Mara runs two doors on the same downtown block. Wedding gowns and tuxedos are at 103 N. Main Street. Prom, homecoming and pageant dresses are at 101 N. Main, in the space Mara shares with Cardigan, the women’s clothing boutique the same owner opened in February 2021. Anyone working from an older listing should know that 500 Kelly St. is no longer the address: Mara spent roughly six years in a converted 1880s house on Kelly Street after opening in November 2017, then moved downtown in early February 2024 into a building that had been the Prichard Law Office. Owner Tiffany Rottinghaus told KIMT the move took the business from about 1,400 square feet to nearly 5,000.
How the two sides work differently
The split changes how you plan the drive. Bridal at 103 runs on appointments, in three private suites — two of them on the second floor of a two-story building, which is worth a phone call ahead if stairs are a problem. The prom side at 101 is browse-in; the store says no appointment is needed to look. The two storefronts also keep separate hours, with the prom side closed Sundays and Mondays and open Saturday morning into the early afternoon. One number, (641) 228-3301, reaches both.
Labels you can try on here
These five brands list Mara on their own official retailer locators:
- Jovani
- Terani
- La Femme
- Alyce Paris
- Dave & Johnny
That is national prom inventory in a town of about 7,400 people, which is the practical argument for shopping here instead of ordering a gown you have never had on. Mara also describes itself as a bridal and tuxedo boutique and lists menswear, so a couple can handle both halves of prom on one trip downtown.
Prom season in Charles City
Charles City High School — the Comets, and the only high school in the district — held prom on Saturday, May 3 in 2025, and in 2026 the dance fell on April 18, with coronation in the Comet Gym at the middle school. That puts the local calendar in the mid-April to early-May window, so the racks at 101 N. Main get picked over through February and March. Dresses from Mara also turn up at proms in the smaller districts around Floyd County, which is part of why the Charles City Press has written about the shop as a destination business rather than a neighborhood one.
The trip itself is a downtown trip, not a mall trip. Mara sits in the middle of a working Main Street in the county seat, a few blocks from the Cedar River and the riverfront whitewater course the city built — the first of its kind in Iowa. Other independent shops share the same stretch of North Main, so a fitting can be the anchor of an afternoon rather than the whole reason to come.