WHO OR WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO START YOUR BUSINESS?
When I had my first wedding planning company, I was always really tuned in to how frustrating the wedding planning experience can be for couples. It was their first time planning a wedding, and the people they usually went to for advice had also only planned one wedding. On top of that, many times the help they could afford was usually through a free blog or website that didn’t deliver personalized advice the way they hoped for. Hiring a wedding planner is a great decision, but also many times a quite expensive one. I shared what I had observed over the years with my co-founder Annie, and we joined forces to create a flexible, yet satisfying experience where couples can plan their wedding with a seasoned wedding planner on demand — all in a way that fits their budget.
WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST STRUGGLE WHEN STARTING OUT?
Our biggest struggle starting out was learning how to pivot to the customer mindset. It can feel really overwhelming trying to figure everything out and create an amazing service our customers will be really excited about. You can have the most creative ideas in the world, but our customers also have access to information about all these other alternatives at their fingertips.
So it’s about finding out what they really value in a service like ours and building around that.
WHAT’S THE NUMBER ONE THING YOU ATTRIBUTE TO GROWING YOUR BUSINESS?
Our number one factor that grew our business was receiving customer feedback, without a doubt. We’ve been really focused on adapting with our changing environment, and within that environment also means really listening to what our customers want and changing how we prioritize things. It’s really important to us to listen to our couples, and put our own beliefs aside. It’s about listening and acting on the what and when, and then it’s up to us to figure out the how.
WHAT’S YOUR FAV MUSIC TO LISTEN TO WHEN YOU’RE CREATING GRAPHICS?
Usually something on Pop Rising, Soft Pop, or a good throwback playlist! Creating graphics is one of the few tasks where I can listen to upbeat music with words and still be productive because it doesn’t require me to intensely focus on absorbing new reading material or crunch numbers. It’s pretty rewarding and fun!
HOW DO YOU DECIDE ON WHAT IMAGES TO USE FOR YOUR BRAND?
We try to plan content in advance, so the calendar and content idea list that come in the Member Hub are always a really great place to start. Since we’re in the wedding industry, there’s definitely some months that are more important than others for us, like engagement season and wedding season! We try to stick to our brand colors so we do a lot of searching by color on the Haute Stock site.
What’s your fav Haute Stock collection?
Definitely the Wedding Planner collection! We love that it’s more than just flatlays. There’s great lifestyle shots and the colors are neutral and gorgeous. We’ve used this collection throughout our site and really love how it’s turned out. Feel free to check it out here!
HOW HAS HAUTE STOCK HELPED YOU IN YOUR BUSINESS?
Haute Stock has been such a game changer for us in terms of both efficiency and consistency. We love that each collection uses the same color palette so we can use the same set for blog posts, emails, and social media, and not have to worry as much about everything fitting together aesthetically. It has also cut our content planning time down so much.
WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR BIGGEST BUSINESS LESSON LEARNED?
Use each time you fail as an opportunity to grow. I know it sounds cliche, but that mindset has really propelled both our team and our business forward when we’ve had setbacks.
”Our business has evolved so much since it started and a lot of it has to do with getting back up and trying something differently every time a scenario didn’t work out the way we hoped. If we hadn’t tried, we wouldn’t have known what didn’t work.”
Shivani & Annie
are two women on a mission to disrupt the wedding industry with Salud, their virtual wedding planning assistance service. They hope to build a more inclusive community of engaged couples trying to plan their dream wedding in the most efficient and budget-friendly way possible.
