We're finally embarking upon the wide world of blogging so here goes. . .
The St. Louis Wedding Book started 6 years ago while I (Allison) attended the Mehlville Moms Club. I saw 3 women speak there who had written a boutique shopping guide for St. Louis entitled Girlfriends on the Go. It sparked an idea for an at-home business in which I could collaborate with my sister,Emily. We thought weddings would be a fun subject to write about and from planning our own weddings in town, we knew something like this was needed in St. Louis. When we planned our own weddings in St. Louis we went to the weddings shows, endlessly surfed the internet, and weeded through bridal magazines which were great but we still didn't know where to begin our wedding planning. The options were so overwhelming we didn't know where or how to start. We also wanted a friendly referral book instead of a directory powered by advertising. When we saw huge ads from wedding companies in the paper or magazines we knew that meant they spent a lot on their ad space but would they actually do a great job for your weddings. We wanted to find out. So that's just what we did.
To research the book we started checking out all of the wedding options out there. Just like anyone raised in St. Louis and in their twenties we had been to a ton of weddings in St. Louis. So that' s where we started. We asked for referrals from friends and family who had married in St. Louis. We interviewed all of our favorite reception sites, bakeries, florists, bridal shops, photographers, videographers, bands, disc jockeys, transportation companies and more. Most were great but if they were uncooperative with us, we knew they would be a headache for brides-to-be so we didn't include them. I learned that from my days interviewing hundreds of applicants when I worked in Human Resources. On the other hand, some were more than helpful (and continue to be!) such as Jukebox Productions, McArthur's Bakery, Artisan Photography, Memories are Forever, Two Blue Doors, Lemp Mansion, Hendri's catering and banquet facility and more!
We didn't choose all of the most expensive companies in town either. We tried to find a wide range of pricing to fit anyone's budget. Along the way, we learned many tips, money saving tricks, and fun wedding websites we wanted to include in the book. We also included budget information, timelines, and cost key which we feel are essential to wedding planning.
While researching all of the wedding venues we attended St. Louis Publisher's Association monthly meetings to learn how to self-publish. Through that great organization (which would we recommend to anyone interested in self-publishing) we found our editor, book designer, printer, and book distributor. We learned the ins and outs of self-publishing. We learned everything from which self-published books are the best sellers, to how to open your own publishing company (not necessary to self-publish by the way), to how to obtain a bar code and ISBN number for your book, to which bindings are the most durable and affordable for your book and finally how to market your book.
And Voila! The St. Louis Wedding Book: Two Sisters' Guide to Your Ultimate Wedding is born! We hope that it makes wedding planning for brides-to-be and mothers-of-the-bride-to-be (because we ladies do most of the planning for this anyway, right?) a breeze. No more endless internet surfing and researching and re-surfing and more researching. The best thing about the book is if you need a wedding florist for example, you can open the florist chapter, close your eyes, point to one while having all of their information at your fingertips you can also have comfort in knowing the company is going to do a great job for you on your wedding day!
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