3: Wedding Marketing in 2018 with Jenna Parks from Southern Bride and Groom Magazine

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Jenna Parks is the co-owner of Southern Bride and Groom Magazine of the Triangle. Jenna’s mom Donna started the magazine back in 1986, and Jenna came on board in 2010 to advance it into the  digital age.

To have any sort of impact in the wedding magazine space – which features some huge names like Martha Stewart, Brides Magazine, Grace Ormonde, Premier Bride, Wedding Style, The Knot, Bridal Guide, and Inside Weddings – a smaller magazine needs to know their local market extremely well.

That’s exactly what Southern Bride and Groom has done over the past 30+ years. They don’t just write articles about what’s trending or what the color of the year is or what celebrity wore what dress to a wedding. They get to know their local vendors so they can recommend to Raleigh area couples what the best venues are, who the legitimate wedding planners are, what linen companies are reputable, etc.  They develop that trust with couples and vendors alike, and they become entrenched in the market so couples know when flipping through the magazine, that if they use these vendors, they can be comfortable with who they hired.

Jenna came on the show to talk about how her mom started the company and how she came on to take it to the next level, instagram etiquette, and marketing strategy for wedding vendors – where should you as a vendor spend not only your money but your time as well.

Southern Bride and Groom Magazine 2018

Southern Bride and Groom Magazine 1996

Jenna’s Blog Post about the reliability of reviews.

Episodes 1-5 are brought to you by JustMensRings.com, the leader in affordable fashion and wedding rings.  The rings on the website look amazing and are ridiculously inexpensive already – typically less than $50 for a ring you’d pay $500-$1000 for in a store.  And if you use the promo code “real” at checkout, you’ll get an additional 15% off your purchase. So there’s no need to spend $1000 on a wedding band, just go to JustMensRings.com with promo code “real”.  Excludes designer benchmark rings.

Music for this episode by https://www.bensound.com.

The host of the show is Megan Gillikin, owner and lead consultant at A Southern Soiree Wedding and Event Planning.  She’s also available for wedding and hospitality business consulting and can be reached at megan@weddingsforreal.com.

Weddings for Real is edited and produced by Jason Gillikin for Happy Hippo Digital.