Hidden Gems: Meet Susan Solbrig of Happily Connected

Today we’d like to introduce you to Susan Solbrig.

Hi Susan, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I have worked in the wedding industry for over 15 years, both as a wedding planner and a venue manager and the thing I loved most was connecting couples with awesome local venues and vendors to help make their wedding dreams a reality. It is this love that inspired me to create Happily Connected which is a wedding community for couples and Nashville area wedding professionals to connect.

I believe promoting your business should not be determined by your budget. With so many wedding-based planning websites and blogs, I wanted to offer wedding professionals and engaged couples something different and more personalized. Happily Connected is a member-based site that offers affordable non-tiered advertising to Nashville/Middle Tennessee area wedding vendors.

Membership with Happily Connected includes a non-tiered listing on HappilyConnected.com, Blog Features, and Promotion on social media, all for one monthly fee. We also have a Facebook Vendor Community and a Facebook Wedding Planning Community for Happily Connected members only. When I created Happily Connected, I knew that I wanted it to be more than another directory and blog. I wanted to give wedding professionals other forums to showcase their work, so we host styled shoots and produce a yearly wedding showcase.

Happily Connected is also a community for couples planning their wedding. At Happily Connected, we want engaged couples to find the right venue and vendors that fit their personality, style, and budget. Our wedding blog offers wedding inspiration and planning tools for engaged couples! Take a stroll through vendor profiles and blogs and dance through the many photo galleries to help you with your inspiration and connect with the perfect Nashville area venue and vendors.

Happily Connected is a great wedding planning resource for engaged couples. Our website combined with our wedding showcase is a great way for engaged couples to be inspired and connect with Nashville/Middle TN area professionals for their wedding.

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Launching a new business is never “smooth”, one of the biggest struggles in starting Happily Connected was launching 1 year before the pandemic hit.

When I decided to start Happily Connected, I knew I wanted it to be different and that Happily Connected had to stand out from other wedding directories/blogs and weddings shows. Happily Connected is definitely different from other wedding directories. And we do so by being affordable and offering several platforms for vendors to showcase their work which gives engaged couples and wedding professionals a forum for personalized interactions through our directory, blog and wedding showcase.

I also wanted to be very hands on and know my members and to be the face of Happily Connected. The pandemic made it hard to meet people so instead of being the face of Happily Connected, I was the voice. I am very thankful we are now able to have in person meetings again and that I get to meet with current and new members face to face.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Happily Connected?
I love what I do and am so excited that Happily Connected turned 5 this month and we will be doing our 6th wedding showcase in February 2024 at the Hermitage Golf Course!

Our wedding showcase is different instead of rows of booths, design teams made up of Middle TN wedding vendors set up the venue like a styled shoot/real wedding with different styles/vignettes which includes tablescapes and lounge areas to give couples an idea of what their day could look like.

Before the show opens to engaged couples/the public, the photographers who are participating will shoot the details. All vendors receive the photos to use in their social media/marketing. We are thrilled to partner with such an amazing venue and Nashville area vendors to bring live inspiration to engaged couples.

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
I think the biggest lesson I have learned is to trust my gut and have confidence in my decisions. I love supporting wedding vendors and want them to know I’m here to help, and that Happily Connected was created to support our local Nashville area wedding community.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.happilyconnected.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happilyconnected/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HappilyConnectedTN/

Image Credits
Wilde Company https://www.wilde-company.com and Rebecca Vaughan Photography https://www.rvphotography615.com