If you have not read the most recent post from Paul Pannone on eWedNews.com you really should. catch it here
Traditional Weddings are Gone With The Wind
What Paul is saying is that the middle market is falling apart. The traditional wedding that drove the massive increase in the wedding industry 5 or 10 years ago is drying up.
Weddings aren’t stopping, they are just changing. As wedding professionals, if you want to thrive and succeed you have to change with it.
Yes, the luxury market is still there, and yes there is a ton of money in it. The problem with chasing that is that the actual number of brides at that level is only a minor fraction of the total number of brides. Because of the lure of the money and the rash of “get rich quick” seminars out there you are competing against a crush of both established and wanna be “professionals.” Each luxury bride is bombarded with a pack of very elegant but still ravenous players for their luxury dollar; all snapping and jockeying to get a piece of that ever shrinking market.
Smarter is the wedding professional that starts to think like the brides spawned by our new economic reality. Tradition is out the window along with the giant budgets of old. Today the game is in finding a way to help her bring meaning on a budget. Helping to use your creativity to both spark and foster hers. She is full of ideas, some wilder than others. What she wants from you is to validate her ideas and help her find money saving ways to accomplish her vision.
Now if that means giving (selling, renting) her the tools to bring her DIY into reality, so be it. If that means selling her the service of setting up her DIY centerpieces, do it. If that means selling her the papers to print her own invitations, do it. This is the new reality.
The wedding professionals that I see making a difference today are the ones that are going with it. The florist that is renting out her massive collection of containers or ordering feathers for a DIY bride. The bespoke invitation artist that has put together a line of her beautiful invitation art, pre-printed on blanks for couples to print on their home lasar printer. Bridal houses like Mon Cheri that are producing gowns that are as well made as any but at a price point that more brides can afford. Companies like Bravo Bride that have created a clearing house for brides to buy/sell their wedding goodies. Bakeries pushing cupcakes.There are as many ways to tap this new market as there are brides in it.
Our industry has always been about helping people attain their dreams. What you have to recognize is that their dreams have changed. Go with it.
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