A Pop-Up Bridal Salon With a Charitable Mission

On most days, a law office an hour north of Washington, D.C., is just that — a quiet place where contracts are signed and legal disputes are settled. But on Friday and Saturday mornings, Susan Jamison, 69, transforms it into a pop-up bridal salon.

Racks of wedding dresses emerge from closets and storage areas, mirrors are trotted out and discussion of lawsuits is replaced by debates about necklines and veils. If the office lacked the dramatic luxury of a bridal boutique, it nevertheless served the same purpose, for a fraction of the price.

The office in Dickerson, Md., borrowed from Ms. Jamison’s son, Charlie Jamison, a real estate lawyer and broker, serves as the periodic home of Brides for Haiti, which Ms. Jamison started in 2011 and now donates thousands of dollars — 40 percent of its annual revenue — for relief efforts each year in Carcasse, a village on Haiti’s western coast that was devastated, like much of the country, by Hurricane Matthew in 2016. The proceeds fund infrastructure and other projects, including a two-story schoolhouse, internet service, drinking water wells and a medical clinic with a doctor on staff.

Both the bridal and charitable side of the operation are overseen by St. Mary’s, a Catholic church in Barnesville, Md., which entered into a formal philanthropic arrangement, known in Catholicism as “twinning” with St. Joseph’s Church in Carcasse in 2008.

Brides for Haiti sells designer dresses — both worn and new, and mostly donated — all for under $1,000. Last year it sold 96 dresses at an average price of $639 per dress, Ms. Jamison said, with another 15 sold on consignment. Her current collection includes dresses from Vow’d, Justin Alexander, Stella York and Morilee, among other well-known bridal brands. (Fittings are by appointment only.)