Barns, prisons, wineries, grasslands - you can hold a wedding banquet anywhere. Airbnb's wedding edition

Today is the grand wedding of British royal Prince Harry. He and American actress Meghan will exchange vows at Windsor Castle before the eyes of the world. This royal wedding is said to bring 1 billion pounds in economic output to the UK.

In fact, most people only get married once in their lives, and the importance placed on weddings can bring many business opportunities. The following story may offer us a little inspiration while we focus on the royal wedding.

Amy Parfett and Melany McBride, who live in New Zealand, have been good friends since childhood. A few years ago, one of their close friends got engaged, so some good friends mobilized to help her with all kinds of wedding arrangements. Amy and Melany were assigned to find a venue for the wedding.

At the time, the two were studying in London. They thought, how hard could it be to find a wedding venue? So they accepted the task.

Unexpectedly, this task turned out to be surprisingly difficult.

The two searched online for dedicated wedding venues, hoping to find a special place that could give their friend an unforgettable wedding. But no matter how they searched, it was either a traditional church or an expensive hotel or private club. Even almighty Google simply could not give them a satisfactory result.

"In this modern age with such advanced information, it is actually so difficult to find a wedding venue online," Amy said.

In pursuit of different accommodation experiences, Airbnb-style homestays have become increasingly common, and many people even specially renovate old buildings to provide lodging for travelers.

"But on Airbnb, you cannot find a suitable place to hold a wedding," Melany said.

"Why don't we make a wedding version of Airbnb?" Amy said.

And so, what began as simply helping a friend find a wedding venue turned into a startup for two young women.

In March 2015, they founded a platform offering wedding venues: WedShed.

WedShed learned from the Airbnb model and built a platform that could connect the demand side with the supply side. Owners with idle venues at home could register as members and then put their rental plans and photos on the WedShed website.

Couples looking for a wedding venue could search for suitable wedding venues based on various conditions such as region, venue style, capacity, and nearby facilities. Once they found an ideal place, they could contact the venue owner through WedShed, and both sides could further negotiate the price or arrange to view the venue.

Unlike Airbnb, WedShed provides venues with many value-added services, including community tool marketing plans, various browsing data analyses, and even some suggestions for venue decoration.

Finding venues gave rise to many business opportunities related to the wedding services industry. On the WedShed website, many value-added services for arranging weddings are offered, such as wedding dresses, floral art, wedding cakes, wedding banquets, venue decoration, photography services, jewelry, bands, invitation production, professional bartenders, and so on. Even bridesmaids and groomsmen can be found through rental services.

In addition to these services, the WedShed website also provides a wedding inspiration (WEDSPIRATION) column, interviewing couples who have already held weddings about their experiences and offering many couples more unforgettable creative ideas when planning their own weddings.

According to statistics, WedShed currently has at least 215 distinctive wedding venues available for search. Whether it is a lakeside with beautiful scenery, a barn with rural charm, or even a winery with an industrial style or a commanding high-rise rooftop, all can be found on WedShed.

More avant-garde couples can even choose an abandoned prison to hold a one-of-a-kind wedding for themselves.

After WedShed launched in 2015, in less than two years, bookings in Australia and New Zealand had already reached 420,000.

Amy and Melany, still not yet thirty, found a business opportunity because some need was not being met, and successfully created their own careers. By carefully observing the market and identifying pain points, perhaps you too can uncover innovative services.