February 26, 2017

Meet Harmony Walton of The Bridal Bar in Los Angeles

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Harmony Walton.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Harmony. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I started The Bridal Bar in 2004 when a friend who was engaged had a bad experience with a wedding photographer that I had recommended to her. At the time I was among other things, a contributing editor to a bridal magazine and I thought there had to be a better way if even I couldn’t make a trusted recommendation. So I created The Bridal Bar to bridge the gap between qualified wedding professionals and couples. And by doing so, I created a marketing agency for those companies and a concierge service for our couples. Since then, we’ve helped thousands tie the knot, worked on many of the biggest celebrity weddings, traveled the world for destination wedding exploration, and been featured in pretty much every major media outlet. How I did that was through a lot of hustle, a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of hard work, a lot of luck, and most importantly, amazing people around me who helped The Bridal Bar grow through exposure, opportunities and great events around the world. To date, we are only as good as the companies we work with and we wouldn’t be anywhere without great couples trusting us and the recommendations we make.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Being an entrepreneur is not a smooth road, at least it hasn’t been for me. Especially since I was in my early 20’s when I started my business, I really didn’t have a lot of business experience or life experience for that matter. But it’s also been a fun road and an exciting one. Some of the struggles I’ve faced have been trademark infringements by other companies and copycats when we’ve been at the top, and then the feeling of not always being at the top, once you’ve tasted it. I’ve struggled with keeping a heavily service-driven business focused on our core when in the time we’ve been in business, the world has changed from high-touch to high-tech, something I’ve never had the personal desire to move towards. So I would say change has been hard, I like doing what’s worked in the past when really I need to do what will work in the future. I’m still learning that one, day by day, and we’re becoming more online-driven, while staying true to our core of personal service. It’s just a balance and sometimes finding that can be a struggle.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with The Bridal Bar – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
The Bridal Bar is a complimentary concierge service dedicated to helping engaged couples connect with vetted wedding professionals that are right for their unique event. We are also a marketing agency for event professionals that qualify, who are looking to grow their reach in the wedding industry and connect with luxury events. We marry couples with companies and companies with great opportunities to improve their businesses. We specialize in weddings. We also specialize in helping wedding companies do better, get better, and be better for their brides and grooms. I think we’re probably known for a lot of our celebrity weddings since those have brought us a lot of national attention. I think we’re also known for being a great, quality service that seems almost too good to be true. And we try to be. What sets us apart is our business model, no one does it. We created a category all our own to fill a void and need in the marketplace and that has kept us unique. What sets us apart are the amazing people and brands we work with, the tireless personal service we provide, how much we care, and the outside of the box thinking we do that makes what we do just a little bit different, and dare I say, better.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Our plans for the future are always evolving. I think you have to have a lot of balls in the air to make just one stick – and we do! We’re working more and more in the destination wedding space, growing our reach into more places and helping international companies improve their wedding influence. I’m also focused on growing my radio show base in 2017, Bridal Bar Radio, which airs on America’s Talk and iHeartRadio. It’s a great platform to reach some of these places and people that are outside of our local community. I’m also working on some additional platforms in other forms of media that may help us share our knowledge with couples and companies in bigger ways, and we’ve got a lot of fun editorial photo shoots on the horizon so 2017 will be exciting if nothing else!

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