Baltimore videographer Gandhi Hurwitz noticed that most of his calls for shooting wedding videos were coming in between 11a.m. and 2p.m. each day. An astute observer of industry trends, Hurwitz tracked this one to its source. It turns out more and more brides are planning their weddings online at work, a trend that coincides with the advent of high-speed Internet. Hurwitz, who has been shooting wedding videos since 1989, has parlayed his keen eye and thorough knowledge of the business into a cutting edge, deeply interactive online community for both brides and wedding professionals.
A tech-savvy, nimble newcomer to the online bridal industry, Hurwitz offers state-of-the-art streaming video uploads to users of his new website, TheBridalGuides. This and other unique, user-friendly services created by Hurwitz’s webmaster, Larry “Fresh” Scott, are reinventing the business model for bridal Bigfoots such as The Knot and Wedding Channel. A bride-to-be can browse thousands of local and national vendors and print online coupons from Hurwitz’s site, all without logging in. With a few clicks, she can register on the site for free and build her own personalized wedding website which her guests can interactively visit. The Bridalguides.com.Â
Using the site’s unique BridalTV streaming video, the bride and her fiancé can upload personalized video invitations to their guests. Later, guests can watch the wedding videos online — including video clips uploaded from their own Bluetooth cell phones. (Click on “BridalTV” on Hurwitz’s homepage, TheBridalGuides.com , and watch Will Smith singing at a private wedding shot by Hurwitz’s associate, Visions Unlimited of Baltimore.)
Other click-to-use features include an interactive photo gallery, online RSVP and guest book (guests can leave messages here), gift registry, maps, hotels and city details. The bride can use the site’s ePlanner tools, read articles, and chat in bridal forums. Best of all — the bride and her guests pay nothing for these services.
Where brides go, vendors follow. Having himself been frustrated by the limited interactivity of other bridal websites — having to call an 800 number and play endless phone tag to changes ad postings, for example — Hurwitz says he has tried to create a site he as a wedding professional would want to use. By pricing his vendor services at less than half the cost of higher profile bridal sites, he has made his site “a lot more user-friendly for a lot less money”.
Each vendor has complete, click-to-use control over its personal interactive ad space, including streaming video uploads, photo gallery, unlimited article publishing, coupon generation, and customized search engine placement. All changes can be made online. Vendors can visit the bridal forums as well as vendors’only forums for tech chat.
tBigfoots, look out. Lunch hours aren’t what they used to be for brides-to-be, and the smart money is on TheBridalGuides.com To arrange an interview with Gandhi Hurwitz for more information on this subject contact sale@thebridalguides.com
Via EPR Network
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