my nana sewed it together.

A few years ago I adopted a kitten (my first real pet ever!) and named her Cincinnati…despite our living in Columbus.

I was in the background of a Say Yes to the Dress episode for about 0.5 seconds when I was an intern at Kleinfeld.

I am a midwest native but spent six years living in NYC after college. One of the many things I miss is the bagels, but the ones from 'The Lox' in Short North have become a great substitute.

My favorite place that I've traveled to so far is Galway, in Ireland. It's a bustling, quaint city with so much life and history and some of the best sweaters I've ever found.

Shop Dog of Gilded Social
Shop Dog of Gilded Social Hi! I’m Chewy

Don’t believe anything anyone else has told you. I’m the real owner of this shop. I suckered my Mom into buying Gilded Social because I was tired of being home by myself all day long when she was at her old job. Now, I’m free! I don’t have to stay home hardly EVER anymore. I go with her everywhere!

When I’m not working from home, you can find me napping in my bed, underneath some dresses (tulle is my favorite), or occasionally on the couch if I need a better view of what everyone is working on. I love welcoming all our friends who come to visit with a polite little bow and a tail wag. Don’t worry, I don’t do much more than that. I’m pretty chill.

I seem to always know when one of our brides has found the ONE. It wakes me right up from my nap. What can I say? I don't want to miss out on all the celebrating!

Fun Facts About Chewy

My favorite pastime is squirrel hunting around my neighborhood.

Milkbones are my favorite. I know where Mom keeps them in the house and at the shop. When I want one, I just go sit by them and magically someone gets me one.

When Mom and Dad travel, I get to sleep over at my Grammy’s house.

I love to play fetch with myself with my Darth Vader toy.

Babies are my jam, but Mom won’t get me one. She’s too busy running a shop or something. Lame.

I’m hypoallergenic, so Mom spends more on my hair cuts than her own.

I always can tell when mom has brought me into the shop on my day off.

I love being in front of a camera. Just tell me where to look! Mom really shoulda got me an agent.

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Our favorite Granville spots 

After you pop the YES confetti, visit some of Granville’s cutest shops and restaurants to make a whole event of your shopping trip. It’s just one reason we love it here - you can make the entire town part of your shopping experience!

WHERE TO SHOP
  • Green Velvet Granville

  • Just Write

  • Kussmaul Gallery

WHERE TO SIP & DINE
  • Station

  • Granville Inn

  • Village Wine Co.

  • Madelyn's of Granville

  • Seek-No-Further Cidery

  • Ray Ray's Hog Pit