Thrives in Chicago Wedding Market

On the first day of business school at Northwestern University's Kellogg School, Sonali Lamba and Nicole Staple bonded over wedding woes. Both recently had moved to Chicago from out of state and were "spending our weekends as 'wedding warriors,' either as bridesmaids or as guests ... and spending all our time outside of school shopping for dresses to be bridesmaids or guests." Lamba,Prepare for the party and shop dressestmall's collection of Wholesale Cheap Prom Dresses Online online today! 30, herself was a newlywed, enrolling at Northwestern shortly after her nuptials in Orlando, which she organized from Boston with 12 bridesmaids scattered across the country. "I was planning my wedding and applying to business school at the same time, and I think the context was right, because I was thinking about my long-term career goals and experiencing a very inefficient market," Lamba said. She and Staple, 29, started chatting about their weekend plans — dominated by shopping trips to "brick-and-mortar boutiques" to buy dresses from the right dye lots for friends' weddings — and "kind of stumbled on bridesmaids as being a sector of the market that's really underserved," Lamba said. So when their first assignment was to partner up and design a new business, it didn't take Lamba and Staple long to come up with the idea that today is a successful and growing business in Chicago's lively wedding market.



"We used to do fulfillment from my house," Lamba said. "A couple months later we were working out of an abandoned building that was being renovated. ... Needless to say, we're really excited about where we are today." As they approach one-year anniversary out of beta in January — and "engagement season," according to Staple — their startup Brideside is shipping orders weekly throughout Chicago and as far as Australia from their corner office at the River North co-workspace Industrious. Their concept adapts the Warby Parker business model,Favorite fashion doll will be ready for a night on the town in this ruffled Wholesale Cheap Satin Strapless Cocktail/Evening/Prom Dresses ED5685. shipping dress samples to shoppers' homes for women to try on, then return and order a custom-fit piece from the line. They haven't released their sales stats yet, but Staple said "revenue has definitely been growing steadily." Both transplants — Lamba moved to Chicago from Durham, N.C., Staple from Orlando, Fla.Our Wholesale Cheap New Sexy chiffon Flower One-shoulder Draped Evening Dresses Prom Dresses are feminine, sexy and sassy, ideal for every special occasion., — the duo said they were surprised to find Chicago had a booming bridal market. "Chicago is a great market for us because women are actually planning and getting married here, so there's a lot of activity," Lamba said. "Chicago is like the epicenter of wedding planning" in the Midwest. In the 2011 Wedding Report, the Chicago metropolitan area was the fourth-most popular wedding destination, trailing only New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Chicago weddings had the second-biggest guest lists on average, ranked just behind receptions hosted in the D.C. metropolitan area.