It's been an exciting week, personally and professionally, for OFD Consulting.
This week marked the 6th Birthday of the Richmond Bridal Association (http://www.richmondbridalassociation.com/), as well as our Annual Bridal Forum, a chance offered exclusively to RBA members to sit down with a dozen local brides and mothers of the brides, to discuss everything any anything as related to the planning process.
Luckily, we have put the finishing touches on what I feel is a successful recipe- brides and moms of various budgets and locales (ranging from hotels and country clubs to backyard soirees and outdoor banquet facilities) combined with vendors eager to learn.
While I feel that the majority of what we learned should be an exclusive privilege to our RBA members, I am happy to share some of the more interesting points we heard:
1) Yellow pages- they serve a better purpose keeping a table steady than they do as an advertising tool. Brides and moms aren't using them. Period.
2) Brides are still turning to the old standbys- wedding magazines, bridal shows and a good solid web site.
3) Vendor and friend referrals are stronger than ever. Might be time to start asking yourself how your relationships with fellow vendors are going.
4) Value is big and Brides/Moms need to see it in your work- now more than ever.
Interested in joining us for next year's panel? Then mark your calendar for March 10, 2010- our annual RBA meeting for Prospective Members.
And what, may you ask, happened to OFD personally this week? Well that's me up there- finally putting my feet up at The Jefferson after my wedding to the guy behind the lens.
Until next time,
Meghan
