"Where Melanin and Marriage Unite"

Meet Whitney Stephenson, Owner of Mahogany Brown Bridal and Designer of Lee Jerome. Whitney was born and raised in Cincinnati, OH graduating from Hughes High School's Cincinnati Academy of Math and Science Pre-Engineering program. Whitney then moved from Ohio to Nashville, TN to attend The Tennessee State University, where she majored in Architectural Engineering with a minor in Business Administration. Going into her junior year of college Whitney decided to join the United State Navy to help pay for school. As a sailor, her rate of Aviation Boatswain's Mate Equipment (ABE) took her to San Diego, CA onboard the USS Ronald Reagan CVN-76 then cross-rated to Aviation Maintenance Administrationman (AZ). After four years of service Whitney continued her service to her country in the US Navy Reserves for another eight years.

Whitney started designing clothing for her son born in 2015 with a rare genetic condition Beckwith Wiedemann-Syndrome (BWS) which is an overgrowth syndrome that affects 1:11,000 newborns/infants. To find out more about BWS please visit https://www.beckwithwiedemann.org/ 

Her son due to medical conditions when born remained in the hospital for the first year of his life. With being in the hospital he had multiple wires and tubes that were attached to him. So, Whitney started altering clothing items to fit the wires and tubes for him. 

By 2017, Whitney had started a children's clothing line Imperfectly Perfect Children's Apparel (IMPKidz) and then to start Lee Jerome By Whitney Stephenson, men's and women's handmade items. One day Whitney was brought on the task of making a bridal gown for a store location. Originally the time frame was to take three months, but ended up going out to six months due to Whitney not being satisfied with how the gown was looking. She started the gown over three times before completing. During the process Whitney did communicate with the store location on what was going on and everything was fine. Once completed and Whitney reached out the store never replied or called back. 

Now, Whitney has a bridal gown and didn't know what to do with it. So, she sat down and brought the idea to her husband about moving into the bridal industry. Then said to him, "I think I want to open a bridal boutique that carries only minority designers, because we are under-represented." 

Her husband Timothy agreed and thought it was a great idea and concept. There are no other bridal stores that carry only minority designed bridal gowns. Whitney immediately started contacting designers to see if this was something they would be interested in. Surprisingly, Whitney received an email back from her first designer Yemi Osunkoya of Kosibah who then invited her to Bridal Fashion Week in NYC 2021. After the first response, Whitney college friend and designer Leah Langley-McClean of elleNelle Bridal responded with a yes. Both designers thought it was an amazing idea. Since then, she has added a total of eight more designers including herself.

Mahogany Brown Bridal is a boutique that is much needed in today's society. Being able to carry minority designers and circulate the US Dollar within the community is important. 

Mahogany Brown Bridal is excited to help Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation move one step closer to finding a cure for all children with cancer! Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome (BWS) which is an overgrowth syndrome that affects 1 in 11,000 newborns worldwide. Some BWS children are at risk of developing a form of kidney cancer called Wilms tumor and a form of liver cancer called hepatoblastoma.

You can join me by helping me plan this event, attending my event, or making a donation right to this page. The money you donate will pay for research to find better treatments and cures for childhood cancer. Please help kids and their families by providing desperately needed hope! Thanks for your support!