JUST over a month ago, professional marriage celebrant Kate Ritchie kick started an online platform dedicated to helping the industry she loves most.<\/p>\n
Founding the Ballarat Wedding Collective, Ms Ritchie said was a way for her to gather over 190 Ballarat businesses that are involved with weddings and events for residents to browse and book.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea behind it is because so many businesses, not just wedding businesses, in Ballarat were hard hit last year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea was to connect relevant businesses with relevant customers to make it a better process for couples and to try and help these businesses recover after such a hard year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having been in the wedding industry for 13 years, Ms Ritchie said it was easy for her to identify local businesses that needed marketing and financial help.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom cake maker, to photographer, to makeup artist and florist, everyone along that way really experienced the similar levels of difficulty,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I say I tried to do it as a way for businesses to recover, what that means is they all get a complementary listing on the site.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor as long as I can, I\u2019m funding it myself and every business gets a pre-listing on there that links back to their own platform whether that be their business website or their Facebook.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the offerings on the site continue to develop, Ms Ritchie said her aim is to always ensure she\u2019s putting Ballarat businesses first to help them especially recover from last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople can go on the site and know they are going to be supporting Ballarat and surrounding business, I\u2019m focused on keeping it local,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe response that I\u2019ve got from other businesses has really blown my mind. The power of 190 business working together and marketing together on one platform is incredibly powerful and everyone benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n