Here comes the bride–and she’s fit to be tied.
When brides post their miseries about botched wedding services on the Internet bulletin board at TheKnot.com, small businesses can get pinched in the process.
Conversely, when a bride raves on the Web about a vendor, a small operation can grow faster than the time it takes to elope to Las Vegas.
“The wedding world has exploded” because of The Knot, said St. Louis photographer Susan Jackson, who shoots about eight weddings a month.
With more than 2.3 million visitors a month, The Knot has become a powerful force in the wedding industry. The Web site provides bulletin boards specific to particular cities or regions and attracts more than 1 million postings a month, said Alan Berg, vice president of local sales for The Knot in the New York City suburban area.
Some brides continue posting messages long after their weddings. Other “knotties” arrange to meet with nearby brides whose weddings are about the same time. Their only commonality: They’re getting married soon.
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Many wedding vendors say the Web site has transformed their businesses. All it takes is one happy newlywed to spread the word, and the customers flood in.
Florist flourishes
Business was creeping along at Jupiter’s Garden in St. Charles, Mo., before a single bride gushed about the florist on The Knot’s St. Louis message board.
“All of the sudden, phone calls started coming like crazy,” said co-owner JoEllen Pokorny. “We went from one wedding a month to 12 to 14 weddings a month. We constantly get phone calls from brides that we have to turn down.”
Revenue at Jupiter’s Garden bloomed to $100,000 last year from $25,000 in 1999, the year the florist opened. And that’s after the company raised its prices.
But not all wedding vendors are enamored of The Knot.
“I have just developed the only hatred in my life because of The Knot chat rooms. It’s just a thorn in our sides,” said Rebecca Boillat, a wedding coordinator and owner of St. Louis Wedding Design in Creve Coeur, a St. Louis suburb.
Although many of the vendors she works with have been helped by brides posting messages on The Knot, others have been hurt, she said.
When a bride complained online about service at her wedding gown store, Boillat was infuriated. The woman criticized the store for refusing to refund her money on a gown with which she wasn’t happy.
Although the shop has signs posted advising that all dress purchases are final, the customer hadn’t received her dress and had already discussed a refund with the store before she wrote her message, Boillat said.
To keep the peace, Boillat made an exception to company policy and refunded the purchase price. She also asked The Knot to remove the critical posting, which it did.
If vendors or people who post to The Knot’s bulletin boards ask for messages to be erased, the company will comply, Berg said. Vendors are prohibited from posting messages.
“We get things brought to our attention almost every day,” he said. “In the scheme of things, its [impact is] very little, but to that one vendor it’s very big.”
For brides who do have valid concerns, the boards provide a beneficial consumer service, Berg noted.
“It is a very helpful outlet,” he said. “Some of the information is not available to them anywhere else.”
Boillat, Jackson and hair-makeup stylist Danielle Erb of St. Louis complain that the brides who frequent the bulletin boards are often on a tight budget and are more demanding than high-end clients.
Demanding brides
“There are people who are just constant complainers. You could roll over dead for them, and they’d say `Why didn’t you roll over on your stomach?'” said Erb, who notes that she gets more business from The Knot than from her ads in an area bridal magazine.
Boillat theorizes that the complainers are jealous of women with bigger wedding budgets and the vendors who work for them. Yet they are often the message writers who inflict the greatest damage, she said.
“Brides can be catty,” Boillat said.
Berg agrees that brides who post on Knot bulletin boards are budget conscious, but he said it would be a mistake to assume that they are low income.
Despite the potential fallout from a persnickety posting on a bulletin board, Erb, Jackson and other vendors said they benefit overall from The Knot.
“It’s been great for me,” Erb said. But I’m always nervous about it.”
Wedding industry by the numbers
– Number of U.S. weddings: 2.1 million a year
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– Wedding industry: $50 billion a year
– Average expenditure: $22,364*
– Average Midwest wedding: $20,678*
– Amount May Department Stores Co. invested in The Knot Inc. in 2002: $5 million, or 19.5 percent ownership stake
*Includes honeymoon
Sources: Fairchild Bridal Group’s 2002 American Wedding Study, Association of Wedding Professionals International