Bride’s Best Friend is an Austin-based wedding planning boutique that creates weddings for clients that reflect each couple’s unique personalities. Bride’s Best Friend wanted their social media presence to tell the real story behind picture-perfect weddings and highlight the carefree elegance and personalization that is possible when you’ve got a skilled and organized wedding planner in your corner. Talking about the realities of wedding planning and adding personal touches that represent each client was hugely important to their messaging. From weather-related back-up plans, to Harry Potter–themed weddings, to addressing anxiety about toasts and crowds—we covered it all in the content we produced for the brand. Bride’s Best Friend is well-established in their category; our main goal was to improve the visuals of the brand that communicated their values and services to create a more consistent presence on social media and to bring that offline credibility online to reach new eyes.
Something old,
something new.
Bride’s Best Friend had access to photography from their many clients. While each individual photo was beautiful, a lack of intention made the overall appearance of their social presence feel messy and disorganized—not feelings you want associated with a business based on organized wedding planning. To convey the organization, brightness, fun, and beauty the brand’s services provided, we curated their feed with intention using colors that gradually flowed into one another and kept an even balance of posts about clients and wedding details. Being sure to include unique details regularly ensured that any first impression let the viewer know that these planners were not about cookie-cutter weddings.
#KeepAustinWed
One opportunity for growth was creating a hashtag strategy for their posts. The wedding community on Instagram is large and active, but Bride’s Best Friend wasn’t seeing engagement outside of their own followers. To reach new eyes and increase engagement, I created banks of hashtags that could be used for any type of photo or copy content. Using tags specifically related to Austin and the Austin wedding scene helped keep content in front of relevant eyes and the brand saw an increase in traffic to their website from Instagram.
Love is love.
Bride’s Best Friend prides themselves on being LGBTQ-inclusive. This value is upheld through the entirety of their services and I wanted to make sure this was reflected in their social media presence as well. To do this, a lot of intention went into copywriting and photo selections. I ensured all posts were inclusive by using phrases like “spouses” and “partners” instead of exclusively referring to a “bride and groom.” I also regularly highlighted queer couples throughout the year and not just during Pride month.
Saying “I do” to new platforms.
Originally, Bride’s Best Friend’s social media presence had been only on Instagram and Facebook. There were opportunities for more touch points on Pinterest and Instagram stories that could increase brand awareness. I suggested utilizing Pinterest to not only increase traffic by sharing blogs, but also to provide information and inspiration for any of their clients. Instagram stories have gained popularity and I created content to be shared regularly alongside original content from the wedding planners. They were able to increase reach of their posts by sharing them to their stories so they had increased potential to be seen. We also encouraged sharing behind-the-scenes photos during or after weddings so they could build trust in their process and stay in touch with their audience regularly without affecting the quality of the photos in her grid.
