3 ms·

I got married a year ago, the organisation was so painful that I considered (and quickly dismissed) and idea to go into this space myself.. If I had to do it a

I got married a year ago, the organisation was so painful that I considered (and quickly dismissed) and idea to go into this space myself.. If I had to do it again, I'd want (and pay good money for): * RSVP: via web/email, Facebook and post. Charge for post. * Wedding Website (incl gallery!) * Gift management (use a partner) Then you can add: * Make deals with Photographers, possibly vet them. Maybe get them to fill your galleries? It could be a hard sell, especially if you try and compete with them (i.e. by offering prints). Actually, why not partner with them: give them the ability to sell their prints more easily, not just to the Bride & Groom, but to the guests! Actually, building a wedding business around the problem-domain of Wedding Photographers seems like an excellent strategy. If you increase their profits then they'll evangelise your site. * Wedding plans / inspiration. Nice because you can sell stuff there (via partners). * Directory for Wedding locations: it was hard finding good pictures and prices of wedding locations. * Directory for Reception locations: same problem as Wedding Locations. This is also a more general problem, the discoverability of these places is terrible. * Diversify into cards. This'll be a massive win for men: never forget your wedding anniversary again. Heck, implement this as a simple reminder service. Make a fun "Groom" styled-skin to solve his problem (and double your market!). BTW this also works for anniversaries / birthdays etc. Men forget this stuff really quickly. The post wouldn't be complete without some feedback: I personally don't like the copy on your site. You sound like a Bridal magazine. Your focus is on "curated links we found on google", but it should be on how you actually solve the problem of organising a Wedding. I don't care about the pretty things you've found on Google* Question: why on earth are you charging a monthly fee for a one-off occasion? Why not let people try your site out for a month, with a larger flat fee at the end? Then offer to host the wedding picture gallery for N months, with the option to buy N months extra hosting. What is your conversion rate like? I like what you're doing, there's certainly enough to support a small but healthy business.. it would be cool to see you succeeding, especially if it comes from advice from HN :) * NOTE: I'm not your target market.

limedaring 14y ago
Hi, thanks so much for the feedback!! This is great timing since I'm actually working on revamping ALL the marketing copy. I agree completely with your points — I got wrapped up in "this is what a wedding startup would say!" rather than what is actually awesome about us. Why we're charging monthly for a one off occasion: We actually have a monthly charge and a one-off charge, and our conversions are roughly split between the two. People who are just a few months out from their wedding tend to pick the monthly option, and people who are far out tend to pick the charge-once option. That said, I'm not justifying this — we're still (and probably always will be) in the process of testing out new pricing! Good points about what you pay for. We actually work with a little over 1,500 wedding vendors (and almost 500 wedding photographers), and we're almost done with our vendor integration into the planning app. Thanks so much for poking at WeddingLovely and spending time writing your feedback!
- wtvanhest 14y ago
  By offering the option to do either by month or a 1 time fee, your customers are doing the following: 1) Calculating number of months to wedding day (since they likely know the date) 2) Deciding which is cheaper 3) Purchasing the cheaper option. *You are probably also losing conversions to people who decide to wait to save money, then just forget to purchase. I'm not suggesting you do this, but just think about what would happen if you priced it in the opposite way. 6 months before the wedding, $80, 5 months before the wedding $90, 4 months before the wedding $100 etc. My guess is that you may end up making a bigger $/user, and may even increase your conversion rate. Looks like a good site and like you are offering real value. Best of luck!

limedaring 14y ago

Hi, thanks so much for the feedback!! This is great timing since I'm actually working on revamping ALL the marketing copy. I agree completely with your points — I got wrapped up in "this is what a wedding startup would say!" rather than what is actually awesome about us. Why we're charging monthly for a one off occasion: We actually have a monthly charge and a one-off charge, and our conversions are roughly split between the two. People who are just a few months out from their wedding tend to pick the monthly option, and people who are far out tend to pick the charge-once option. That said, I'm not justifying this — we're still (and probably always will be) in the process of testing out new pricing! Good points about what you pay for. We actually work with a little over 1,500 wedding vendors (and almost 500 wedding photographers), and we're almost done with our vendor integration into the planning app. Thanks so much for poking at WeddingLovely and spending time writing your feedback!

wtvanhest 14y ago
By offering the option to do either by month or a 1 time fee, your customers are doing the following: 1) Calculating number of months to wedding day (since they likely know the date) 2) Deciding which is cheaper 3) Purchasing the cheaper option. *You are probably also losing conversions to people who decide to wait to save money, then just forget to purchase. I'm not suggesting you do this, but just think about what would happen if you priced it in the opposite way. 6 months before the wedding, $80, 5 months before the wedding $90, 4 months before the wedding $100 etc. My guess is that you may end up making a bigger $/user, and may even increase your conversion rate. Looks like a good site and like you are offering real value. Best of luck!