STEPHENS MARKET GROOMS BRIDAL BUSINESS

AMY I. STICKEL

INVER GROVE HEIGHTS, Minn. -- Independent supermarket operator Stephens Market is quickly building a wedding consulting business by linking full-service floral with catering, fresh bakery and other services.

The single-unit retailer began pursuing the wedding market after it opened a new store that featured a full floral department last October.

Currently, it provides couples with everything from the cocktail hour hors d'oeuvres to the cake, including convenient links to outside services such as photographers, disk jockeys and limousines -- a new dimension to the supermarket concept of one-stop shopping.

The multi-department program was pulled together by Lana Stuhr, a longtime employee and the daughter of store owner Gary Stephens, after she assumed the newly created position of wedding consultant.

"We've had a really good response," said Stuhr, who has set up operations from an office between floral and bakery.

"We haven't been open quite five months, and I'm working with about eight couples," she said in an interview with SN.

Stephens has offered fresh products such as wedding cakes and deli platters for quite awhile, Stuhr said. However, the opportunity to establish a complete consulting operation came about when the company opened a new store 10 blocks away from the old location. "We did not have a floral business in the old store," Stuhr said. Once gathered under the same roof, the three service departments -- deli, bakery and floral -- seemed to offer a natural tie-in, she explained.

"This way, the bride and groom don't have to go to different businesses, arranging for the photographer and limo driver and catering."

As part of her match-making function, Stuhr said, she arranges appointments for couples to meet back-to-back with the floral manager, the bakery manager, the deli manager, and anyone else whose in-store services might be required is pulling together a wedding.

"This has brought in a lot of business for floral and cakes," she added.

Stuhr said couples appreciate the convenience a wedding consultant offers. While she is generally in the office two days a week, she also works out of her home; and she has a cellular phone, which allows anxious brides to reach her at any time.

Stephens has drummed up publicity for its consulting business by displaying brochures at the service desk. The wedding planning service also gets a plug regularly in the store circular. Stuhr said she drops off brochures at churches in the area, and the program gained publicity through a story in the local newspaper.