The owner of a new wedding store in Langford figures she’s found the perfect marriage of products and location.
Liz Fosdick opened Avenue Weddings on Goldstream Avenue in early March, betting there is a market for a dedicated wedding store with more than 1,000 products for sale.
“This idea came to me while I was planning weddings,” Fosdick said.
She started organizing events while in high school, continuing during her time at the University of Victoria, where she earned a business degree. She spent two years as a part-time wedding planner while working full-time for the province as an event organizer.
Avenue Weddings was a way that Fosdick could stay in the industry after opting out of wedding planning. “[A couple’s] wedding is on your shoulders and that is a lot of pressure,” she said.
After spending seven months developing a detailed business plan, Fosdick chose to open in a spacious 1,200- square-foot space in Langford. “I decided fairly early on that I wanted to be in Langford. It is a young demographic and it is growing out here,” said Fosdick.
Statistics Canada backs the claim. The 2011 census put Langford’s population at 29,228, an increase of 30 per cent from 2006 and far surpassing the national average growth of 5.9 per cent. Langford’s growth rate was also the highest in B.C. And while the province’s median age is 41.9 years old, Langford is lower at 37.5 years. The percentage of B.C.’s population 65 years and older is 14.8 per cent while Langford’s rate is just 10.4 per cent.
Avenue Weddings, easily seen from busy Goldstream Avenue, is a destination, Fosdick said. She believes capital region residents are increasingly comfortable with driving to the West Shore after becoming used to it by patronizing stores such as Costco.
Weddings are the foundation of Fosdick’s store, which also sells merchandise suited for bachelorette parties, anniversaries, childrens’ parties and other celebrations.
Fosdick, who isn’t married, counts on assistant manager and sister Torie Van Der Zee, 25, who is married. Van Der Zee, who helped with Fosdick’s wedding planning business, understands customers’ feelings as their wedding day approaches, her sister said.
Avenue Weddings posts contact information for other wedding-related businesses on its website (avenueweddings.ca). The store welcomes everything from business cards and brochures from other wedding-related businesses to albums from wedding vendors to make available to customers. “We want to be a resource,” Fosdick said. “We want to be a really positive place for people to plan their wedding because it can be such a stressful event. We want people to come here and feel their vision is fully supported.”
Avenue Weddings offers items for sale, but Fosdick said she will refer customers to companies renting wedding decor and other products. The customers base ranges from couples in initial planning stages to others in the final countdown and need to buy certain items.
“A lot of people leave themselves at least a year to plan,” Fosdick said.
Products include wedding planning books and binders, guest books, stationery, tiaras, cupcake holders, garlands, glitter and locally made fabric handbags. Rustic and vintage themed weddings are popular, she said.
Figurines of cake-topping couples feature different activities, religions and ethnic backgrounds.
There are plenty of interesting items most people forget when it comes to weddings. Cases in point: protectors, to ensure heels don’t sink into the grass at outdoor events, which come in different colours and heel sizes and sell for $11.99; and emergency kits with breath mints, safety pins, bandages, deodorant wipes and a nail file for $30.
Store prices start at 75 cents for a small candle. The highest-priced item is $189.98 for a frame featuring a space for a wedding photo in the centre, surrounded by a titanium panel with room for 300 signatures.
