Fewer Buffets and Big Wedding Cakes - COVID Wedding Trends with Emily Forrest, from Zola

Bride to Have Been

Show Summary

In today’s world, trying to get married has become... a hot mess. So, to all the COVID brides to have been, grooms and wedding professionals: you’re not alone. Welcome to Bride To Have Been, a StudioPod original podcast hosted by Emily Lewis, with the purpose of building a community by sharing the reality of this new normal in the wedding industry. Let’s keep inspiring each other and celebrate the thing we treasure the most: love.

Over two million couples get married every year, and the online wedding planning company Zola has helped more than a million of them. Despite all the left hooks the pandemic has thrown out this past year, Zola has worked to make couples feel taken care while struggling to decide whether to delay what is supposed to be the biggest day of their lives. From creating “change the date” cards to providing top notch customer support and a community where brides-to-be can share and commiserate with each other, Zola’s Director Of Communications Emily Forrest sits down with us to talk about the trends they’ve seen and how they’ve adapted to remain meaningful during the global pandemic.

Jump straight into:

(05:56) - Zola’s top notch customer service - “If you sign up for Zola, you'll receive a lot of emails from Melissa. One of the number one questions that I get is, ‘Is Melissa a real person?’ And she is, I was just talking to her.”

(09:00) - What Zola has changed in order to better support couples - “We introduced a product where Zoom is integrated into Zola, so if you have a wedding website with us, you can live stream it directly on your wedding website. It's just a lot nicer for couples who don't want to feel like they got married on Zoom.”

(10:44) - On what Zola has seen changing during the Pandemic - “In a lot of ways, 2020 has really centered us around what is really important and what weddings mean and what marriage means and why that's so important and should be celebrated.”

(21:49) - On looking forward - “There is hope at the end of the tunnel. And I am looking forward to hopefully, later in 2021, seeing a burst of safe weddings where people can safely gather.”

(23:49) - On couples getting creative - “In some way, this has really given couples more freedom to do what they want to do. And I think that that's a wonderful thing.”

(27:40) - On surprising trends that haven’t changed - “One thing that has been interesting to see is that a lot of wedding budgets are not necessarily changing.”

Resources

Follow Zola on Instagram and learn more about their services on their website.

Thanks for listening! Follow us on Instagram, don’t forget to use the #COVIDBrideTribe, and feel free to send us your COVID wedding stories. Bride To Have Been is a podcast brought to you by GiftPod and produced at StudioPod. Edits were made at Nodalab and music was produced by GaryOAKland. Don’t forget to subscribe, rate and share with all of your fellow brides.