We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brandon Reed a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brandon, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.

Years ago and right out of college, I was hired to run a newly built wedding chapel on the Las Vegas Strip that had a minuscule amount of business. Pressure was on to find a way to generate a clientele in the quickest way possible. A limousine driver, seasoned to the Las Vegas wedding chapel industry, shared with me that the best way to generate business was to find and cultivate relationships with the hotels in town. I started pounding the pavement, relentlessly harassing bell captains and concierges up and down The Strip until one of them, a polished and professional long time veteran in the bell captain world at the Mirage Resort, gave me the time of day. It didn’t materialize easily, however; I’m pretty sure I drove him crazy, stopping by two and three times per week as I had nothing else to do. We became good friends and I will forever be grateful for having the persistence (on my part) and the patience and mercy (on his part).

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’ve been in the Las Vegas wedding chapel industry for over 30 years. I graduated college with a degree in Advertising and a minor in Business, but had no wedding chapel experience. I was hired by a friend who owned the business and he needed someone who he trusted to run and operate it, as he lived in another state. Thus began my career in a business that was completely off the radar, but captivating and immediately enjoyable. In those days, no one in the wedding chapel world worked with travel professionals. Typically, they’d book air, hotel, car rentals, and maybe a Grand Canyon tour for their clients, but when it came to arranging a wedding, the client was left to their own accord. I started traveling all over the globe with the Convention Authority here in town, in an effort to showcase Las Vegas as the premier vacation destination in the world, all the while, pitching the wedding chapel idea as an additional revenue stream for agents to consider. We paid a flat $50 commission to anyone who would send us a couple who either wanted to get married or renew their vows. It was an immediate success and we started seeing couples from all over the world come to our chapel for the Las Vegas nuptial experience.
I’m most proud of the fact that after having worked for four chapels in town during the course of over 30 years, I have managed to cultivate and maintain a staff that has stayed with me through the thick and thin of business. I think this is unique, as there are 8 of us that have known and worked with each other for over 20 years. We understand each other and the business. There’s trust and loyalty and we actually like what we do!
Even though I might own the business, we collectively feel like we’re the ones that are invited to the wedding of our clients and there’s an extraordinary amount of trust involved, as these couples are booking their weddings with us, sight unseen. We aim to take away the angst and stress commonly felt by couples on a wedding day by replacing it with what they should be feeling on that special day: Happiness and excitement.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I co-owned a chapel for a short time with a partner that was difficult to deal with. We had very different styles of management; he was one of the original owners and much older than me and it was hard to see eye to eye on most everything. We ended up losing the property lease on which the chapel sat and had to vacate the premises in 30 days (after the chapel had been there for over 40 years!). Needless to say, we were in panic mode. We had nearly 1,000 weddings on our books that we had to somehow figure out what to do with. I had no choice but to think outside of the box and came up with a plan to temporarily park our weddings at another chapel in town while we figured things out. Miraculously, it worked and we were able to convince brides and grooms en masse that we would take good care of them and that nothing would change, except the venue, which was just as nice as their original choice. It was perhaps one of the most stressful business situations I’ve ever experienced.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The lesson I had to unlearn was that you don’t have to die on every mountain out there. You can be a person of principle, but you don’t have to turn every challenge into a Mt. Fuji situation. I had to learn to choose my battles or face the reality that onslaughts can be endless. It’s about priorities for me now, not sweating the small stuff, and prioritizing what and who is important and worth my time and energy. It’s a life lesson and not just limited to work stuff.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.BlissChapel.com
• Instagram: Blissweddingchapel
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/BlissChapelLV/
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/rbrandonj
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/blisschapel
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4TpIA8j5wJPo4eca-PanGQ
• Yelp: Bliss Wedding Chapel
• Other: TikTok: @Blissweddingchapel

Image Credits

Bliss Wedding Chapel