Bella's Bridal & Formal

The About page dates Bella's to 2007, when Carol Riney founded it in Hoover. The Hoover Sun told a longer version in 2017. In that account the business began in Homewood in 2004 as Estilo Latino, Spanish for "Latin style," selling mostly quinceañera gowns. It moved to Pelham and took the name Bella's, which, Riney told the paper, means beautiful in both Spanish and Italian. Customers started asking for wedding gowns and prom dresses, and in 2010 the stores moved to the Patton Creek Shopping Center.

Patton Creek is where prom got big. In 2014 the Hoover Sun reported an expansion there that added a pageant room with a runway, more dressing rooms and space for more than 1,000 prom gowns. For a while Bella's ran two storefronts in that center, one for bridal and one for prom and pageant. As the paper put it in early 2017, Riney had to master the art of being in two places at once.

That spring the two shops merged into one space about a mile away, in the Riverchase Village center that Whole Foods anchors. A December 2016 Hoover Sun profile said the new store would top 12,000 square feet, with a runway and stage and room for pageant training. "We were out of room," Riney said. The prom and pageant department got its own runway in the move. In March 2026 a second Bella's opened in Opelika. Riney now shares ownership with her niece Meghan, and the business remains family owned.

This is the part of Bella's every Hoover prom shopper can use. The alterations team works out of the Hoover store, and the page is direct about whose dresses it takes.

The same page says the shop alters both wedding and prom dresses. The first fitting takes about an hour. Bring the shoes and undergarments planned for the event so the hem can be set, and the seamstress will pin the gown and talk through the work. Cost depends on the job, so the quote comes at that first fitting. A second fitting usually follows two to three weeks later, the average dress takes three fittings, and you pay in full at pickup.

The schedule on the page is written for brides, who are told to book the first fitting six to eight weeks before the wedding because appointments fill quickly. The page gives no separate prom timeline, so ask about lead time when you book. The team also handles advanced custom work such as neckline redesigns, custom sleeves and structural changes, which helps when a gown needs more than a hem.