We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jessica Limeberry. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jessica below.
Hi Jessica, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the best thing you’ve ever seen (or done yourself) to show a customer that you appreciate them?
Being in the wedding industry and helping brides find their wedding dress is a very special business – we are part of core memories with brides and their families! We don’t take this lightly, and we absolutely spend a lot of time and energy to make sure we serve them well!
One of our core beliefs is that you have to do all the small details with excellence. Big, grand gestures are great, but its all the small moments that add up to true magic. Some of the things we like to focus on are knowing our customers outside of their role as a bride. Getting to know them as a person by having phone calls and interview questions before they even come in for their appointment ensures we have a relationship and connection points that matter! And it allows us to surprise and delight them with small details and surprises along the way!
We also really cherish the people they bring with. They’ve selected their group carefully, and if they’re important to the bride, they’re important to us. We want to be sure to learn names, relationships, and create connections with them as well! We also love to get them involved in the experience, so they can celebrate right along side the bride (and us!).
As brides are shopping, we make sure to really listen to their thoughts and feelings, and help them select the prefect dress! We love to be able to use our expertise and product knowledge to help them find a gown they feel truly like themselves in!
We love to gift our bride a special Sophia’s swag item, as well as a personalized surprise that we prepared for them ahead of time! We also take the time to send hand written letters, personalized video messages, and more to know they are so special to us, and we value them so much more than just a sale!
Going above and beyond is the best part of our job, being able to help people feel confident, happy, and create memories never gets old!
Jessica, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
As a daughter of an entrepreneur father, I always loved the idea of creating something of my own. I studied fine art and economics at DePauw University, and worked for 10+ years as a photography, shooting hundreds of weddings, families, kids, events, etc over the years! I loved documenting these moments with my clients!
Eventually, I wanted to create something more than myself, and craved building a team. Thankfully, my friend had built a bridal boutique but was looking to change careers, and pretty quickly I took over! Over the next 6 years I grew the 1 – 2400 square foot boutique into 4 locations, our largest being 10,000 square feet. We have a team of 50-100 people, depending on the season, and it is truly magical!
We sell wedding dresses, formal wear, tuxedos, accessories, and prom dresses (our sister brand, XO by Sophia’s). We have locations in Indianapolis (2- one on the south side and one on the north side of the city), a location downtown Columbus, Indiana, and in 2021 we opened our Louisville, KY boutique!
My heart truly is in building up and growing amazing leaders. Through showing them their strengths, helping them develop personally and professionally, celebrating them, and really enjoying them – they can then turn around and do the same to our customers!
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Social media can sometimes feel like a real question mark for small businesses! For us, we are a high price luxury good that, for the most part, they can’t purchase online – so we have to really focus on the in-store experience and making sure our brides can feel our brand in our social media.
We have a very consistent, focused strategy and have trusted that if we stick to the plan, in the long run, it will hit the right people and bring them into our boutiques. We don’t chase a viral moment or trend, instead we try to focus on our brand – showing off our wide range of styles, featuring our boutiques, and highlighting a diverse and inclusive experience. We do that in several ways, with how we films, where we film, and who we film.
Through video, and some still images, we are able to really communicate how we can create a special experience for the bride. And we always try to highlight WHY we matter to our brides, and not why we are great. We are totally focused on the shopper!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
In 2018 at 34 years old I was diagnosed with a cancerous lung tumor that required surgery and about a month of recovery. My team was amazing and really pushed forward with confidence while I focused on recovery.
This energized me even more to want to create an amazing place for my customers AND my employees. Through a “forced” step back and reprioritization of my day to day tasks, I was really able to start working ON the business and not just IN the business.
From there, we have been able to build something really special, a profitable and service focused business that has created big life moments for thousands of people!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sophiasbridalandtux.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/sophiasbridalandtux
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/sophiasbridalandtux
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sophiasbridal
Image Credits
Esther Ellyn Photography