How to get the Most from your CHI thee WED Membership

Some thoughts from the Editor…

Thank you so much for joining the CHI thee WED community. As you know, this platform is a labor of love and we are truly trying to bring something unique to the wedding industry in Chicago. We are not in competition with The Knot/Wedding Wire/Wedding Pro; we will not be driving that kind of “lead traffic” to your page. CHI thee WED was created to fill a void in the market - we are sharing REAL weddings and REAL advice to Chicago couples (and sometimes beyond).

Our original founders felt like every time they would look at a wedding blog or magazine they would see a luxury wedding featuring a white, hetero couple. That is wonderful but also, there are a lot of non-luxury, non-white, non-hetero couples getting married in Chicago every single week - where are those weddings and stories being shared? From there, CHI thee WED was born with the intention of sharing inspiration that reflects of all of Chicago’s communities.

Our weekly content schedule is pretty simple - Real Weddings or Styled shoots on Tuesdays and Fridays, and Tips & Tricks on Wednesday. That being said, we have lots of room for YOU and your content.

Here are several practical steps that you can take to draw meaningful traffic to your business and your social feed, using our partnership this year.

1) Get Featured

Send us real weddings, styled shoots, engagement sessions, proposals!
We have Chicago wedding professionals that are not in our community — your peers — who are inundating us with submissions every week, yet we struggle to get our own community members to submit features. Since we’re a blog first, our social feed reflects what’s on our blog. So if you want to drive meaningful traffic to your page/website/socials…submit your work! It doesn’t have to be ALL of your work (generally we would like to feature you 4-8 times per year) - give us the highlight of your favorite work, clients, venues, etc. Share the kind of wedding that was ideal for your business, showcasing the best of what you do and how you do it.

Share your expertise via informational blog posts
If you have a topic that you’re passionate about, or you’re doing something different and unique within the industry, pitch a topic to us! We post Tips and Tricks blogs weekly and those generally generate more traffic than a real wedding because couples outside of Chicago are searching for relevant and meaningful wedding topics while planning. Topics like “What to do with your wedding florals after your wedding” or “How to stay cool at your summer wedding”, we want YOU to come in as the expert and share your information, the same way you lead your clients once they’ve booked with you. Since these kinds of posts get more traffic, it really is a way for you to harness that spotlight for yourself as an expert within your field.

Share and Re-share!
Instagram content follows the blog content, so once we share your blog post, it will also be shared via Instagram that same day/week. We’ll tag you, so when you see it, share and re-share! We have over 12K followers on Instagram and the best way to highlight your connection with our community is to share it with your followers. Instagram is an easy way to brag about things you’re doing, so post the link to the blog post via your stories, share the images, email the post via your marketing emails, etc. We WANT to give you the platform, so take it!

Invite us to be a Collaborator on Instagram
Create educational posts and reels and invite us as a Collaborator on Instagram! When we accept, the post will show up not only on your feed but also on ours. The focus of these types of collaborations should be on EDUCATION. “Tips for your wedding makeup trial,” “Best Venues in Chicago for outside catering,” “Favorite engagement session locations,” etc. - these are the kinds of Instagram collaborations that we’re looking to feature on our feed. We post weddings often, so unfortunately we cannot accept a wedding recap from your recent wedding or sneak peeks from the wedding shower you helped plan. If you’re not interested in writing an “expert” blog post but still have great information to share, this is your outlet! We only ask that you use a professional image (primarily) on the “Cover” photo for your post. This will help keep our feed (and yours) looking professional and well thought-out. Additionally, please keep the language and content clean and relatable. If we’re invited to be a Collaborator on on something we don’t like or doesn’t align with your stated values, we may not accept the post.

→ What is “inviting a Collaborator?” When you go to post on Instagram and “tag people,” you’ll see an option on the under the photo that says “Invite Collaborator.” This option is only availalbe at this point; once you post, Instagram will not allow you to go back and edit the post to add a Collaborator, and you can only invite one Collaborator. After you post, we’ll get a notification. Once we “accept” the post, it will show on both of our Instagram grids and the engagement will (in theory) be shared with both sets up followers and friends. HOT TIP: The sooner a page “accepts” the Collaborator request, the more traffic will be driven to a post. For example, if we invite you to be a Collaborator and you wait hours or days to accept, it’s extremely detrimental to engagement traffic and Instagram will not prioritize the post. MORE traffic FASTER, is Instagram’s way.

2) Attend events (virtual or in person)

We’re a connected community and we’re always trying to make MORE connection points. The best way for you to connect with others in our community is to attend networking events, styled shoots, wedding shows, seminars, anything that comes your way! We recently started adding “Virtual Coffee Hours” to each month and are hoping to transition some of these to in-person events on a bi-monthly/quarterly basis, depending on interest. And starting in 2023, we’ve adding Styled Shoots to our roster of opportunities to connect (ask us when we’re planning our next one!). These Styled Shoots are primarily CTW Member Exclusive; however, we’re offering the members the first right of refusal. If members are not able to join and we exhaust our community, we’ll move forward with vendors outside of CTW network. We’re truly trying to focus on giving you more opportunities to network, so please take the time to attend as often as you can. We’re all excited to learn more about you and what you do!

3) Send us sales, upcoming events, partnership opportunities

We have a large following and can help support the promotion of your events! We send weekly/bi-weekly email blasts, we have a large social network, and we have connections within the industry — so let us help get the word out about whatever you need. Whether it’s a flash sale, a model need for a styled shoot, a new program you’re offering to your clients, or an opportunity to brag, we can share your news in lots of different ways to lots of different people (couples or industry professionals). In the past we’ve been asked to come on board with events to be official media sponsors, so just ASK! We want you to be successful and will support your business however we can.

4) Share your affiliation with your own network

CHI thee WED is an established brand and micro-influencer within the Chicago wedding market. We have a following, and established wedding professionals are looking to us for advice, connection and affiliation. We are not “just a wedding blog,” anymore! Use your connection with us as a community member to elevate your own brand. Our connections make us stronger: we fully believe in embracing our affiliation with you, and hope you’ll take the time to share your affiliation with CTW with your extended network.

One more thing…

We recognize there’s a cost involved in this membership and we appreciate you placing your trust in us. We’re looking for vendors that are established, have a positive reputation and are making ripples in the wedding industry. Since we’re a brand that wants to bring worthy wedding vendor recommendations to our followers, this is the reason we’ve established a membership fee. This membership is not for every vendor, just as much as another marketing avenue may not be for everyone in the wedding industry. That being said, you will truly get out of CHI thee WED what you put in. By reaching out, showing up, networking, tagging, sharing, featuring, etc., you can get out of this platform more than you realize.

Again, we appreciate your partnership so much and are so excited to get to know you, your team, and your business this year. Let’s make it a great one! For more submissions, questions, or opportunities to chat more, please reach out to me at my email : submissions@chitheewed.com. I can’t wait to hear from you!

- Michelle