Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Perfect Imperfections, a boutique that offers a refreshing twist on the traditional shopping experience, is celebrating its two-year anniversary in Oak Harbor on Sept. 19.
“It's been amazing. The Oak Harbor community has been absolutely terrific in supporting me, the business, our events --- all of the above,” store owner Melissa Wehner said. “They love that everything is localized, and I love to be able to help watch the village grow and develop.”
Perfect Imperfections, located at 104 W. Water St., specializes in handcrafted and upcycle items created by talented artisans from both near and far, and they take pride in creating special and custom orders for their customers.
In addition to the boutique, they also have a full bar, which includes a Sunday liquor license, that showcases a diverse selection of bourbons, along with a wide variety of premium cigars at their cigar bar.
“We’ve renovated our bar area and our checkout counter,” Wehner said. “We have a full liquor license and specialize in a bourbon bar. We don’t do a lot of mixed drinks per se, like specialty cocktails. It's more of your bourbon, or we have seltzers, beer, or if you want your general mixers, we do those. And then wine of course.”
On top of that, they offer a rental space that can accommodate up to 80 guests and is regularly used for parties, showers or business meetings --- and more. Wehner said they host euchre tournaments in the winter, and they’re working on potentially hosting bingo beginning in October.
“We utilize that a ton,” Wehner said. “That actually just went on the Shores & Islands website and a few other places. And when we're not using that for all of those, that's when we run all of our other events --- our crafts, our board and brush, and all of those events back there.”
The shop also offers live entertainment every other Friday from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
“It’s not a full band,” Wehner said. “It's typically one or two local artists who are more acoustic, piano, or things of that nature. It very much resembles the vibe of a winery. We're not really open super late, so you don't have the bar feel. You have more of the winery feel, if you will.”
Just recently, Perfect Imperfections also started selling Judy Blue Jeans.
“That’s a big deal for us girls,” Wehner said. “That’s a very good quality, very much wanted jean. We sold out of a dozen jeans in less than 24 hours. That was amazing. She’s here to stay.”
Wehner’s shop is also an exclusive Dixie Belle paint dealer for their area code, which she said is also a big deal.
“Dixie Belle is a very good quality paint that a lot of people who do crafts or upscaled furniture use. I feel like we've grown in all departments. We really have something for every age group, man or woman, young or old.”
Wehner’s shop is located next door to Pisanello’s, and while Perfect Imperfections doesn’t have a food license, they do have all their local menus out because any of their guests can order in from those restaurants and eat in the bar area.
For example, a husband could grab a drink and a pizza and eat it at the bar while his wife shops.
In that sense, as well, the implementation of DORA has been a huge plus.
“When it had its soft opening on the Fourth of July, it was a huge success,” Wehner said. “Now that they’ve started the local farmers market, we get a lot of business from DORA, as well. We’ve done your every day here and there, but whenever there's an event going on, it has definitely helped us out, and we definitely have seen an increase in business because of that.”
Overall, the retail shop has grown from 38 local vendors to over 50 in the past two years, selling everything from candles to lip balm to shirts and home décor. They also sell upscaled furniture.
“Some of them are now shipping from as far as west as Bryan and then we go down to Columbus, and we're going all the way to Akron,” Wehner said. “So I have vendors that have seen my shop online or through our posts via social media, and they have reached out and are actually shipping inventory that we sell through our shop here, which has marked an amazing growth for us.”
One thing they don’t have that they did when they started is a spray tan salon. However, Wehner said they do still offer self-tanning products in the boutique.
“We thrive on collaboration with surrounding small businesses, making our space a true one-stop show for the community,” Wehner said.
Wehner, who is a graduate of Genoa High School, said they don’t have any big plans in store for the anniversary, but they have scratch off cards that they will either hide around the shop or hand out to customers that will allow them to get a discount or a free prize.
Overall, the past two years have been about growing and learning for Wehner.
“It’s been total grit and grace,” she said. “It’s been extremely hard, but it’s been rewarding. It's been amazing watching everything grow and blossom into what it's become. I love the fact that now being a small business owner, I’ve collaborated with so many other wonderful small businesses in so many different ways that we've helped each other out, whether it be doing venues or helping each other with referrals to catering, decorating, or any of that. I have connections with all of those types of businesses now that have enhanced all of us.”
Moving forward, Wehner is excited for the future.
“I've worked with the mayor and the chamber of commerce, and I think they're doing a great job in helping (the village grow and develop). I'm so excited to be a part of that. I think there's a lot of things in the works for our village. Everything takes time, but just in the two years that we've been open, I feel like I've seen so much progress and so much development and so many new businesses come into town.”
