JOSH DAVIS/BAYSIDE GAZETTE
Tiffany and Sean Lackner showoff the warm colors and atmosphere of their new Dream Weaver location in downtown Berlin. The business originally opened on the Ocean City Boardwalk.
JOSH DAVIS/BAYSIDE GAZETTE
The interior of Dream Weaver on Main Street in Berlin is a flood of color. The shop sells handmade products from across the world, also offering professional Henna tattoo applications and hair wraps, year round.
By Josh Davis, Associate Editor
(Dec. 6, 2018) Boardwalk mainstay Dream Weaver recently opened a second location in downtown Berlin, bringing the same merchandise to Main Street.
Husband and wife Tiffany and Sean Lackner, originally from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, respectively, came to the area with the hopes of opening a business.
“We ended up on the Boardwalk in Ocean City seven years ago and we’ve been there ever since,” Tiffany said. “But, we needed a year-round location to be able to stay within the community, so we moved to Berlin last September and purchased a home here.
“We instantly loved Berlin,” she continued. “I loved the ‘Runaway Bride’ movie. I always said I would love to live in that town and never knew that it was Berlin. I came across it seven New Year’s Eves ago and someone said, ‘Yeah, this is the town the movie was filmed in.’ And I said, ‘Well, now I know where I need to buy.’”
Since then, she said, the couple had been looking for a location on Main Street. The former tenant, yarn store A Little Bit Sheepish, will move across the street into the old PNC Bank when renovations there are finished.
“We’ve been planning this for years,” Tiffany said. “It just took seven years to actually make it happen.”
Sean said the shop officially opened on Black Friday, around 4 p.m.
“It was great,” he said. “The reaction was just beautiful. Everybody loved it and they were like, ‘The colors are great and the stuff is awesome, and it feels so homey in here.’”
Walking into Dream Weaver, customers are greeted with a flood of bright and vivid colors from the tapestries and handmade dream catchers hung throughout the store. They also will find jewelry, crystals and gems, as well as handmade clothing. There are also homemade blends of essential oils and aroma therapies.
“A lot of the things in here are made for the store, so you’re not going to be able to get a lot of them at other places,” Tiffany said. “It’s a touch of positivity from every form of life, from all over the world,” he said.
Dream Weaver also offers henna tattoos and hair wraps.
“I don’t feel like [hair wrapping] should be just a summertime deal.” Tiffany said. “You want to wear it all year, so you need to have an outlet to come to a place and say, I want to get a hair wrap on a Tuesday at 2 o’clock. There’s always someone here to do professional henna application and hair.”
Shoppers are also likely to find three generations working in the store, with Tiffany’s mother and son also lending a hand behind the counter. Her son, Brady Freestone, said the shop brought to life the family’s love of all things handmade, while mom, Toni Haught, said Dream Weaver offers a touch of the 1960s that should appeal to anyone from her generation.
All four agreed the family atmosphere brought love, togetherness and a spirit of helping others to the business.
“We like to help people, so working with nonprofits is helping people. That’s a big deal for us,” Tiffany said. “We help four different nonprofit organizations — women’s reforming funds, tsunami relief funds — from all over.”
In the future, Sean said, the goal is to simply go “nowhere but staying here.”
“We want to expand to touching all the people that we’ve been able to help on the Boardwalk, and bringing it to the cool town of Berlin … and put our stamp on the town,” he said.
“We’d like to help bring a shift to Berlin too. I think that’s what it’s all about,” Tiffany added. “And the people who are on the Boardwalk are following us here.
“The famous thing we hear from every single local is, ‘I love you guys, I’m so glad you’re here. I don’t want to go to the Boardwalk. It’s $20 to park and it’s not worth it for us to go in and get a bundle of sage or a tapestry,’” Tiffany said.
“Now, we also have the ability to bring these people [from Ocean City] that may not have stepped into Berlin as much,” Sean added.
For anyone who has yet to visit Dream Weaver, Tiffany’s message was simple:
“Come as you are,” she said. “All are welcome here. We’re here to love you and we love everyone.”
Visit Dream Weaver on 2 South Main Street in Berlin. For more information, call 443-664-2464 or visit facebook.com/thedrreamweaver.