News Article

Nora and Tyler Sheils tapped Nora's considerable wedding planning skills for their own wedding in Portland, Ore. Photo courtesy of Bridal Bliss.

After Nora Sheils (Totonchy, ’02) and classmate Julia Schwab won the 2002 Hogan Entrepreneurial Leadership Program’s Business Plan Competition with a plan to launch a wedding planning business, they opted to split the $10,000 winnings. Shiels opened Bridal Bliss in Portland, Ore., and it has made all the difference.

Sheils has planned some of the Rose City’s most memorable events, and met husband Tyler while coordinating a 2006 wedding. A commercial real estate broker, Tyler attended the wedding as a guest.

When it came time for their own nuptials, Nora helped create an evening of unforgettable splendor from amazing fire dancers to midnight milkshakes. Their Catholic wedding Mass, punctuated by traditional Arabic flourishes to honor her Iraq-born parents, finished with a surprise Gospel choir as Nora and Tyler were whisked away in a white Mercedes convertible. 

“We wanted to make the wedding unique, fun, and personal for guests, and I think we were able to achieve that beginning with the ceremony and lasting all the way through to the last dance,” Nora said.

Their reception was held at The Governor Hotel in downtown Portland where two grand ballrooms were adorned from floor to ceiling with thousands of fresh flowers. “We wanted our guests to have a great time and experience a wedding unlike any they had ever been to before. It was all about the ‘wow factor,’” said Nora, who stays in touch with Schwab, her erstwhile business plan partner.

“She went to become a real estate agent in Seattle and is doing very well,” said Sheils, who never regrets following her Gonzaga-born “Bliss.”

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