In Lynchburg, brides can buy discounted gowns that help fund services for domestic violence victims  

Walking past racks of white tulle, satin and lace at Church Street Bridal, Linda Ellis-Williams sees more than wedding gowns. 

“To most people, it’s a dress. To brides, it’s a symbol of the most important day of their life. To victims, it’s help — to free themselves from domestic violence and be able to continue their life,” said Ellis-Williams, director of victim services for the YWCA of Central Virginia.

The nonprofit runs Church Street Bridal as its main fundraiser, directing revenue from dress sales to its domestic violence support and prevention programs. 

“The biggest statement I can say of all is that those dresses, when they sell, they keep our doors open to the YWCA,” she said.

She knows the importance of an open door. In 1992, she fled to the YWCA with her three children — ages 6 months, 18 months, and 4 years old at the time — to escape her abusive husband. 

“That violence would have continued had these doors not been open,” said Ellis-Williams, who started volunteering for the YWCA shortly after, and now has more than 30 years of experience in providing support and resources to families in need. “My life has never been the same. And I’m one story, but that same story has worked for thousands and thousands of families right here in Central Virginia.”

The YWCA of Central Virginia operates out of Lynchburg and serves the city along with seven nearby counties, covering an area of 4,400 square miles and 400,000 residents. It’s been a local branch of the YWCA, a national advocacy and service organization, since 1912 and helps women and families with resources such as domestic violence shelters, an affordable housing program, court advocacy services and a 24/7 sexual assault hotline. 

Church Street Bridal has been spreading the message about those services, while selling dresses to fund them, for the past 20 years. Its role feels more important now than ever, Ellis-Williams said, as needs for services at the YWCA increase while government funding decreases.  

The goals beyond the gowns 

Church Street Bridal accomplishes three goals at once, said Jessica Boardman, the shop’s manager.

For one, it makes dress shopping financially accessible for the Lynchburg community, she said. 

The average wedding dress today costs $2,100, up from $1,900 in 2022 and $1,600 in 2018, according to annual surveys conducted by The Knot, a wedding planning platform.

“So a lot of brides think that because they have a small budget, they can’t have a good time shopping for a dress or can’t have a quality dress at all,” she said. 

The average customer spends about $600 or $700 for a wedding dress at Church Street Bridal, with some options as affordable as $300, Boardman said. 

The shop receives all of its dresses at no cost, as donations come from bridal salons across the country. Those salons have sample dresses on showroom floors that brides try on before placing their orders, but the sample dresses themselves are never sold. At the end of a season, salons have no more use for the sample dresses — and can be convinced to donate them if it means they get a tax write-off, Boardman said.

The dresses that Church Street Bridal sells have never been worn in weddings, only tried on in fitting rooms and put right back on the rack, Boardman said. That means dresses are as good as new, and her team of stylists gives brides a full consultation and styling experience like traditional salons offer.  

Everyone “deserves to feel loved and seen and beautiful” as they prepare for their wedding, Boardman said, whether they spend $600 or $6,000 on a dress.  

A second goal of the shop, Boardman said, is to spread the word about the YWCA’s mission. 

All appointments at Church Street Bridal start the same way, she said. She invites the bride-to-be to get comfortable on the shop’s rose-colored velvet loveseats and share her story: her excitement, her nerves, her hopes for the big day, and of course, her ideas for the style of her gown. Boardman likes to sit cross-legged on the floor in front of the bride to listen — it’s a small action that lets everyone know they can be themselves in the safe space of the shop, she said. 

Then Boardman shares the story of Church Street Bridal: how every dollar that women spend there on wedding dresses and other formal dresses, accessories and jewelry goes directly to support women in need in the Lynchburg area.

That outreach makes a big difference in ensuring that people from all corners of the Lynchburg community are aware of what resources are available to those experiencing abuse, said Nancy Hubbard, CEO of the YWCA of Central Virginia. It’s work that never ends, she said, as about a third of women will experience domestic violence in their lifetime.

“You look at the statistic, one in three people, and then you look at who’s in the dress shop: a mother of a bride, a sister, a cousin, a friend. Almost everybody knows someone who has experienced domestic violence, or they may be experiencing it themselves,” she said.

The third and most prominent goal is to raise money for the YWCA, Boardman said. 

“Some of our social occasion dresses are $60, and that doesn’t sound like a lot, but that’s bus passes for one of our residents to be able to get back and forth to her new job. It’s food or new blankets for our safe houses,” Boardman said. “It may sound like a few bucks to you, but to our residents, it’s everything. It makes a world of difference for somebody who’s been through the wringer and finally has the courage to take the next step.”

Need grows for services, and grants aren’t keeping up 

Since Church Street Bridal opened in 2004, it has generated more than $4 million in sales and funded crucial services as the need for them remains strong, Hubbard said.

Family and intimate partner violence accounts for about a third of all homicides in Virginia each year, according to the state health department. In the city of Lynchburg alone, six women have died due to domestic violence in the past two years, Hubbard told the Lynchburg City Council in October. 

And the state Department of Social Services reported 41 child deaths in Virginia due to physical abuse and neglect in its most recent annual report on child maltreatment. 

“That’s what motivates us. And I hate to say that, but when we see people dying, we have to do more. We just know we have to do more,” Ellis-Williams said. 

Over her more than 30 years in the field, she said she’s seen abuse start younger — as early as middle and high school relationships. She’s seen technology expand the reach of abuse, especially when it comes to stalkers using location tracking. And most recently, she’s seen the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, when families were trapped at home with abusers for extended periods of time. 

Meanwhile, government funding has been reduced since 2020, Hubbard said. Public financial documents show that the nonprofit received close to $1.3 million in government grants then, compared to about $960,000 in the 2025 fiscal year. Like other nonprofits, Hubbard said, the YWCA of Central Virginia faces increased competition for the limited funding that’s still available from government and private pools. 

Before the pandemic, the nonprofit could afford to have five case managers for victims seeking services, Hubbard said. 

“We now have two, and that’s the kind of thing that makes a difference. We’ve just seen our funding slowly cut, cut, cut,” she said.

Having steady revenue from the bridal shop is key to maintaining service levels, she said, but it can still be difficult for the nonprofit to fund budget items like building maintenance. 

That’s where donors come in, Hubbard said. This fall, the YWCA plans to launch a campaign where members of the community can claim each of the 157 windows on the Church Street headquarters building and pay for them to be repainted. 

But brides are the most important donors of all, Hubbard said.

“By letting us participate in the happiest day of their life, they are helping women who are not going through the happiest day of their lives,” she said. “Buying a dress is saying, ‘I am happy. I am in a safe place. But there are women out there who are not, and I can honor them in a small way by including them on my happy day.’”