Pumpkin Show Park is 121 North Court Street. Uniquely Yours is 122, directly across the way. For four days every October the Circleville Pumpkin Show takes over these blocks — the opening ceremony happens at the park, the giant pumpkin weigh-in at Court and Main, and every parade follows the same route east onto Court and then south to Main. Downtown streets close days ahead of the first parade so tents and rides can go up. This shop sells prom dresses with all of that happening on the sidewalk outside.
That geography is not incidental to the business. The Pumpkin Show crowns Little Miss Pumpkin Show and Miss Pumpkin Show, and the store’s own account of its history begins with those pageants and with Daddy-Daughter dances before it gets to homecoming, prom and weddings. Pageant work here is not a sideline bolted onto a prom store: alongside gowns, Uniquely Yours stocks little girls’ and baby special-occasion outfits and places pageant special orders, with the caveat that a special order has to go in early enough to actually arrive before the event.
How the prom side works
The shop buys thin on purpose. It carries one or two of each prom and homecoming style, and when there are multiples it registers the dress to the buyer’s school — a practice it describes as done whenever possible rather than guaranteed. For a county where four public high schools sit within a short drive of each other and students know each other from ballgames, that register is the whole point of shopping here instead of ordering online.
- Sizes 000 through 32 in prom and homecoming, with availability varying by style and designer.
- Walk-ins for prom, homecoming, pageant and formalwear during regular hours. Bridal is appointment-only, by phone.
- A 24-hour hold on a dress costs $25. Layaway is available.
- Tuxedo rentals for prom and homecoming, typically arriving the week of the event, with a fitting once they land and a return the Sunday or Monday after.
- Shoes, jewelry and accessories in-house; a small mother-of-the-bride selection; bridesmaids ordered by book rather than stocked.
Verified label authorizations are Jovani, Alyce Paris, Amarra, Faviana, Jessica Angel, Tiffany Designs and Dave & Johnny — a mix that covers the fitted, heavily beaded end of prom and the shorter homecoming and cocktail range in the same room.
Who drives in
Circleville is the Pickaway County seat, a town of about 14,000 on US 23 roughly 25 miles south of Columbus. The county’s prom traffic comes from Circleville’s Tigers, the Logan Elm Braves, the Teays Valley Vikings and the Westfall Mustangs, all within the same rural-suburban block of south-central Ohio. The store says it also sees customers from West Virginia and Kentucky, which tracks with a downtown shop on a US highway rather than a mall storefront.
Practical notes: the store publishes two schedules, a longer one that includes Sunday afternoons and a Wednesday open until 8 p.m., and a shorter one closing at 4 p.m. with Sundays dark. Call before driving in to find out which is in effect. And if the trip lands in mid-October, expect the streets around the store to be closed to cars, with parking pushed to the edges of downtown.
Uniquely Yours describes itself as family-run and dates its presence in Circleville to 2002, having moved once within downtown since. The current owner is listed as Pam Kerns.