Betsy Wise Bridal: Business Glow-Up

Initial Meeting and Project Goals

Betsy is the creative mind behind Betsy Wise Bridal, a specialist in custom wedding gown designs, alterations, and heirloom dress reconstructions.

She has been in business since 2012, but recently took some large leaps with her business taking on a new studio space and more clients.

At our first meeting, she told me it was time for her online presence to match her new beautiful shop space, and she wanted to accentuate the luxury and personalized feel of these custom gowns. She also hoped for a site that would serve as a portfolio of her work, and allow clients to gain appreciation for the depth and breadth of her skill in gown design and alteration.

Her goals for the redesign:

Modernize her web presence to be more inline with similar businesses in the industry
Simplify the user experience for the not-so-tech-savvy visitors to her site, such as older relatives of potential clients
Collect and organize images of her work as a digital portfolio for clients
Be able to update business information herself as needed
Establish a higher end clientele by elevating her branding and articulating why skilled specialist work is valuable

My additional suggested goals for the redesign:

Improve usability of mobile version of the site
Improve Call-to Action presence throughout site to increase client conversion rate
Improve accessibility in regards to text sizing and contrast
Improve consistency of branding and design across pages
Provide more direct access to essential business information such as hours and contact details
Integrate business social media into site for more robust internet presence

I was able to contact some previous customers, as well as other brides who had either shopped for higher-end designs or received alterations on higher-end gowns, in order to understand their needs and excitements while selecting a business for gowns and alterations.

Some key notes they added:

Images were absolutely essential for potential clients to determine the specialist’s skill with particular styles, designers, and materials
Most clients said they appreciated any guidance on cost and timelines to expect from a project
This was especially true of custom design clients who had never engaged a specialist of this sort before and as a result had no idea of the feasibility of their proposed budget before contacting a business

Original Site

Branding and Aesthetics

I shared with Betsy two moodboard options for a more complete branding look both playing off the gold she already used in her logo.

The first board drew from eucalyptus and the greenery of wedding bouquets, a gentle contrast to the cream and white of the dresses which would feature heavily in the images on the site. Like the stem of a creamy rose, the colors would be gently supporting a light and airy site design.

The second board incorporated the exposed brick of Betsy’s new studio space, an element that was throughout the professional photoshoot images that would feature on the new site. The warm red of the brick brought to mind the excitement and anticipation of a wedding celebration, leading to a color palette that was brighter and more energetic. This board conveys Betsy’s shared enthusiasm for the clients’ vision for their celebration of love.

While she was excited for both, she selected the first, feeling that it more closely matched her vision for the new feel of the company.

From Mock-up to Finished Product

Taking all of these goals into consideration, I sketched up a mock site for Betsy that included:

A home page with links to more specific information pages, contact information, business hours, and social media connections
A services page with estimated timelines and budgets for each service offered
An about us page that preserved the bios for her team from the current site, but also included the space for a brief description of the historic inn that housed the studio
A testimonials page
A contact page that preserved the intake form from the current site
A design process portfolio page that would offer a step by step process of how a past gown was altered or constructed

On discussion, we decided to add:

a dedicated dress gallery page with subsections for custom gowns, heirloom reconstructions, and heirloom keepsakes
A separate page for dress preservation details that clients can be directed to as needed

Once Betsy was happy with the structure and appearance of the mock site, I got to work building the actual site on Squarespace, which she had used for her current site version.

Betsy provided the copy for her design process portfolio, client reviews/testimonials, images used throughout the site, and graphical assets to be used throughout the site.

Example Prototype Pages

High Fidelity

Low Fidelity