It’s been 15 years since Ciara Crossan founded WeddingDates, can you believe it? we are proud of what we’ve accomplished, and we have you, our customers, to thank for it. We’ve come a long way since our humble beginnings as a small startup with an idea to take the wedding industry by storm, but we couldn’t have done it without your support. As we celebrate this milestone, we pause to reflect.
We’ve grown from a small team to a dedicated and passionate group of 11, serving customers across the UK and Ireland. With a keen focus on the wedding industry, we’ve expanded our suite of products – now offering software solutions, as well as advertising and marketing services and are looking forward to even more innovation in the future.
“Looking back at where we started, it seems like yesterday that we were celebrating 10 years in business. You can see what a jam-packed roller coaster those first years were and here we are at 15 years!” says Ciara.
In 2018 and 2019 we were living the dream. They were our peak years in terms of revenue, staffing, awards and accolades. The wedding industry was looking forward to a bumper year for weddings. Then came the full stop and big reset in March 2020. Lockdown, the industry closing and venues trying new ways to keep money coming in were our new reality. We changed our pricing model by introducing monthly subscriptions as a way to help our customers. We set up a Trust Circle with venues in UK and Ireland as well as offering free services and discounts during the lockdown so that everyone could stay connected during this difficult time. We paired everything back and took a long hard look at ourselves. It was a time of zoom, working from home, home-schooling and virtual coffees. Reconstructing our software system for future development was key, but most importantly rebuilding ourselves for what comes next.
“Helping our customers every day and being appreciated for that is what gives me so much joy. We have hotel clients that have been with us since 2008 and have stuck with us through thick and thin. That loyalty is something I value deeply. Without our customers, we wouldn’t exist and I never take that for granted,” says Ciara.
And here we are, in 2023. A lot has changed but we are starting to feel as if we are getting back to normal. We have a renewed focus on developing our software, WedPro by WeddingDates. Our team is still primarily working remotely but we are growing and still going strong. As we look to the future our team has some big plans. In the next 5 years, we will be working hard to establish WedPro as the leading software solution for wedding and events venues, not just in Ireland and the UK but also making waves internationally.
Thank you for your support over the years, we look forward to working with you for the next 15.
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