Company name: Wedding of the Year
Website: http://www.weddingoftheyear.com/
Founders: Katrina Blunt & Stuart Anderson
Age: 29 and 33
Based: Buckinghamshire
Date started: 27 March 2008
Turnover: 1st year trading
Tell us what your business does:
Wedding of the Year allows users to create an online wedding album, by inviting guests to upload digital photos of their day. It means wedding couples save money on disposable cameras and professional photography and collect as many photographs from guests as possible.
Where did the idea for your business come from?
I came up with the idea after my wedding – for months afterwards, I kept discovering that friends had photos of my wedding that I hadn't even seen, most of which were better than the disposable camera shots, and many captured the day better than the official photographer did. We never quite got around to organising them all in one place.
How do you plan to differentiate yourself from the competition?
Wedding of the Year is unique in that it has been built to meet wedding couples’ needs. This includes offering different access levels so no uploaded photos go live until the couple have seen them and are happy to share them. We also differentiate ourselves by providing personalised cards which users can include with their invitations or thank you cards, or place on tables, notifying guests of the service and how to use it.
Have you always wanted to run your own business?
I have always wanted to run my own business. I enjoy being in charge of my own destiny and don’t miss the bureaucracy of corporate life, which often stifles creativity rather than encouraging it. Taking the leap to actually starting up was a huge decision but I looked 5 years ahead and knew I would regret it if I looked back having not started my own business.
What planning did you do before you started up?
I researched the market thoroughly to understand our competitive positioning and our customers’ needs. The biggest challenge was working with the IT developers to ensure that the customer experience we were aiming for was never compromised.
What challenges have you faced how have you overcome them?
Although the idea for Wedding of the Year is a simple one, it has required a complicated system to deliver it. This has been the biggest challenge, particularly as we’ve worked with a non-UK IT developers. It actually took three suppliers to build it to our requirements, which took more time than we had planned. The importance of writing a really detailed specification at the beginning so the supplier could fully understand our requirements and accurately cost it was critical.
What was your first big breakthrough?
We were overwhelmed by press interest in our launch. We had a number of really positive responses to our press release, which was a big breakthrough in the first few days and really motivated us. It also reinforced our idea that we were offering something that people wanted.
