Submitted by Sabina Hitchen on | 0 Comments
If you’d told me a little over a year and a half ago that I’d be planning a wedding in August of 2013 I’d have "side-eyed" you and proclaimed you were crazy. At the time I was only married to my job, and quite happily so. That said, a rainy night, a last minute client cancellation and a charming stranger all crossed my path eighteen months ago and as they say, the rest is history...
Why, you may be wondering, is Sabina writing about her wedding on a website that is dedicated to all things entrepreneurship and small business? The moment I began planning what I now refer to (even on social media) as the #BestDayEver I decided I would do all I could to make it a small business wedding. Call me the anti-Star Jones if you will, because I decided I was going to support (and pay) entrepreneurial companies while we were selecting everything from our cake and flowers to my bridesmaids' jewelry. I was even lucky enough to have a fiancé who knows my crush on all things from the world of small business style and who picked out the ring that started it all at an independent boutique I’ve loved since the moment they came into our lives.
As we began to get to know our vendors and connect with them virtually and in person something even cooler than the feeling of supporting independent businesses began to occur: I became educated by each and every vendor we worked with in business skills I (and all you) can apply to our companies. From service skills I’d love to adopt to tech tools they’ve introduced me to, from best-practice business moves I’m going to adopt to learning how to gracefully deal with customer service failures, I’ve seen it all in the past seven months. From the first “oh I have to share this information” moment I began documenting these lessons because I knew if I could benefit from them many of you would as well.
Now, with only five or so weeks left until the #BestDayEver arrives (ohmygosh) I figured, why not add a little more to my plate and share these lessons with you? With that I welcome you to our Small Business Wedding series. Within it I’ll be introducing you to the vendors we’ve had the pleasure to work with and the valuable lessons each of them has taught me. From the service failure that turned into an amazing recovery experience we had with Minted to the business tools I discovered thanks to Pollen floral designers in Chicago, to how Slack Photography inspired me to give back to others via my business, each vendor has inspired their own post and own business lesson.
Below you’ll find a mini-introduction to them, and in the weeks to come I’ll share their stories and lessons!
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Greenwich Jewelers
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Pollen Florists
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Epoch Hair & Makeup
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Minted
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Amy Beck Cake Design
- Coordinator for a Day (or try months…)
- Slack Photography
And more to come!
