Fresno vendors enter into unusual marriage

Premier Bride Wedding Center will have up to 22 vendors.

Published online on Wednesday, Sep. 23, 2009

Under one roof in northwest Fresno, a bride will soon be able try on dresses, chat with a photographer, get a spray tan and visit with a host of other wedding-related vendors.

The Premier Bride Wedding Center, scheduled to open Oct. 1, will house up to 22 vendors in one place. The center is spearheaded by the publishers of the Premier Bride Central Valley magazine. Gathering vendors in one place makes appointments more convenient for brides and allows the businesses to share potential customers.

The wedding center is in an 8,800-square-foot space at the northwest corner of Herndon and West avenues in the former KB Home Design Center.

The partnership is unusual, but the approach is becoming more common, said Bill Rice, a marketing professor at California State University, Fresno.

There are a few variations of wedding centers across the country, but in the restaurant industry, business partnerships are more widespread, he said. For example, Togo's and Baskin-Robbins share space, as do Taco Bell and Long John Silver's, he said. Home insurance, appraisers and inspectors also sometimes locate in the same office, Rice said.

That type of "one-stop shopping" gave birth to department stores and retailers such as Wal-Mart, and it's beginning to move into the service industry, he said.

The publishers of Premier Bride -- Tracy Barnes and Kristy Montgomery -- have talked for years about the idea for a wedding center. The two host a twice-a-year bridal show and hold mixers for vendors who advertise with them.

"People are looking for a way to promote themselves and not have to generate all their leads themselves," Barnes said.

Mark Janzen Photography is moving into the wedding center and out of his home office. The photographer will have an interior office in the center that opens to a lounge area with his name on the door.

"My target client will be walking through the building on a daily basis," he said. "No retail space or strip mall in Fresno would give me that kind of visibility."

The lounge area will hold couches and a Wii gaming system.

Premier Bride's Perfect Dress is already set up with racks of weddings dresses for sale.

Mariah Walton ran the dress shop in a smaller location along with her other business, Simply Flowers, near Shaw and Fruit avenues. Simply Flowers is moving to the center, and Walton is partnering with Barnes and Montgomery to open an expanded version of the dress shop.

Act 1 Tuxedos will move from its Blackstone Avenue location into the center.

Also included in the center are wedding coordinators, more photographers, a florist, an esthetician who will do facials and brow shaping, a Mary Kay make-up consultant, a seamstress, DJs and others.

Six spaces are still open. Other weddings vendors can also buy display space on tables around the office.

Clients can make appointments with several vendors on the same day, Barnes said. Or they can make an appointment with a single vendor. When the clients are done, they'll be asked whether they need any other vendors and will be given a list of the ones located there.

The center eases the wedding planning process for brides who want to check out several photographers before hiring one, for example, said Montgomery.

"She doesn't have to take so much time off of work to go see 10 different vendors," she said.

On the second Tuesday of every month, the wedding center will host an open house for potential customers from 5 to 8 p.m.

Like other "one-stop shopping" heavy hitters, the center is likely to provide stiff competition to vendors who are not located there, Rice said.

"It's a whole different category of exposure as far as marketing is concerned," she said.