I’m generally a well liked person. I play nice, hug people a lot, keep the “ugly” to a minimum and make great chocolate chip cookies (the secret is instant pudding mix).
So imagine my surprise when a budget conscious bride asked my boss at a luxury venue to remove me from a wedding after I told her I’d have to charge her additionally if we were going to replace the iced tea for her wedding lunch with pitchers (yep) of Coca-Cola. I had a bona fide bride on my hands who simply didn’t want to be in the same room as me any more. Now to be fair, I later ended up essentially immobile with a severe case of the flu and saw her husband to be being interviewed on the local news. I took my last bit of energy to throw the remote at the screen. So clearly, the feeling was mutual.
My point? Even if we’re well intentioned and giving what we think is our very best to brides, they may not (gasp!) always like us.
The tough part is that its not always clear when someone doesn’t like us. Not every bride will be as bold as mine. Very simply, if we want to learn what our brides are thinking, we need to ask them. As we start to make our way into the off season, I’d encourage you to consider doing an end of the year survey with your 2011 brides. Sign up for a survey service (I’ve always loved the free edition of Survey Monkey) and ask the questions you didn’t dare ask then face to face.
If you get high marks across the boards, then I raise my glass (or pitcher of Coke) to you. If not, use this as an opportunity to better yourself, your offerings and your business.
Now, I’m known to slip on a little Hulu when the rather mundane small business type tasks pop up and as of late, I grew a minor obsession with Brothers & Sisters. So at this moment, I couldn’t help but think of Sally Field and her rather infamous “you like me” speech at the Oscars from 1985.
In my book, Sally Field can do no wrong- minus, of course, the above ‘do. I have no doubt that everyone likes her. The question I ask of you though is if you’re just as sure that your brides like you?
Meghan Ely is the owner of wedding marketing and wedding pr firm OFD Consulting. She is the exclusive wedding pr columnist to wedding marketing journal WedLock magazine and is a highly sought after speaker in the wedding industry. She loves ruffle table runners and Royal Wedding Tchotchkes. To learn how OFD Consulting can assist you with your wedding marketing and wedding pr, please contact us today.
