Networking and Nostalgia: Building a Legacy in the Wedding Industry

Have you ever wondered what happens to those gorgeous wedding bouquets after the big day ends? Meet Andrea Cole, the artistic entrepreneur behind DB Andrea, who has built an impressive business turning bridal bouquets into stunning keepsakes that last a lifetime.

In this captivating conversation, Andrea reveals how she accidentally discovered flower preservation after finding a decades-old pressed flower in her husband's book. What began as a personal creative project blossomed into a thriving business when someone asked her to preserve their bridal bouquet. Through her unique preservation techniques using resin and pressing methods, Andrea creates beautiful pieces of art that allow couples to hold onto their wedding memories forever.

Andrea shares the fascinating chemistry behind her preservation process, explaining how timing, temperature, and humidity all play crucial roles in creating the perfect keepsake. Her journey from experimental hobbyist to business owner offers valuable insights for anyone looking to transform their passion into profit. While social media initially helped launch her business, Andrea emphasizes that providing exceptional customer service and maintaining quality standards have been more important for sustainable growth than chasing viral trends.

We also explore Andrea's role with the Wedding Industry Professionals Association (WIPA), where she serves as a board member for the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter. Her perspective on networking is refreshingly honest – it's about building genuine connections and serving others rather than direct self-promotion. This philosophy has helped her create meaningful relationships that naturally lead to business growth. As Andrea wisely advises her younger self: "Stop, stare, appreciate." In the constant pursuit of the next achievement, entrepreneurs often forget to celebrate how far they've come.

Ready to preserve your wedding memories or connect with other wedding professionals? Visit dbandrea.com to see Andrea's beautiful work or reach out about joining WIPA's supportive community of wedding industry experts.

Chapters

• 0:55 Introducing Andrea Cole from Dallas
• 2:02 The Art of Flower Preservation
• 4:37 Building a Business From Creative Accident
• 8:05 Marketing Strategies and Social Media
• 9:37 WIPA: Wedding Industry Professionals Association
• 13:37 Building a Legacy Beyond Trends
• 17:27 Advice to Her Younger Self

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:28

Welcome back to Wedding Empires. I'm your host, jack Bowie, and I'm thrilled to be joining you today with a very special guest all the way from Dallas, fort Worth. Her name is Andrea Cole, and Andrea has a really interesting business. I've not come across a business like this in the wedding space, so I'm really excited to spend this time with her and explore her business, which is in the space of flower preservation, and get some insight into WIPA right Now for those of you like me in Australia no, it's not Fitzy, and WIPA it stands for the Wedding Industry Professionals Association, and Andrea runs a branch for WIPA in Dallas, fort Worth. So we're going to talk about all of that as well and, I guess, how those things combine so she can lead with passion and purpose and create a wedding empire. So, andrea, so lovely to have you. Thank you so much for having me on. Let's start with the business. It's called DB Andrea and all I know is flower preservation. So tell me, I guess, how does this work?

Speaker 2: 1:35

Yes, of course. Well, if you have not heard of flower preservation, I actually have a piece here to show you. These were some of my anniversary flowers. So, as you can see, it's a block that looks very similar to almost like glass, but it's not. It's a little bit less heavy, but it's plastic. It's a hard plastic and you can capture your amazing wedding flowers basically forever as a piece of art that's amazing.

Speaker 2: 2:00

Thank you. Thank you so much. So, yes, we have a lot of different shapes and sizes. We even do pressed flowers, kind of like what you can see back in the background. So the way it works is how it sounds right Preserving the essence of the flower forever. So there's a lot of ways to do it, there's a lot of easy ways to do it, there's a lot of hard ways to do it, but the essence, and again the goal, is to preserve the flowers from our brides, just so they can get a piece of art forever.

Speaker 1: 2:25

I love that. And how did you come up with this idea, like what led you to do this?

Speaker 2: 2:30

So it was kind of like by accident. I was actually in the library and I saw a book and it was actually my husband's and I opened it and there was a huge pansy that was entirely flat, entirely brown, that had been preserved for about three decades. So his grandmother actually used to press flowers in books and I had. I just had no idea that you could do this Apparently, here in the United States some people are taught that through school. I grew up in Mexico, so I had no idea that was a thing.

Speaker 2: 2:56

After a few months he gifted me a beautiful bouquet of flowers for Valentine's and obviously I wanted to preserve them, especially since I've always considered very artistic myself. So I basically got to work and started pressing flowers. A little after I was able to put some coasters together and just like a beautiful picture, a mini picture of you know, like some fashion sketches with the dresses that were actual flowers. And again, it was kind of like an accident. I was just, you know, being creative, being myself, and it kind of like took off from there. It's crazy.

Speaker 1: 3:29

So can I ask how it works? Like what's inside that glass, whatever it is?

Speaker 2: 3:34

so there's as I mentioned earlier, there's different types of preservation. This is called resin. So basically, resin it's two different compounds that you mix together, so it's kind of like liquid, but they're very thick. You mix them together and it hardens. There's obviously it's it's chemistry right, so you have to be very careful on the timing or your temperature, your humidity levels and so on. Obviously it's it's chemistry right, so you have to be very careful on the timing or your temperature, your humidity levels and so on. So it's kind of like an experiment in the beginning. Once you nail it down, you just have to basically repeat everything that's worked for you. But it hardens into this plastic. So again, you can kind of like here, that is not glass, it's just a really hard plastic beautiful.

Speaker 1: 4:10

Okay, so a fun thing to do that you clearly enjoy. How did you turn that into a business?

Speaker 2: 4:16

Well, so, as I mentioned, I kind of just started doing a little bit of like pieces for myself. And actually my husband was the one who came home once and he was like you could sell that. I'm like who's going to? Who's going to buy a little something out of flowers that you gave me? Right? But, as I mentioned, I put it basically on facebook and a lot of people, a lot of my friends and family, started inquiring about doing something with their flower and I kind of like started just selling pieces of art. It wasn't I.

Speaker 2: 4:40

I actually went to a lot of markets, you know, like the farmer's market and so on, just selling pieces that I have made, and I just couldn't believe that people would be interested in buying something that I had so much fun creating. And it wasn't until a little bit after, like a few months after all of this happened, that somebody contacted me to preserve their bridal bouquet. Of course, in that moment I'm like, oh my gosh, people are getting married year round. If I can find a way for people that are in Dallas to find me and, of course, like anywhere else from the United States, if they can ship their flowers to me, if I can preserve their flowers. They're going to really want to pay for this, you know, because now it's not just random flowers that I picked in my garden or my husband gave me. These are your flowers, you know.

Speaker 1: 5:23

I love it. I'm kind of wishing that I had your details earlier. I know I'm on to husband number three, so I've had a few bouquets that I would have liked. There's no number four that if there is, I will. If there is, I'll let you know. Yes, I'll have you on speed dial ready. This is great, and is it something that you'd like? Did you dabble with Etsy as well? Is that the space that you sort of played in? Yes, I imagine it would be huge on that.

Speaker 2: 5:52

Yes, I'm on Etsy, but Etsy is certainly not where I sell my stuff anymore. I feel like it's a great tool for you to get started, for sure, and I used to sell a lot there, so I used to sell a lot in person. I used to sell on my website and again Etsy. I just don't use it as much anymore.

Speaker 1: 6:07

Yeah, okay. So let's talk about how you've advertised your business and you've attracted these couples. What was your strategy and what's worked and not worked for you?

Speaker 2: 6:18

So, in the very beginning, etsy you know Etsy is a great platform for beginners. I think, most more likely I would say that social media was really nice to me back in the day when I started. I started pressing flowers in 2016 and the algorithm is not what it is now. You know you would just the more you post, the more you would get traction. People would definitely see I mean, it was like a timeline Do you remember that right?

Speaker 1: 6:41

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:42

You posted at the right time, Everybody would see it, and so I would say I was very lucky to be able to start when you know, when the reach was great and I just started spending a lot of time on Instagram and reaching out to people like that. And again, I had different markets where I was actually meeting with people one on one, even if they were not getting married. Most people know somebody who's getting married, somebody who has passed away, you know, because we obviously do any kind of flowers, from weddings to memorials to anniversary and so on. So Instagram I would say was was probably the best way for me to start. Right now we're doing, of course, Instagram ads, social media ads and, of course, as you mentioned earlier, WIPA. Like there's a lot of networking that needs to happen, especially in the wedding industry, because it's all about relationships.

Speaker 1: 7:28

Well, why don't we talk about WIPA? What is it first so?

Speaker 2: 7:31

WIPA, as you mentioned, is Wedding Industry, wedding industry professionals association here in the united states. Basically, it's like a group where people are members and they pay a fee yearly and they get to go to all the events that the whip up board produces for everybody, right, so they are able to learn a lot. There's a lot of like um, experimental, like classes, and then classes, and then obviously a lot of inspiration as well, because the board is producing the best of the best. You know they are bringing in the best partners within each city or each chapter and again it's just a fabulous event and typically they have, like guest speakers, designers, you know, all kinds of different partners. So this organization is, I would say, one of the best in the United States and we have 22 chapters, so every major city has its chapter. So if you're a member, you can actually attend anybody, like any of the chapters, not only your cities, you know. So if you are a photographer that travel a lot, you can go to New York and attend.

Speaker 2: 8:36

I thought it would be, you know, my first years. I would say I was just laser focused on growing my business, especially like across the United States, that I just didn't have time to go to events and to me it almost felt like I was cheating. You know, to go to a networking event and be mingling with a cocktail in your hand, like I don't have time for that right. But looking back I'm like, oh my gosh, I just so wish that I had started sooner.

Speaker 1: 9:22

Absolutely. I'm a former business owner of a business networking brand, so I'm very big on business networking. Yeah, wow, maybe I should start a chapter of WIPRA in Australia. I think that that's something, that it's incredible.

Speaker 1: 9:38

I went to one wedding networking event in a previous city that I lived in and it was put on by a group of celebrants that had sort of come together and created this celebrant collective and they organized this one-off event. And I tell you what there were celebrants that got up and sort of spoke at that event that I booked and booked, and booked and booked as a wedding planner not having seen them at a wedding, but just met them that night and created that connection. So I think you're right. I think, yes, we build our connections when we attend a wedding and somebody does a great job and we make that connection on the job. But you know, this is just another way to do that right, it's another way to get that connection and there's nothing more powerful than a wedding professional saying to a couple I personally love this person. You know that sort of referral, you know.

Speaker 2: 10:32

You just and something to keep in mind is somebody like me. I don't go to the weddings, I'm a post-wedding kind of person. There's a lot of the invitations and all the stationery. They don't get to see the bride and the groom. They don't get to meet them sometimes.

Speaker 1: 10:46

They're not true.

Speaker 2: 10:48

So all of these vendors, that they don't even get to interact with each other.

Speaker 1: 10:52

It's a perfect place for them to start meeting people, because at the end, I mean referrals is, as you mentioned, is like the best type of marketing, you know, yeah, yeah, okay. So talk to me about your journey with WIPA. You started as a member, but now you're running a chapter. How does that work for you and how's that helped your business?

Speaker 2: 11:10

Yes. So a couple of my friends makeup artists, actually was the one, the very first one, who told me about WIPA. And again she's. She's there, yes, the day off, but she doesn't get to interact with a lot of people. So she highly suggested that I looked into different organizations and she recommended to start with WIPA because it's the biggest one, the best one, and again they have different chapters.

Speaker 2: 11:32

So I decided and again this is back when I was like I guess I'll just try it. I I don't. I don't know about networking and going to events. You know, I'm kind of like wasting time. So I basically joined as a member and I went to two events and my logic was, if I go to two events only and get somebody, like somebody, to refer my business, it's gonna pay off, right? Yeah, well, you can't get it that way. It's not going into.

Speaker 2: 11:57

An organization like this should not be considered a marketing tool, so should be considered a branding tool. You are there to represent your brand and yourself as the brand, and it's all about connections. So you're not there just to like thinking like, oh, you're gonna like how can I push my product in your face because you don't, definitely don't want to do that right. That is just not the best way to network whatsoever. Best way to see it is what can I do for you, who can I connect you with? And then that, naturally, is going to basically transform into a good relationship Number one, number two somebody is going to trust you and then if they're interested in you, then they're going to ask questions about you and, honestly, it just pays off.

Speaker 2: 12:38

So after my first year again kind of like that was my logic I realized that it was more about serving, more than about pushing your products and service, and so it was at that time that I said you know what I want to be on the board, so I run their marketing and communications in the Dallas chapter. Because, again, I felt as though if I serve, you know, and serve and serve and serve, eventually people are going to ask who I am, you know, but it's not. You can't just go to like, since I run their socials, I can't just go to their socials and just post about my company. You can't do that right. So again, it's really about serving and making the right connections yeah, I agree, I agree.

Speaker 1: 13:16

When I had my in Heels, it was you go to give, not go to get. And yeah, if everyone buys into that, it's you know, it's incredible, fantastic, okay, so how do you juggle it all, like I'm hearing? You know, there's this community leadership, there's your own business, your mom, like what else is thrown into the mix?

Speaker 2: 13:34

You know, it's funny that you asked that, because in the beginning of the year, which is when I joined, I had just come back from Miss America I don't know if you're familiar with Miss America or not. We are the official partner and so the actual competition was in Orlando, florida, which is, I mean, like three hours on a flight, right. So I came back after the competition and just winding down and then I took over this position right away, and so I had no idea what the position really was like. So it's, it's a lot of work. So I started spending about I kid you not like about probably like part-time. It was a part-time job and it's not paid, it's and you still have to buy your tickets, you know. So like little.

Speaker 2: 14:16

And we we came to like we were actually organizing one of the biggest events of the year, like shortly after. So I was this close to tell the president like I don't think I can do this, like I have my own company to run, you know. But again, obviously, like I mean as anything else, like after you're doing like repeating your work, you understand, you know like the pace of it and what meets from you know what, what, what you need to do for it, just to make sure that you're doing the right thing. But I do have a team. I have a team of 10 people. Our core team is 10 people. We sometimes even hire more people when it gets busy and I could not do it without them, to be honest.

Speaker 1: 14:51

Excellent, okay, and and how do you? I mean, I know that you're interested in really building a legacy with your brand, so let's talk about how you know you've stayed true to that. You haven't kind of gone with the trends and you know you're building something that will last.

Speaker 2: 15:09

That is also a very interesting topic to me because I grew my social media before reels were a thing and in fact I am ashamed, I think, to say that none of my videos have gone viral, like not a single one of them. And you know we were, don't get me wrong, flower preservation has existed for centuries. But I really do believe that we were kind of like the first firm or studio to really like start hiring people, start getting bouquets from across the country, and right now we have a lot of competitors and a lot of those competitors have been super successful with, you know, reels and TikTok, that their business, just like I mean it's doing amazing. And to me I just have not realized how to gone viral, you know, and for the longest time I was just like, oh my God, I just can't believe.

Speaker 2: 15:53

You know, we're trying and trying and trying, and then I realized that it's really not about the followers. Are the followers really translating to sales? A lot of times that's not the case, right? So instead of actually obsessing and, you know, trying to figure out why my videos have not gone viral, we were just really honing into getting the best customer service for our clients and making sure that our brand is noticed because of its quality. So really, all the efforts and instead of investing them in trends which you're never going to see me, you know lip sync and dance in front of a piece. I've never going to do that personality with you, know, and it fits you.

Speaker 2: 16:30

Yeah perfectly fine, but it needs to feel true to yourself because, at the end, building a brand is a legacy, right and years after, like you, need to look back at your brand 10 years after and say that is who I am right now. Of course you've changed, you know, but always you need to be proud of I have been always true to myself, you know.

Speaker 1: 16:51

Yeah, I love that. Now, if Ben was here, he has a last question that he likes to ask, so I'll do it in his honor. Andrea, if you ran, walked down the street and ran into a former version of yourself at 18, what advice would you give to that version of yourself?

Speaker 2: 17:06

Oh, my goodness, honestly, just stop, stare, appreciate, because when you're an entrepreneur, you're growing and you know, first of all, first of all, growth is not always linear. You know, and it's so easy for you to like again, lose followers or start comparing yourself to others and just not be content Like it's so easy. I mean, you reach a goal and you're just not like okay, I made it. You know, you're always, always looking for more and more. It just never ends, especially the more great you have which I happen to have a lot, and it can be a good thing and a bad thing, right? So if I could look back on myself at 18, I would say, look, look where you are. You know like, look what you built. I feel like my 18 year old would be so freaking proud of where we stand today. And again, I have a really hard time passing and appreciating what I've done.

Speaker 1: 17:59

I love that, okay, that was great. So if you're out there and you'd like to get to know Andrea and her business and suss out these beautiful flowers, her website is dbandreacom Andrea, so D-B-A-N-D-R-E-Acom.

Speaker 2: 18:16

You'll also find her on LinkedIn, instagram and on Facebook Now how can people become a member with WIPA so you can go to WIPAorg and just join that way? If you're in Dallas-Fort Worth, please reach out to me because I would love to meet you and introduce you to a lot of our team. I mean, they're fantastic and again, there's 22 chapters, so I really hope that we can meet some people that way, that sounds amazing.

Speaker 1: 18:38

Andrea, thank you so much for your time. It's been lovely spending this time with you and I'm sure we'll chat again. Yeah, thank you so much. I appreciate it, thanks.