WE ❤️ OUR MEMBERS!

A Love Story Sure to Warm Your ❤️

Skyler holding a Build-A-Bear Build-A-Bear is at the heart of many special moments in our Guests’ lives – and one special bear has been at the heart of Skyler and Tanner’s love story since the beginning!

Skyler and her husband, Tanner, started dating back in 2012, when Skyler was 15 and Tanner was 16 years old. In 2013, Tanner asked Skyler to junior prom with a personalized Build-A-Bear! Since Tanner was on the high school baseball team, he dressed Skyler’s bear in its own baseball uniform and ironed on his team number and “Prom” on the back of the jersey. Tanner even used the bear’s birth certificate to type out “Prom?” to make his message extra clear!

Skyler says it was one of the most creative and sweetest gifts she’s ever received, but her Build-A-Bear would come to hold even more important meaning in her life. “Little did we know then how special that bear would become,” Skyler said.Skyler's Story Baby Photo at Build-A-Bear

After marrying each other in September of 2017, Skyler and Tanner welcomed their first lil’ cub into their family a few years later: their baby boy Ellis was born in March of 2021! It was then that Skyler came up with a creative idea for documenting Ellis’ growth.

“For his monthly pictures, I saw the idea to use a teddy bear in the pictures to watch him grow in relation to the bear,” Skyler said. “I asked my husband about the idea and he loved it. Then the most brilliant idea dawned on me – let’s use the Build-A-Bear you made to ask me to prom!”

Skyler and Tanner’s new monthly tradition is to sit Ellis in his nursery chair next to the special Build-A-Bear Tanner made for his high school sweetheart eight years ago. It’s just a plain white bear without the baseball uniform on it, but Skyler says she can’t wait to tell Ellis the story of how his dad asked her to prom with the exact same bear he has in his room.

“There is something so special about sharing tiny parts of our love story with our son,” Skyler said. “Thank you, Build-A-Bear, for bringing joy into our lives and giving us memories that will last a lifetime!”