Name of your website?Wedding Ideas, Wedding Planner, Wedding Planning, Wedding Workshops, South Africa
Your name?
Angie Pinkerton
Your Location (city, etc)
Johannesburg
Please give us a short summary of your website?
What is "I Do" Wedding Ideas all about?
This site is meant to be a springboard for your wedding ideas, a key to unlock your imagination, some inspiration to get your creativity working.
Before you actually get to the church...planning and organising a wedding is a time-consuming and costly affair.
For most people, it's also a daunting prospect.
Where do you start? How much is it all going to cost? What if something goes wrong?
Don't underestimate the stress that planning your wedding will have on your relationship. You will need to make a million and one decisions, from the theme, to the venue, to the flowers, decorations, who to invite, what to wear, what to eat ...
Not to mention that the overall cost may put a bit of strain on your finances ... This means that you and your beloved are probably going to disagree from time to time.
It is my aim to take away that stress and assist you in having the wedding of your dreams without having to worry about every little detail.
My name is Angie Pinkerton, and I am a professional wedding planner.
Other than planning dream weddings, I also run regular workshops in Johannesburg, where I show brides-to-be how to properly budget and organise their wedding
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I have been organising events for the last 7 years, as an employee of several companies such as Pastel and Primedia, but more and more as an independent person as well. When my job was just not inspiring me any more, I decided to spread my wings and go on my own.
Friends were always asking me for help with their wedding, and having got married myself in August 2007, planning and executing a wedding seemed like a perfect fit for me.
I love what I do now - it's very rewarding in the sense that I help bridal couples realise their perfect day - a day that they'll remember forever.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
This is my first website
How did you decide on a name for your website?
By doing some keyword research on what people are looking for on the net. 'Wedding ideas' seemed to be a much searched term, and as I'm a very creative person, I think I have lots of wedding ideas to share with bridal couples.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
At the moment, it's still a young site, and mainly focused on my services as a wedding planner, and the wedding workshops that I run. These are 4 hour workshops where brides-to-be can learn the tricks of the trade from a professional, so that they can organise their own wedding.
However, moving forward, the plan is for the site to live up to its name and give lots of ideas on wedding cakes, centre pieces, flowers, wedding gowns, favours etc ...
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
To not only make a living from 'doing' wedding planning and workshops, but to have the site itself generate money by selling tools, and ebooks that are helpful to brides and grooms ...
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
So far, it's been phenomenal. I launched the site on Friday 18 April 2008 and so far, over 10 people have booked for the next workshop, and I got 3 leads in via the site from brides who would like me to plan their wedding.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
It would buy me time to add more content more quickly ...
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
I'm sure I would. It's not that difficult to automate an online business ...
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
None so far, the site has generated much more turnover so far than what I invested in it.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Finding the time to work on the site
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Google Adwords and online classifieds
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
It's easier than I expected.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
Less than a week. I'm not a quitter so that's just not an option. And I love what I do, which helps a lot I guess
Did you enjoy your first online interview?
I did! It's a first :-)
What is your website address?
Wedding Ideas, Wedding Planner, Wedding Planning, Wedding Workshops, South Africa
