So this story, about an Australian bride whose bouquet was made of donuts, hit my stream recently.

It’s just what it sounds like. The pictures look…delicious.

It wasn’t the bride’s idea directly, but she did win some sort of drumming-up-business contest with a dessert company that provided the bouquets.

This is usually where I start making fun of the silly ideas I come across.

Not here. Not this time.

I unreservedly and unabashedly love this viral idea.

I think it’s because I love food.

I love food and I’m not alone.

It got me thinking of how most people’s passion for food is fairly everpresent, and why should only wedding caterers get to capitalize on that? Can’t other wedding pros take advantage our epicurean ways?

Yes they can! Here’s how.

#1 – Meet Your Prospective Clients At Restaurants.

This is beneficial in two ways:

a) the aforementioned love for food. In restaurants, there is food.

b) Maybe I’m the minority here and this reflects my humble beginnings, but restaurant meetings make me feel like some sort of hotshot Serious Business Person (except maybe if you meet at Taco Bell).

Maybe some of your prospective clients will feel this way too, giving you a leg up.

If the meeting goes well and you think you have a good shot at closing the deal, pick up the check.

This invokes the one thing people like more than food: FREE food.

You can pick up the check anyway, of course. This can give you an advantage right as soon as you sit down with your prospective clients.

But do not feel OBLIGATED to pick up the check – why sanction the meals of a buncha bums if they aren’t going to hire you? – and certainly don’t if you can’t easily afford to. But if you can, it’s an option.

#2 – Work Food Into Your Service

In small ways.

If you’re a DJ, keep a glass bowl of candy on your table or somewhere reachable by wedding guests (the good kind, like fun-sized candy bars, not mints. Seriously, eff mints.)

If you’re a planner or coordinator, your emergency bag should should contain protein bars, bags of chips, and a small assortment of other healthy and unhealthy snacks for brides or other frazzled guests or members of the party who need to stress-eat.

(If you don’t have an emergency bag full of things like tape, stain remover, aspirin, and other small life-savers for brides and grooms, put one together now.)

Florists and set designers, I’m more inclined to let you off the hook. I don’t want to compel to make edible arrangements or add food unless it PERFECTLY works with your art. You have my permission to skip this section and proceed right to #3. Oops! Too late!

#3 – Restaurant Gift Cards Make Great, Yes, Gifts.

Do you tend to buy your clients a wedding gift?

If not, don’t sweat it. Not required for a wedding pro, if you ask me.

That said, it’s not a BAD idea, but shopping off their registry can be both expensive and perhaps best reserved for friends of the bride and groom, which may not be you.

In that case, how about a nice $25 gift certificate a nice restaurant?

You can even be clever and ask them well beforehand and ask them what their favorite type of cuisine is, and buy them a gift card from a place celebrated for that type of cuisine.

I guarantee they will like that more than at least one or two of their other gifts, and they will remember small touches like that when word-of-mouthing you. Thank me later.

What food ideas have you incorporated into your wedding business?