301: Wedding Services with Regina Richardson
Brought to you by:
Time to Pet. Go to timetopet.com/confessional for 50% off your first 3 months.
Summary:
Have you thought about offering wedding pet attendant services? It's a growing niche in the pat care world as pet owners look for more ways to include their furry family members in the biggest day of their life. Regina Richardson, owner of Furry Ventures Pet Care, joins the show to share how she provides wedding services. Marketing these niche services is quite unique, so Regina gives some great advice on attending wedding shows and building relationships with venues. She also walks us through how to handle special requests and make the day as special as possible for everyone.
Topics on this episode:
Marketing wedding services
Importance of partnerships
Meeting specific requests
Her FURever services
Main take away? As a wedding pet attendant, you're tasked with managing not just the pet but also speaking up and advocating for their care on a pretty hectic day.
About our guest:
I grew up in a small town right outside of New York City. My love for animals started at a very young age, bringing home stray animals and begging my mother to keep them. I am a big advocate for adoption and volunteer my time at local pet shelters. After I graduated college, I moved to Tampa to pursue a career in Public Relations. I adopted a dog from a local shelter and his love reinforced my desire to work with animals.
I started a Wedding Pet Care Company after I got married and saw that there wasn't much help with including your pets in your wedding.I always dreamed of having my dogs at my wedding but didn't want to put the responsibility on my friends or family. So, I quit my day job and started Furry Ventures Pet Care to help other couples' dreams come true and help with their daily pet care needs!
Links:
Website: https://furryventurespetcare.com
Email: info@furryventurespetcare.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/furryventures_petcare/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Furryventurespetcare/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaaGm6FrKpTOKZNBDzFv76Q
Give us a call! (636) 364-8260
Follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
Subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, & TuneIn
Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
dog, wedding, people, pet, service, venue, couple, day, adoptable dogs, offer, married, partnerships, absolutely, walking, clients, handle, aisle, include, bandanas, vendors
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin, Regina
Meghan 00:10
Hello, I'm Megan. I'm Collin. And this is Pet Sitter confessional and open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter
Collin 00:17
brought to you by time to pet. Hello, everybody and welcome back. Weddings are big business. And now more than ever, people are wanting to have their pets involved with their weddings. So what does that look like? How do you structure those services? What are things that we need to consider if that's something we want to offer? Today, we're really excited to have Regina Richardson, owner of furry ventures pet care on to talk all about that service, how it got started, and some of the ins and outs of it. Let's get started. Yeah, absolutely.
Regina 00:47
Thanks for having me. My name is Regina, I am located in Tampa, Florida. I'm the owner for adventure pet care. We are a wedding day pet care company. And we also do daily pet care as well, seven days a week. So I got married, and I wanted my three dogs in my wedding. And it was just very hard to do it on my own. And I didn't want to ask a family member or friend who was at my wedding to leave my wedding, go drive to get my dogs, you know, help them and the pictures and the ceremony and watch them and kind of miss out on everything that has to do with my wedding. I wanted them to enjoy the day with me. And I definitely didn't want to ask someone who wasn't invited to my wedding because that's just a little bit awkward. So after I got married, I I quit my job. And I just started to do this full time and I started to help other couples, you know, include their dogs?
Collin 01:45
What kind of clientele Do you find that you typically click with? What kind of what are they looking for do? Or do they usually? Are they the ones that bring up having a pet involved? Or is that part of a planning process where they realize that it's a possibility?
Regina 01:58
I think it's more when they realize it's a possibility. Every time we go to a wedding expos, everyone's always like, this is the thing. This is this is real. I can have my dog in my wedding. And I'm like, yes, yes, you can. Absolutely. You know, people don't know, really, that this service exist. And I'm just, you know, we're all just trying to get our names out there. And you know, and tell everyone that it is possible to include your dog in your wedding.
Collin 02:25
This is such a really, it's a really niche service. But it fills a need that a lot of people are have it's a growing demand for people. You mentioned going to wedding expos, what are those like? Because I know trying to go to a wedding expo can be extremely overwhelming as in attendance. So how do you make sure that you're prepared and ready to talk about the service that you have in those kinds of situations?
Regina 02:48
Yeah, it definitely is overwhelming for you know, couples who are attending, there's so much information in so many vendors there that day, and you get everything that you know, that you're looking for, and you just don't know who to pick and you don't know what services you want. And you know, we kind of just go there and we tell the couples exactly what we do. We give them a little brochure, we give them our business cards, they you know, they can watch a movie that we have going on on our our table and we just you know, we answer all the questions that they have on what we do and how to get their dog there. And how do we get them home, everything like that,
Collin 03:28
I really see the value of having that movie playing. Because once you start seeing how other dogs are integrated into weddings, it is very much a kind of show and tell kind of service of seeing how they're integrated, what those photos are going to look like. Because then they start putting their dog into those situations, and they can really see that service come to life.
Regina 03:51
Yeah, I'm a very visual person. So to me, I think the movie is, you know, awesome, just to see exactly what we do and how other weddings look with their dogs in it.
Collin 04:02
Now, when it comes to partnerships, I know partnerships are a really big deal in this industry, I can imagine for you, they'd be even more important. So what kind of partnerships do you develop? And how do you approach places to offer your services, they're in their venues?
Regina 04:20
I think marketing ourselves is, you know, the biggest thing that we do partnerships, we are on a lot of preferred vendor lists from you know, venues and wedding coordinators and photographers, videographers, everything like that. It's just cool, you know, kind of now in this industry instead of what you know, you know.
Collin 04:49
So how do you approach those venues when you're talking about them? Do they seem pretty receptive to these ideas?
Regina 04:57
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we tell them We handle everything pet related. And we just take the stress off the couples and the coordinators and the venue. We are in licensed and insured. So we we carry that with us. And you know, God forbid something happened. A dog goes to the bathroom inside or you know, they break something we carry that insurance and it's all of the venue's responsibility.
Collin 05:25
Yeah, they're all about liability in those kinds of situations. So yeah, absolutely. Showing up and having that on hand is a load off of of their back. Do you ever get pushback from people who are concerned about the dog being brought in? Or how do you have those discussions with people?
Regina 05:43
Yes. A lot of people always say that, you know, their dog is too crazy that they can't include their dog in their wedding. And oh, yeah, everyone always says, I'm like your dog. Isn't that crazy? I promise we. We exercise them beforehand. You know, I don't think that any dog is ever too crazy.
Collin 06:03
Now, as far as like the day of the service, what does a typical I know there's no such thing as a typical wedding. But like, how do you? What does? You wake up the morning? It's the morning of the wedding. What does that day look like for you?
Regina 06:19
Ah, so beforehand, I guess before we pick up the dogs, I'm just running around my house making sure that I have everything that I need. I have bags upon bags of dog treats and wipes and water bottles, everything that you think you would need for a dog. We have doubles and triples of just in case we need them. leashes, harnesses, collars, everything. bandanas, we bring just in case, if a couple doesn't have something for their dog to wear, we have that as well, as a backup, sometimes they forget it somewhere. So we always have something for them. You know, we pick up the dog, we bring them to the venue, we go and say hello to the couple. Some times they are in separate rooms. Sometimes we arrive when they do their first look. So depending on where they are, we'll go say hi to them. The photographer is usually with them. So we'll take a few pictures. And then we go off and do our own thing. Kind of get all that excitement out and get them familiar with being somewhere new. All the good sniffs in. And then when it's time for the ceremony, we have lined them up for the ceremony. If they need us to walk down the aisle, we will do it typically, like a bridesmaid or groomsman will do it. Sometimes we have the dogs walk by themselves if they behave and they can do it. And then we just assist with pictures after and then we bring them home.
Collin 07:47
One question that I have about that process is I know how I dress for a typical dog walker pet sitting visit attire wise, do they provide clothing for you to wear? It's to be part of the wedding ceremony? Or do you come dressed in your dog walking
Regina 08:05
gear? We have a uniform? Yeah, we have a fit venture shirt that we wear. We do pants and then we do sneakers because we are walking around with them a lot.
Collin 08:15
Yeah, I can't imagine trying to do that in a formal dress or a tuxedo. Yeah, and not be a mess at the end of the day.
Regina 08:24
Absolutely. I mean, we're on the ground. And we're squeaking toys, and we're sitting with them and playing with them. Yeah, um, you know, definitely I wouldn't be wearing a formal dress and holding a dog at the same time.
Collin 08:40
You said you're prepared by bringing triplicates of everything. Yeah. Do you? Do you ever have conversations? Or do your clients have conversations with you about whether you will be eating with them? Or not? Or how do you handle because that to me, that seems a little bit awkward of I'm in your wedding, but I'm not in your wedding? I'm going to be there the whole time. But I'm kind of not. So how did those conversations come up? And how do you handle that?
Regina 09:04
So in our contract, we have a clause that says, depending on how long we're there, we do require a vendor meal. Most of the time we aren't there that long to eat with the other vendors. But if we are then they do provide a meal for us.
Collin 09:22
Now how did you learn about those, that aspect of of being a vendor at a wedding? Because that is not something that you know, you said it of? Oh, vendor meal, like that's just something that everybody knows, I've never heard of that. So what how did you go about doing research into this service and making sure that you were well protected and you had what you need?
Regina 09:44
It's trial and error, honestly. I mean, when I got married two, I think that that helped a lot. You know, reading the contracts and seeing you know what the other vendors required, like the meal and the time and, you know, parking and everything like that. I think that helps me a lot when I got married. I learned from that. And I also, I think, you know, like I said, trial and error going, you know, to each wedding and you learn day by day. Yeah, I'm
Collin 10:15
sure that first time that you show up at a wedding and don't have food and go, Oh, this won't happen again next time. But that's the kind of places that we find are in when we are offering these kinds of very, very unique niche services of there are a lot of things that we have to consider. And for people who are just looking at this, I know it can be kind of daunting to go, oh, my gosh, I have to take into account of all of these little factors and factoids to make sure that I pull the service off, but knowing understanding, you know, it's okay, you're not going to get it all right, 100% of the time, you're, you're going to forget things, you're going to miss things. But if it's something that you're interested in, to try, and then take notes and refine and work from there.
Regina 11:00
Absolutely. I mean, we're humans, we make mistakes, you know,
Collin 11:04
unfortunately, we do.
Regina 11:07
But I think the biggest thing is not forgetting the dog. So,
Collin 11:11
yeah. So, you know, with a with a typical dog walking and pet sitting service, you know, we are sending updates to the clients and letting them know how things are going. Are you doing that? Whether you are in your care, or do you try not to because you know, bride and groom are little, they're a little busy.
Regina 11:27
Throughout the day, we do tell them how they're doing. But when we drop them off, kind of just like a regular dog walking pet sitting visit at the end of you, you write like an update to them. So we'll send them an update. And then we send all the pictures that we took that day.
Collin 11:45
Now, I saw on your website that you offer something called the best day ever videography, tell me about that service, that package and kind of what that looks like for you and offering that to your clients.
Regina 11:56
Yeah, so we do a little video, kind of from your dog's point of view, we follow them around all day, and get literally everything on video. From their first look, when they arrive when you know, mom or dad sees them for the first time we get that on video, the ceremony, playing with them the whole day. And then we put a little song to it, and then we send it out to our clients. And that's an add on.
Collin 12:28
Okay, well, what's really neat about that is that it's something that people who are already interested in having their dog be a part of their wedding, getting this behind the scenes look, I can imagine would be very meaningful to them. So it's already tapping into this interest in this desire to have their dog their pet be part of their wedding. And then to have that aspect of where was my dog on my, you know, the biggest day of my life? Where what were they doing because they are major for their family member for this person. And so that's a really, really, I love that idea. When I saw it, I was like, it just this makes perfect sense to offer it in this kind of setting.
Regina 13:07
Thank you. Yeah, it's one of our most popular add ons. You know, the couples love to see what their dog did all day and a little behind the scenes. It's, it's not like a wedding video, like the videographer would provide. It's a little more fun, you know, you see your dog and us playing with it and you interacting with the dog,
Collin 13:28
you know, we look at in our businesses, we do look for those opportunities to go, what are things that I can add on? What are things that I can give more value to without, you know, exponentially increasing my amount of work. And so doing something like these shorter ish videos with the music behind them and doing some editing, it's, you're already there, you're already there with the dog, you're already taking some videos and photos. Why not try and put them together into something like this that that person can have? And that they're going to cherish that memory for the rest of their lives? Yeah, absolutely.
Regina 14:00
No, I
Collin 14:01
know, you mentioned earlier about how, you know people will say, Oh, my dog is too crazy. Have you been in a situation where you know, it's time for that dog to go down the aisle and it just isn't happening?
Regina 14:11
I don't think we've ever had a bad dog. I'm really just jinx myself. But no, every dog that we've worked with has been a dream. It's so hard to say goodbye to them at the end of the day. They are just also great. I don't think we've ever had a problem with a dog walking down the aisle. I think one time we did have a dog who we unleashed and he was supposed to run to his dad and he just got too distracted and wanted to say hi to everyone so he won't like down each aisle of chairs to say hi everyone but that was about it and it was super cute.
Collin 14:52
Yeah, it's hard to be you know what what are people gonna do be angry that the dog Yeah.
Regina 14:58
Yeah, and then I don't Have you saw we have an Instagram real and a tick tock of two dogs wrestling in the front row of their mom's wedding, it was so cute.
Collin 15:12
Well, those are the kinds of moments that again, people who are looking for this service like that is, they get to have that be part of their lives like to have that these these family members, they are get to be involved. And it really does change the atmosphere and make that a really, really fun place to be.
Regina 15:31
It is it's a lot of fun. It just makes everyone happy to you know, when your dog arrives, it just it's a stress reliever and all those you know, nerves go away those last minute wedding jitters just go away, you see your dog and you just forget about everything that how nervous you are and you just love them.
Collin 15:50
Now your clients, are they do you find that they are mostly locals getting married? Or do you have people who are coming in for destination weddings and wanting their pets taken care of? And is that something you would be even be able to accommodate?
Regina 16:04
Yeah, we do have a lot of local people. But we do have destination weddings. We are in Florida, the beach, we have a lot of Beach Weddings, couples do bring their dogs down from, you know, wherever they are, and they're getting married on the beach. So we definitely helped them. We had a couple who lived in Seattle, and they drove all the way down to Florida with their dog. And we helped included him in the wedding. We do a meet and greet, we could do a meet and greet like zooming and greet before if they're out of town, or if they're coming in the week before. We usually do that beforehand. We don't require a meet and greet. But if the couple wants one we can do one.
Collin 16:45
I know you've been talking about a lot of live dogs. Do you get requests for other animals? And is that something you'd be able to accommodate.
Regina 16:54
So our first wedding that we ever did, we did a dog and a cat. The cat walked in a harness and leash, it was the cutest thing ever. He didn't walk down the aisle though he was just there for pictures, but we put them in a little harness and elation, he walked around and he loved it. We do get asked for cats. A lot of the times the couples don't include their cats. You know, cats are a little fickle. They could be funny. We also just had someone asked us about a boa constrictor. I've never done snakes before. So I mean, I'm not opposed to it, I would have to like meet it and, you know, kind of see how to handle it because I've never been around a snake before. So
Collin 17:41
well, that kind of leads me into asking about specific requests. I know, weddings tend to be very synonymous with high stress, high demand environments and very demanding people who are attending, whether that is the people getting married, or that is the location or the venue or whomever. So talk through how you handle and approach specific requests, or maybe stressful situations that come up through that process.
Regina 18:11
Um, so we do a timeline beforehand, and we send that out to the couple. We asked them if they have any special request any pictures that they want, if they want their dog sitting in the front seat for their ceremony, kind of stuff like that. So we go over every little detail before the day of and sometimes even the day of the changes sometimes, you know, a bridesmaid is supposed to walk down the aisle with them. And they change their mind because of the rehearsal. They didn't think that they could handle it in high heels. So we'll do it. Yeah. So we we make it very stress free for the couple anything that they want, we will do it.
Collin 19:00
Well, that that kind of embodies what this service is meant to be again of around weddings, there is this, this tendency to be a passing some information and then somebody else just handles it right. And it makes it a very, very magical experience for the people getting married that day. And even some of the attendants of things just kind of happen because of the professionals and the experts working behind the scenes to make it come off as being seamless. And obviously you know you're working extremely hard to make it appear that way. But going look we've thought through all of these things. These are all of the questions I'm going to ask you you didn't even know to ask me if you want any photos but I'm going to ask you because that's what I'm you're paying me to do,
Regina 19:46
actually. Yeah. I mean, we do it day in and day out. Basically wedding every weekend so we just we know everything you know what to ask. And everyone's always like I didn't even think about And I'm like, yep, don't worry. That's why we're here.
Collin 20:03
Have you heard about our friends at times pet? Dan from NYC pooch has this to say
20:08
it has been a total game changer for us. It's helped us streamline many aspects of our operation from scheduling and communication to billing and customer management. We actually tested other pet sitting software's in the past, but these other solutions were clunky and riddled with problems. Everything in time to pet has been so well thought out. It's intuitive feature rich, and it's always improving.
Collin 20:29
If you're looking for new pet sitting software, give time to pet a try. Listeners of our show can save 50% off your first three months by visiting tired pet.com/confessional. Now if the people getting married, if they are going in jetting off on their honeymoon, immediately afterwards? Do you offer services to then take care of their pet while they are traveling? Or do you need to hand that pet off to somebody else?
Regina 20:57
Um, yeah, so we do provide In Home Pet setting. We don't do boarding so we don't take the dogs to our house. But we will do In Home Pet Sitting at the couple's house if they are local. If not, we'll bring them to a boarding facility. If they ask us to, we've had a couple clients, you know, have dropped their dogs off at the boarding facility or a family member's house.
Collin 21:24
Now the other thing that I noticed on your website is you have this very interesting service called a is it Finding Forever service that where you bring adoptable dogs to people's weddings? Yes. So where did this idea come from? This is amazing.
Regina 21:43
Thank you. So it actually started during the pandemic, weddings, shutdown petsitting shut down. We had nothing to do. And the whole wedding industry shut down. So all the photographers and videographers and rentals, we didn't know what to do. So we started to put together styled shoots, and I would bring adoptable dogs to them to help the rescues, you know, get updated pictures for them for their websites and just kind of help them get their picture out there and known and we've gotten almost all of the dogs adopted from those styled shoots. And we also bring adoptable dogs to weddings. We'll have the couple or the bridesmaids hold them down the aisle instead of flowers. And it's just it's super cute. And the last wedding we did all of the dogs got adopted and even the photographer adopted a dog.
Collin 22:53
When I looked you know, again, what I see this reoccurring theme here again is is the partnerships are so critical to your business and to what you're bringing to people you have partnerships with the venues and partnerships with these places. And these vendors now partnerships with rescues. And I know for the dogs like to me, it's it's not just the day of whether they're going to be adopted there or not. But then these videos get shared people talk about that they're able to get exposure in these situations where a lot of times people don't see adoptable puppies around a bunch of other people. They don't see them in these situations. So it not just, you know, it takes that aspect of the unknown and really puts them in a familiar situation where people can really see oh, that I can see myself with that dog. Look. They're in a wedding. Yeah,
Regina 23:42
yeah, absolutely. We've partnered with a couple of rescues in the Tampa Bay area to provide you know adoptable dogs for the styled shoots. And for the weddings.
Collin 23:54
You have the most adorable video on your website of showing how that's all put together again, the importance of visually being able to display and show what this looks like. So people can envision that. Now when you when people find out about that service, again, I'm curious how they react to that. And I'm sure people who are dog people immediately latch on to that. But what kind of conversations do you have with people about actually integrating and making that work into their wedding?
Regina 24:22
Yeah, when everyone sees that video, that's the video that we play at the bridal expos and I think it just draws people in and they just love it. They freak out and say oh my god, I can do this. I can include my dogs or I can include adoptable dogs we've had, you know, a bride or groom come over and and say that they want adoptable dogs at their wedding. They don't even have a dog but they want to include adoptable dogs in their wedding and you know that's something that we can definitely make happen.
Collin 24:54
You do everything from the from dog walking pet sitting you also offer day of weddings, but even way Before that, you can help people make their dog be part of the proposal or you call it the proposal. Yeah, the proposal? Is this typically where people just want to have their dog in photos for that day? Or do you integrate them into the actual proposal and display of that of the of that event?
Regina 25:21
How are we could you both integrate them? You know, as a surprise, kind of after? You know, they get engaged, we'll, we'll bring them over and, you know, their dog is there. And they have a cute little sign that says, you know, she said, Yes, sir. He said, Yes, something like that.
Collin 25:41
You mentioned the sign in earlier mentioned the bandana, do you have a lot of these props and things on hand that you can provide? Or do you request people provide their own gear and equipment that they want.
Regina 25:52
So most couples have their own outfits that they want their dogs to wear from a cute dress or a matching tuxedo to the groom and the groomsmen, but we do provide bandanas for female dogs, we have ones that say dog Ivana was a cute little flower. And for the male dogs, we have a tuxedo, a black and white tuxedo bandana. We also offer custom bandanas that match the wedding colors. So if the couple gives us you know, their wedding colors, we'll try our best to match it to them. I think I've just seen it, you know, on Etsy, all of the all of the bandanas that were, you know, that are being sold. And we've been to weddings before and the couples forgot, you know, their bandana or their outfit. And I think I just thought like, I can make something or I can bring something, you know, just to have so I started to make them bandanas and you know, the couples loved it.
Collin 27:03
Again, having this eye and this attention to detail of I know you didn't think about these kinds of things, but this is what we bring to the table when you hire us, you are getting this entire thing? Absolutely. You booked a limited number of people. It's hard to be in two places at once to wedding days and events at the same time. So how does how does scheduling these events work for you?
Regina 27:28
So it's basically first come first serve for weddings. I mean, I say it all the time on our Instagram and our Facebook, like your wedding in advance. And it's kind of last minute for couples, you know, they think of everything else before, what am I going to do with my dog? You know, it's a lot of last minute bookings. But I harp on this all the time. So if anyone listening that wants to include their dog in our wedding, book it because it goes fast dates go so fast.
Collin 28:02
Wow. And that's a reminder of I'm sure in Florida, even there are the peak wedding seasons, and then the dips and whatnot. And, too. And I think that's for you. That's why having access to those preferred vendor list and to be going to those expos to be getting in front of people as much as possible, to let them know that this is an option. So when they start that planning process, to include you in that on your books? Absolutely. Yeah. When people think about new services, we think about the aspects of actually fulfilling the service, which we've talked a lot about. And then there's there is the pricing aspect. So do you charge per time? Do you have a set rate for the day?
Regina 28:47
Yes, so we have a minimum package of three hours. You know, like I said, trial and error, we decided that three hours is the minimum that we would need with the dog at your venue. You know, two hours just goes by so fast. So we started there, that's our base package. And then we just, you know, do hourly we go on, if they want more time, we do hourly, different pets, additional pets are additional, you know, prices.
Collin 29:21
And that's so important to recognize that it's really the time that people are paying for their they they're paying for their dog, they're paying for their pet to be present at the wedding and they need somebody to make that happen. And if you are there for four hours, you know that is an opportunity cost that you are not able to be elsewhere. They are requiring you to be there. And you should be compensated as such. And putting these together sounds like as packages and having that that minimum packaging protects you. Because you know, yeah, there's the time that you're going to spend at the venue but there's also transport Patient in preparation and wrapping it all up and handling all the messes and all the additional communication and everything there, it's not just showing up and then walking around for a bit and then leaving, like there is a lot that goes into these days.
Regina 30:14
Absolutely. And it's just not, you know, the day of its, you know, preparing for it the day before or you know, the week before coordinating with all the venues and the vendors and making sure that they know that the dog is coming. And, you know, getting a timeline from the court coordinator and the photographer and telling the photographer like, you know, this couple of one of their dogs in their first look. So please mark it down on your timeline, that dog is going to be in the first look and, you know, do the pictures with the dog before the bridal party, everything like that. So it's not just the day of you know, for us, it's just it's, it's like, a month, you know, planning your wedding with your dog?
Collin 30:59
Well, if you are being an advocate for the clients, they hired you to make sure their dog was there and present and involved in their wedding. And so you know, hearing how you were having to go to the venue, the vendors, the coordinator, and continuing to advocate for did you think of the dog? Did you think of the dog? Did you think of the dog? Like that? That is that's that that is that stress that things you have to consider. And that's, you know, again, what people are paying for for this kind of thing is for you to be able to go, hey, it's great that you you have the photos for the first look. Did you think of the talk? Right? It's all about that?
Regina 31:38
Yeah, absolutely. We try to make it as stress free as possible for, you know, not only the couple, but for the other vendors. And we just we want to make sure that the dog is included in everything.
Collin 31:53
Yeah, well, so Regina thinking back about, you know, the service and how it's developed for you. What, what would you say is your biggest piece of advice for somebody who wants to start offering this or maybe just what's one of your biggest lessons that you've learned?
Regina 32:11
I think marketing yourself is the biggest thing that you can do, educate people that this service is out there. Get in touch with venues and vendors and just make your name known.
Collin 32:28
Because unlike typical dog walking and pet sitting, you don't get very many repeat clients in this in this particular niche of the industry. You don't it's hot. So it's hard for the people the word to spread. And while every all there are weddings and these celebrations every day, right, they are more a lot more sporadic, then vacations or long days at work or other more typical life events where people need our help. And so to stay on top of marketing, to hear you say that several times throughout our conversation, it really drives home that point of if we aren't willing to get out, and basically shout our names from the rooftops, and yeah, everybody and integrate into this and have those processes in place and be the professionals, it's going to be hard to grow this kind of business because we have to get in front of people. And we have to help them understand this service that they have probably never heard of before. And we'll only use the one time. And then we still have to go out and find more clients for that. Absolutely,
Regina 33:32
yeah, we do have some repeat clients. They love us so much that if they are local, they'll start using us for dog walking and pet sitting, which we absolutely love because we get to see the dogs again.
Collin 33:45
Sure. And that's again, it's this. So that's a really interesting point of, hey, they use our services for the wedding day. Now they know about our services, and I'm sure you've had people who use your pet sitting and dog walking services that then just get married and use you for that as well. So there's a nice synergy of the services that you have. But still making sure that you are out there staying top of mind for people. For you. Do you find that that marketing aspect comes easily or naturally?
Regina 34:16
So I actually have a public relations degree. So um, you know, talking to people and networking is kind of what I went to school for, um, I would say, so I think it comes a little bit natural for me. Every person I see with a dog, I hand out my business card to literally every single person. Sometimes people are like I already have your card. I have another Yeah, so it's just it's getting your name out there and getting known. I think it comes natural to me. I don't know it may not but I talked to everyone. Like
Collin 34:56
it that's important being sociable being active too. Talking to people. And yeah, I've been in the same situations, I've gone to some events and stuff. And I've kind of been passing out business cards, and then I just start passing them out again, and you'll see people, they'll just hold it up to you. And you're like, well give this to your friend or whatever.
35:13
Yes, your neighbor needs that or something.
Collin 35:17
How has this service increased in popularity, during the time that you've been offering it
Regina 35:22
been so busy, and the more and more that we get our name out there and, you know, network with people, they know that this service exists, and, you know, we can help include their dogs in their wedding. And I think that more and more people are having getting dogs and including them in their wedding or want to include them in their wedding. So they're looking for services like this, to help them with it.
Collin 35:49
Yeah, especially when we consider that of modern pet parents. That's not, that's not young pet parents, as people who own a pet in this day and age 70 to 80% of them view them as a member of their family. And so they you know, they send an invite to Grandma, why wouldn't they have an invite set aside for their dog? And that's, that's where we come in and where you come in? And code can go. Yeah, I know, you might not have thought about that. Or maybe you did explicitly. Here I am to help.
Regina 36:20
Yeah, I mean, people are having birthday parties for dogs, so why not include them in your wedding?
Collin 36:27
All all good points. Well, Regina, I really want to thank you for taking time out of your day to talk with us and share about this very, very interesting and growing service and demand that is going to be there. And it's it's going to stick around and I just see it getting more and more popular. And it's it's up to us to figure out how we want to make those days run, how we're going to integrate ourselves, and how we can bring that professionalism that people can expect and trust to make sure that that day goes off flawlessly. I know that there's a lot more involved here. So if people are interested in a lot more of the intricacies and some of the things that you do to to have this setup, how can people get in touch and start picking your brain and following along with more adorable wedding dog photos,
Regina 37:16
you can reach us on Facebook or Instagram. We're free dentures, pet care. You can also email us at info at furry venture petcare.com. And our website.
Collin 37:31
Again, this has been a very fascinating conversation. And I'm very excited about it. And it's been a lot of fun. Thank you so much.
Regina 37:38
Thank you for having me, it was a lot of fun.
Collin 37:41
The thing about weddings is that they are an incredibly personal event to be made a memorable and enjoyed by all who attend and those obviously being married. The wonderful thing about running a pet business is that we can take our own spin and our own turn on what it means to offer wedding pet attendant services, we can choose what we want to include what we want those packages to look like to delight those not just attending the wedding, but obviously, to delight and inspire those being married and who asked us to be there. We really do have an opportunity to make this event extremely magical and unforgettable for all of those who attend. And that starts with excellent partnerships, excellent communication and thinking through stressing about and worrying about all of the little details that it takes to run the service. We really want to thank our sponsor today time to pet and our wonderful Patreon members for supporting the show and you for listening. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and we'll be back again soon.
