Critique my Muse, please!

[GlamourGirl]

Hi all!

I've been throwing this idea around for a few weeks and since there's no one in my family who thinks anything in 4HWW can actually work, I need you guys' opinion.

I've been obsessed with weddings since I was a little girl. I'm not even properly engaged to my boyfriend and already I've got a 3-ring binder chock-full of ideas for our nuptuals. I probably spend about $50 per month on wedding magazines and spend most of my weekend with Bridezillas and Whose Wedding is it Anyway? on my TV.

In looking through all the wedding websites, magazines, and TV shows I've noticed a relative dearth of products for and information on planning a very traditional, Old World style wedding (my fave!). Everything available now seems very modern and/or cheap and bland. I'd like to come up with an online store that provides quality wedding products (like candle holders, favor boxes, decorations, gifts, jewelry?, veils? etc.) that evoke a very fairytale-eque quality of a time gone by. I would try to select items that were young and fresh, but still harkened back to a more traditional time.

I forgot to mention that I work in the women's magazine industry and I'm studying to get my masters in Anthropology/Women's Studies. I had the idea to segment the products by culture... think: Old World France, Old World Japan, Old World Israel, Old World India, etc. I'd like to do some research and possibly come up with an e-book (or maybe one day a print book) that catalogs world wedding traditions all in one spot, complete with images.

I know weddings are big money these days (I read somewhere that couples in the US spend close to $70 billion each year, collectively), so I figured I might have a good chance. I really hope that I'm not the only bride (or someday-bride) who wants their wedding to be rich in culture and tradition, without being bland or boring!

Here are just a few of the inspiration images I've collected (there are hundreds!):

http://www.brides.com/images/editorial/2006_brides/07_08_p387_ruffles/00_main/004_primary.jpg

http://www.brides.com/images/editorial/2006_brides/07_08_p387_ruffles/00_main/008_primary.jpg

http://www.brides.com/images/editorial/2003_modernbride/08_09_p105_romancingtherose/00_main/005_primary.jpg

http://www.brides.com/images/editorial/2004_brides/07_08_p065_cardpartytablenumbers/00_main/008_primary.jpg

http://www.brides.com/images/editorial/2005_elegantbride/02_03_p306_floralfantasy/00_main/009_primary.jpg
(Above: These are bowls and plates, believe it or not)

Any thoughts?

xoxo

GG

[Marcie]

My first thought was, your poor boyfriend :) I like your idea. Funny, when I got married 12 years ago (in the south) no one understood the 'modern' style I chose. Anyway, yes, it's a huge market so your biggest challenge will be getting noticed. I think putting everything together in a theme like that takes care of a large part of what wedding planners do. They would also be good customers for something like that.

I sell t-shirts on cafepress and a large part of my business is wedding party t-shirts I designed. I think my biggest order was over $200 for about 20 t-shirts for everyone in the wedding party...so yes, people are spending.

Sounds like a lot of work, but sounds like you will enjoy doing it!

Good Luck!

[GlamourGirl]

Thanks Marcie! My boyfriend just rolls his eyes every time our wedding comes up in conversation, but I know it's all out of love :rolleyes:

When you say it sounds like a lot of work, do you mean just to set everything up or throughout the lifetime of the site? I'd really like for this site to eventually be able to fund travel for me and my future fiance, so it can't take up too much time!

The time and energy will come with the cultural research and selecting the pieces I'd like to sell, right? I'm hoping to use dropshippers and outsourcing for the rest...

xoxo

GG

[Marcie]

The time and energy will come with the cultural research and selecting the pieces I'd like to sell, right? I'm hoping to use dropshippers and outsourcing for the rest...


Yes, that's what I meant, for the most part, in the setup. I actually think this sounds like fun, too - I was one of the trailblazers for future bridezillas (I had to have my hand in everything, and did a lot of things myself, my parents had to beg me to "outsource" things - LOL - oh how I've changed :))

But seriously, most people are not creative and need direction when it comes to themes and all that goes with that...

[girliegirl]

Glamourgirl, I have a question for you that would help me with my muse! How would you find the products to sell to put your store together? Would they all be drop shipped, or would you have to carry some inventory?
That is what I am wondering about for my idea, because mine is clothing, there is no way I could carry all of the styles and sizes I would need for a whole store. so I was wondering how I would do that. where would you find your products?

[laniers]

I think weddings are a huge market and I think this could work as a business but not as a muse. For me why it's not a muse are:

This is a touchy-feely sort of thing that people are going to want to see in person, selling it on the internet would be much harder.

If you agree that people want to see then that means having a store that you run with inventory, again not very muse like.

If you do decide to do it all online because you are just a retailer and the products you will sell can be bought at other locations, what is unique about your business?

Here's a different spin, make your business super niche. Find one element of a wedding and dominate that slice. It will be much easier for you to be noticed for say a wedding favors only store.

Check out www.thirtydaychallenge.com for some of the best internet marketing information I've ever seen in one place, plus it's free and everything they tell you to try cost nothing.

Good Luck

[BrettnAustin]

Here's a different spin, make your business super niche. Find one element of a wedding and dominate that slice. It will be much easier for you to be noticed for say a wedding favors only store.


Agreed with Laniers here. I know the owner of weddingveils.com and he does VERY well. The best way to avoid carrying to much inventory and cut overhead is to carry a shorter breadth of products then carry more depth as you reach economies of scale.

[Mike Rhodes]

Agreed with Laniers here. I know the owner of weddingveils.com and he does VERY well. The best way to avoid carrying to much inventory and cut overhead is to carry a shorter breadth of products then carry more depth as you reach economies of scale.

Excellent advice. A very tiny slice done very very well.
That's what will win.
As Marcie said - otherwise it's almost impossible to get noticed

some ideas from google keyword tool (many need to be niched even further)
vows
gown/shoes
invites
stationery
quotes/speech
decorations
songs
jokes
hair styles
bouquet
traditions (this might suit you glamourgirl)
locations (ditto)
checklist (nice easy product to make!)
cake toppers (now that's niche!)
bells
poetry


Good luck,
Mike

[GlamourGirl]

Thank you all so very much for the ideas!!

It makes me kind of sad that I can't do EVERYTHING (it's fun to dream), but I can definitely see all of your points. However, there's something that sort of bugs me about only selling one type of item... I mean, I thought that the "niche" part came into play because I would be offering, basically, a complete how-to guide to planning an Old World wedding with a cultural twist. Maybe I need to explain further.

What I'd planned to do is set up one page for each culture (I'd probably start out with 3 to 5 cultures), complete with images of a ceremony or reception and some teaser traditions and cultural information. From there the buyer would be linked to my store page that lists ONE item suggestion in each category (favor, centerpiece, gift, etc.) that would help them recreate what they saw in the picture. There would also be a link to purchase an eBook of the rest of the tradition/custom information for that specific culture.

I figured, that way, I would only have to juggle drop shipments of a small number of items in each category, like 5 favors, 5 centerpieces, etc---and some may overlap! Does this still sound unreasonable?

As for the touchy-feely aspect of weddings, I'm a member of several wedding-related message boards and have seen that a number of do-it-yourself brides are ordering thousands of dollars worth of wedding items online, without ever getting to see it in person! And that even includes their wedding dress! So I'm not *too* worried about couples not purchasing items just because they can't hold it first.

Please tell me if I'm completely bonkers and still wondering around in dreamland with this idea! ;) I promise I'll listen this time. lol

xoxo

GG

[outofbandii]

I don't think you're completely bonkers (well, not on the business side) because you're basing your decisions on what you know, which is always a great place to start :)

[drchev]

Let’s go after a smaller Niche group i.e. Wedding gown for Plus sizes woman, Wedding gowns for tall woman, wedding gowns for little people, theme wedding (renaissance period, the 20’s 30’s, ethnic weddings (oriental, Latino, redneck (shoes and shirts optional)

Have fun and go for it.

[Mike Rhodes]

you mention the touchy feely aspect...
so maybe a community part of the site where women can share ideas & even sell or swap items from their weddings after the event????

[GlamourGirl]

That sounds like an awesome idea, Mike! I'll keep that one in mind, even though somehow that sounds like it might take money out of my pocket...:o

Girliegirl, to answer your question, I have no idea. I'm still researching where I might get my items from and if it might be possible to have them dropshipped from different places. I've seen a lot of fabulous items on Alibaba.com, but I've been told I should be wary of their sellers. If anyone has advice, please share!

Thanks everyone for your input!

xoxo

GG

[webgal]

Let’s go after a smaller Niche group i.e. Wedding gown for Plus sizes woman, Wedding gowns for tall woman, wedding gowns for little people, theme wedding (renaissance period, the 20’s 30’s, ethnic weddings (oriental, Latino, redneck (shoes and shirts optional)

Have fun and go for it.

I'm liking this idea. Particularly for the tall girls since I had a difficult time fitting my 5'10.5" petite frame. And a discussion forum can be free to download. I run one and it took 30 seconds to download and a couple of days to make it look like the client wanted. I would definitely consider that because just like childbirth, women discuss weddings obsessively.

As for the wedding category, one of my clients is a diamond dealer and we've sold $250,000 rings online. Now granted they call about it and don't just drop it in a shopping cart, but they do buy them. (Most of our inventory is not a quarter million dollars.) So I don't think you need to have reservations about that part.

[inventor415]

GG,


You are onto a good track. Few must read notes.

A little about me. I am a entrepreneur that started a few business.
more about me. Rayfil (http://www.rayfil.com)

You are staying with your core competencies which is good. You love the wedding industry so you're creating a business in that industry.
Thats great integration.

From reading the 4 hour work week, remember to be efficient.
Use other people's money and resource.

!! differentiate: how does your wedding package/solution differ from the products out there: price/experience/product?

I once worked for Budweiser and they don't sell beer, they sell hot Bud Girls and experience.
I would aim for the same. Don't structure around pricing but experience.

You can differentiate by easing the process of weddings.
You are the ONLY wedding planner that supplies VALET parking for all guest.
simple idea: hire a bunch of high school kids in tux to valet park the guest's cars at the wedding.
your cost: free
the Valet attendents will get tips from the guest.

WHY? after the wedding, guest will talk "wow. great wedding. even had valet parking!"
the guest becomes your viral marketers since they have experienced your great wedding party.
So think outside the box.

when i meant sticking with the core, I meant do something you love.
After reading Tim Ferriss book, I started
Lead Doctor (http://www.leaddr.com) to educate parents on lead poisoning. sure its not a money maker, but its helps people out.

let me know what you think. we can brainstorm.
my contact is on my site. you can also see me on the recent ABC American Inventor show. American Inventor (http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41RZKHGga0Q)

best

Rayfil