Merri: The Next Steps for Stoney Creek in Wedding Engagement
Earlier this year, Stoney Creek teamed up with Merri to deliver an experience to our wedding clientele that sets us apart from the rest. With the help of Merri, Stoney Creek event coordinators can build a 3-D design of each wedding couple’s dream event while also being able to include exclusive local vendors with uniquely rendered décor that lives in the Merri system for event coordinators to choose from.
Merri was founded in 2019 after CEO and co-founder Randi Bushell struggled to make design decisions for her own wedding. Merri’s 3D visualization platform brings together venues, planners, and vendors to design and execute best-in-class events. Learn more at www.bemerri.com.
Where it started
While Stoney Creek has been offering wedding and event spaces for over 20 years, the trick has always been to promote these spaces in a way that speaks to each client individually. Stoney Creek Hospitality VP of Revenue, Mark Creger, says that, “We were looking for a solution to an experiential and communicative gap between our event coordinators and clients when they were searching for venue spaces”
As anyone who has ever seen an empty room knows- sometimes it’s just hard to picture what that event is going to look like. Event coordinators would go through the process of working with conference center managers to stage the event space for the wedding couple to help visualize the room, but this involves an increased amount of labor and time. In addition to this, it was difficult to incorporate the full scope of the event with the preferred color choices and special additives like piping, draping, and uplighting. A solution was needed for this experiential gap with clients as Stoney Creek leaned into promoting event spaces to the public.
Where we are now
Incorporating Merri into the Stoney Creek event solution tech stack has changed the way that clients are picturing Stoney Creek spaces. Now, in addition to photos of previous events, clients can discover the true potential of the space specific to their expectations by manipulating the layout of the room, the types of decorum and furniture, as well as the overall color scheme for the event. This can all happen in real-time with the guest at their first meeting with Stoney Creek Hotels.
Corporate Director of Marketing for Stoney Creek Hotels, Tessa Hansen, states, “Merri is an innovative opportunity for our event coordinators to put their best foot forward and speak the language of our clients in a way that sets us apart from our comp-set.”
After seeing the space through the lens of Merri, clients are then emailed their 3-D walkthrough of the personalized design to look back on for not only inspiration but also seating arrangements and event schedules for the day of. Stoney Creek staff can utilize Merri for any events happening on the property, from large corporate summits, to weddings, to smaller birthday parties or retirement events.
Getting Stoney Creek Staff excited with Merri
To kick off the incorporation of Merri, Stoney Creek hosted a company-wide design competition, asking event coordinators and sales staff to join in on the fun by creating their most radical events with Merri. The winners of each property received a gift card and the opportunity to display their unique Merri design on the Stoney Creek Company website for prospective clients to view. The response was extremely positive, and Stoney Creek staff mentioned how easy Merri was to configure when creating their design concept.
Tessa goes on to say, “Our hopes are to continue learning more about Merri and its benefits for Stoney Creek Hotels in order to increase our growth as a wedding and event company while making it easier for our event coordinators to help their clients visualize their big day.”