Community Highlights: Meet Caitlin Anderson and Ali Ewy of Sota Brides

Today we’d like to introduce you to Caitlin Anderson and Ali Ewy.

Hi Caitlin and Ali, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
We originally started as a Facebook group to share deals and tips with friends while planning our weddings five years ago. From there, the group organically grew to the nearly 11,000 members today! We continued to maintain the group after we both got married because we love weddings and event planning and the page has helped so many people. We both spent a few years doing wedding coordinating on the side and really enjoyed it but felt that there was a different way we could be helpful and make an impact on the Facebook community we had created. In March of 2020, Ali was furloughed from her full-time position as a Physical Therapist and we decided to finally take the leap into turning it into a real business. In May of 2020, we officially launched our blog and turned Sota Brides into an LLC.

On the blog, we highlight weddings in Minnesota, answer frequently asked questions we see asked in our Facebook group and provide inspiration for various wedding events and projects (i.e. bachelorette parties, bridal showers, DIY projects). We host both fun and educational in-person events to bring our group together. We also have a featured vendor platform where we work with local vendors to provide discounts on services to our group members.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Because we had a large following before establishing ourselves as an official business, we are lucky to say that we have had a fairly smooth road getting started! Time management seems to be our biggest struggle because we both have full-time jobs outside of Sota Brides. We both have a ton of fun ideas, but we need to carefully prioritize what our priorities are because our time is so limited.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Sota Brides?
We run a blog and Facebook group that provides support for people planning their weddings in Minnesota. We are different in that we focus on both the bride and vendor sides of things separately. While our group is limited to brides only, we work with local wedding vendors to connect them to our group members. This makes our group different in many other groups have both vendors and couples, which makes it difficult to get questions answered without being pitched by a vendor. By keeping our group bride-only, it provides a safe space.

We also try to offer inspiration to all couples planning their weddings. We focus on local couples, but many of our featured wedding inspirations can be used across the globe. We also provide inspiration, reviews and itineraries for destination bachelorettes across the US for anyone to replicate.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
We love the murals and the art around the city. Also… the food and live music can’t be beat! We thought it would be a lot more walkable than it was, but we had fun riding the electric scooters around instead!

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.sotabrides.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sotabrides/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SotaBrides/