Meet me at the alter

This idea is for all the lovers out there.

More specifically, the lovers getting married.

Anyone who's ever tried to plan a wedding, or watched a friend planning a wedding, or had the pleasure (used loosely) of viewing the movie 'Bride Wars', knows how stressful planning a wedding can be. This idea seeks to eliminate some of that stress.

The problem:
Despite the fact that weddings are supposed to be glorious, fun-filled occasions where two people declare their love for all to see, the stress of actually putting a wedding together can turn even the sweetest couple into sworn enemies.

Before.

After.

Why? First of all, weddings are expensive as BALLS. According to the people who know these sorts of things, on average, US couples spend $24,000 on their wedding. That's right, people are spending TWENTY FOUR G'S on a 30 minute ceremony, a plate of dry chicken, and the opportunity to watch grandma do the electric slide.

Second, planning a wedding means purchasing and coordinating a lot of different services, including:

• Florists
• Cake makers
• Caterers
• Gown retailers
• Tuxedo rental providers
• Wine suppliers
• Reception designers
• Ceremony officiators 

...the list goes on and on.  Sometimes brides will hire a wedding planner to help them coordinate all of the moving parts, but in doing so they a) add on additional costs and b) still spend a good deal of time going from place to place with their planner, trying to find the best buttercream-frosted spongecake money can buy.

You just spent $2400 on cake. CAKE.

The solution:
Consolidate all of the moving parts of planning a wedding into one central hub. Let's call it "KJ's Mega-fly Wedding Superstore Extravaganza". Or we can work on the name later.

Anyway, here's how I'm envisioning this Wedding Superstore would work. We would house all of the essential wedding services in one building (we'd need several floors, obviously). The first floor would be gowns, 2nd floor would be the caterers, wine suppliers, and cake-making companies, 3rd floor would be the florists and reception designers, etcetera etcetera.

Brides who buy a gown with us get the services of an in-house wedding planner for free, if they agree to use at least 3 of our in-house services - which...wait for it... they get at a discount. SAY WHAT!?

I envision this scenario being a win-win-win.

The bride wins because she

a) saves money with the free wedding planner and the discounted services and
b) saves time running around, because everything she needs is in one spot

My partner companies win because they

a) have a guaranteed customer base and
b) don't have to worry about marketing costs, since marketing will be provided

And I win because

a) I get to spend all day thinking about weddings (every girl's dream) and
b) I get rich. Filthy, filthy rich.

What are the cons, you ask? HOW COULD THERE POSSIBLY BE ANY CONS?!?

No seriously, this plan has plenty of potential flaws. For one thing, since I have no intention of actually starting all of these business from scratch, I'd have to work with a LOT of different business, somehow incentivizing all of them to set up shop with me.  The legal implications of that make my head hurt.

For another thing, I have no expertise in any of these industries...could make finding investors a bit difficult.

But why focus on the negative? The question is - is it a good idea? If it is, I can work on the particulars later.  Holler back.






Shout out to: Slaton bakery, terrellvanity, bvonlove,