Brides collaborate to share local knowledge

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The 2009 wedding season has begun! April generally marks the beginning of wedding season, and in the current economic climate, fewer brides are enlisting the help of a coordinator. This year, brides are doing more of the planning themselves, which can be a tedious approach, as you attempt to sort through all of the eligible vendors. For any given category, you may have ten or more wedding vendors to choose from, which can be overwhelming.

You are not alone! To help expedite the process, WeddingMapper.com has created a new tool called “Ask-A-Bride” that allows local brides to share their experiences related to their wedding vendors, venues, and more. The first in the industry, Ask-A-Bride provides a collaborative platform where brides can ask direct questions to newlyweds, and the best part is it’s free to use.

Anyone who knows a future or recent bride can tell you that conversations about weddings can become a very prevalent topic. Wedding Mapper currently boasts an online community of 35,000 brides in over 10,000 cities worldwide, and through Ask-A-Bride, brides can interact with this community to gain “insider advice” that makes wedding planning more efficient and personalized.

“After months of planning, brides become local wedding experts and have extensive knowledge to share with brides-to-be going through the same process. At Wedding Mapper, we’re focused on providing the most value to the bride and creating an honest environment for brides to share ideas and find inspiration,” said Julie King, VP of sales and marketing for Wedding Mapper.

Find your city!

To use Ask-A-Bride, brides simply explore the “Real Weddings” section in a destination city and select the “Ask a Question” button to contact a particular bride. An email is then sent to the bride who can choose to respond to the question. So far, 70 percent of questions submitted via Ask-A-Bride have received voluntary responses from brides within one week.

Wedding Mapper recently re-launched its website to offer enhanced features and site navigation. Since the re-launch, the company has noticed a steady increase in involvement in Ask-A-Bride. As word continues to spread, Wedding Mapper has also noticed a rise in couples posting questions on its local message boards. “Our site is unique in that all our wedding content is user-generated, and we continue to attract more brides from around the world to share their real-life wedding experiences. Ask-A-Bride is a compelling feature because it allows a couple to get more in-depth information than they can get from a review or rating alone,” said King.

Do-it-yourself (DIY) planning is a growing trend in the wedding industry, highlighted in a recent State of the Industry survey from The Wedding Report. To support this modern DIY bride, Wedding Mapper reaches out to its engaged couples five months prior to their wedding date with DIY info and tips, which has been well-received by brides. “DIY is a trend that is here to stay. Besides being economical, brides want to put a personal touch on their wedding day, and DIY enables them to take a concept and make it signature to them,” said King.

Wedding Mapper’s Ask-A-Bride feature makes it possible for like-minded brides to connect on a local level around an important moment in their lives. Engaged couples are digging deeper into the details of their wedding to add a personal touch and ensure it meets their every whim. In many cases, Wedding Mapper has found brides contacting local newlyweds before the actual wedding venue or vendor. “There is a unique connection between brides married and getting married at the same venue - similar to a student/alumni relationship. Newlyweds are extremely willing to share insider information regarding what worked well and what they would do differently,” said King.

Making wedding planning more efficient, free and collaborative, Wedding Mapper may have hit on something great with Ask-A-Bride. 

 For more info:     Wedding Mapper