Dealing with the Millennial Bride

This past Sunday, Samantha Bridal Show on KTN TV had a segment where a Bride in her 50s was getting married for the 1st time. This doesn't surprise me as I knew 2 other brides who did so in 2010. Even though the number of those getting married at that age might still be there for a while, there is a different age set, capturing the highest percentage locally that is on the wedding scene today than any other. This is what is considered millennial.

Who exactly is a milennial? I have found varying age groups of whose being included in it. 2 years ago, when it was discussed in weddingmarket chat using the hash tag on twitter, they were seen as age group born between 1979-2000. That makes them between the ages of 14 and 35 years. They are famously referred to as Generation Y. Another person online defined the age group as being born between the years 1982 and 2000. Irrespective of which age set amongst the two best suits your definition of Generation Y, they both were in agreement of the characteristics that are generally representative of this group.

In a local market where a majority of brides are below 35 years, understanding them and their needs is very important.By our local government's definition, 35 years is the cut mark of what is considered youths for the sake of benefiting from youth fund and other privileges reserved for this age set. The millennials have changed a lot of how weddings are done and what they expect from vendors. One thing that many who speak about this group refer to them as as the internet generation. Going through twitter's hash tag Kenyans On Twitter (#KOT), confirmed that a majority of them (millennials) get the news they need from social media. Advertisements that are in the social media reach them faster than on printed pages. Being present in the social media is important for a wedding vendor. Through keeping regularly updated accounts makes it easy to reach them. A Facebook business page with pictures containing sample of the work done gives the millennial bride the feel of what a particular vendor does and the kind of clients you handle. Not also forgetting what pinterest and other options available can do to reach a wide range of millennial brides. Using a variety makes it possible to reach as many brides as possible.  The social media has also made it easier for the millennial bride to do comparison online shopping before settling on a vendor.

The thing about the internet is that it can easily build or destroy a reputation. A quality that ties with this is the fact that millennials are considered to express themselves online a lot, are more open-minded and receptive to new ideas. If you don't get them what they want, expect them to call you out on twitter. The internet makes it easy to find a replacement for a vendor online very fast. The fact that they don't rely on non-traditional ways of doing weddings. A dissatisfied bride might easily cost a vendor one or two future brides through negative online remarks and sometimes images, if not handled well and promptly.  An online presence means also that communication is expected at the same rate as face to face response in order to satisfy the millennial bride. Almost an impossible scenario also in real life but always trying to give a faster and personalized response keeps this kind of client around.

Millennials are also considered to be individuals who prefer flexible work schedules, more 'me time' on the job and nearly nonstop feedback and career advice from managers. With this quality it is understandable why they prefer their unique individuality to stand out on their weddings. This manifests itself in different ways:
One is through the many Do-It-Yourselves (DIY) brides that we see. I recently watched a Bridal reality TV show locally where she actually opted to go to the online shopping website OLX, to buy a brand new red carpet so that she could be the 1st one to use it. After her wedding, she immediately sold it along with a few customized items for her wedding that she had bought online. Its impossible to work with the millennial bride if a wedding vendor is against them being heavily involved and almost in a way micro-managing their big day. When it comes to the millennial brides, the motto should be to work for them and with them.

The other thing about millennial brides is that its important for them, that the wedding stand out from the rest by being as original as possible. A wedding to them is an experience that allows them to show their personal style making the experience meaningful to them and their guests. They want their families and friends to remember something about their big day as the opinion of both matters a lot to them. Millennial weddings are here for quite some years to come and so is the need to meet the unique demands that these couples bring to the table.