012 // Connecting With Your Online Community

Ali Eagen is the owner of Buffalo Indie Weddings and Made by Anatomy. After receiving a degree from FIT in fashion design and working in corporate fashion, she moved back home to Buffalo, NY to start her own company.

Over the last 9 years, she has been working with brides to create one-of-a-kind custom and reconstructed wedding gowns. It was this work with brides that led her to realize the need for a better way to connect with the kinds of brides who wanted her service, so she and her then-partner created Buffalo Indie Weddings. BIW is a resource for engaged couples of WNY to inspire and connect them to the best, more unique and non-traditional wedding vendors in the area.

She has a young family and teaches part-time at Buffalo State College in the fashion department.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• How did it all start? 
• Learning to differentiate yourself.
• Why Indie?
• How connection will make you stand out.
• Bridging the gap between online and in-person connections.
• How to drive attendance to your events.
• A bridal show HAS to be fun! 
• How do you monetize the bridal show business?
• Staying connected to your members.
• Challenges running a multi-city business?

RESOURCES DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

Website: buffaloindieweddings.com

Instagram:
Buffalo Indie Weddings: @buffaloindieweddings
Rochester Indie Weddings: @rochesterindieweddings

Facebook:
Buffalo Indie Weddings: Buffalo Indie Weddings
Rochester Indie Weddings: Rochester Indie Weddings

Pinterest: Upstate Indie Weddings