Catan Fashions is the largest bridal salon in the country!! Make Catan's #1 on your Wedding Checklist The Life of Patrice Catan

Born Patrice Catanzarite, Patrice Catan-Alberty, is an entrepreneur in the bridal business. She credits her career success to her father, who opened his \ first small artificial flower store in 1954. The fledgling business Pat Catanzarite began was the seed that grew into Pat Catan’s Craft Centers, one of the country’s largest importers, manufacturers and wholesalers of crafts and craft-related products, now with 20 stores in Ohio and Pennsylvania.  

Growing up in the Great Depression and serving in World War II taught Mr. Catan the value of hard work and dedication. The Pat Catan family still carries on those same traditions and values today.  

Mrs. Catan worked under her father’s tutelage for many years before opening a Strongsville location for the business in 1967. In 1968 she married Greg Alberty and began the couple’s family, working part-time teaching floral design while raising three sons.

In 1988, Mrs Catan approached her father with a new idea. A designer by trade, she wanted to open a bridal salon. With her father’s enthusiastic support, she launched Catan Bridal in 1990, with a 2,000 square-foot store. From its modest beginnings, Catan Fashions is now the country’s largest bridal store, with 54,000 square feet of space that includes a runway, three salons, 65 dressing rooms and 27 seamstresses for alterations. She and Chukie Serna, who has been her assistant for 13 years, do all of the buying at bridal markets in New York, Chicago and beyond. She has earned numerous business awards, including the Gold Award for Best Bridal Retail, every year since 2003.

Mrs. Catan has always put family first, saying her six grandchildren are the joy of her life. She has never forgotten the lessons from her father, measuring her success by the respect she earns from others, and thanking God ever day for the life she has been granted. She generously shares her time and resources with others, participating in philanthropic organizations including the Make a Wish Foundation, American Cancer Society, Red Cross and the Teenage Rape Crisis Center, to name a few.

Mrs. Catan is keeping her father’s legacy alive through the philanthropic organization he started for children, the Pat Catan Foundation. One of the group’s funding recipients was Strongsville, home of the new Pat Catan Strongsville High School Stadium.

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