Luther College student develops business that brings together buyers and sellers of new and used wedding items

Luther College senior Melissa Larson is not just studying business management at the college--she's managing her own business.

Larson got engaged in July of 2009.  She started looking online for wedding supplies, especially used ones.  She tells decorahnews.com she wasn't fond of the idea of buying centerpieces and other wedding supplies, using them once and then throwing them away.

It was about this time that she started taking an entrepreneurship class from Luther professor Richard Leake--and got the idea of developing her own website.

The result was www.birdcagebridal,com, which brings together buyers and sellers of new and used wedding items.  The buyer and seller deal with one another directly, which limits her website's liability.  Larson makes money by posting Google ads on the website--in fact, she's made enough money to pay for her textbooks.

That helped her catch the attention of the Wall Street Journal, which recently profiled her in an article in its "Smart Money" feature.

She says the response to her website "has been really great."  Readers in the United States and in 71 foreign countries have logged on so far.

She also says the response of Decorah residents has been great.  Her website was operational in time for her to attend the Decorah Bridal Fair at Luther college--in fact, she even had people tell her at the bridal fair that they had been visiting her website before the event.

Melissa will graduate from Luther this spring, then get married in July.  She says she's not sure whether Bird Cage Bridal will become a full-time job, but "I'd love it if it worked out."

(Log onto Melissa's website at www.birdcagebridal.com.  Visit her on Facebook at  http://www.facebook.com/BirdcageBridal and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/birdcagebridal

Melissa Larson

The Decorah Bridal Fair