Back in Dominican Republic, it was a must to tune on the 11 p.m. news to see this gorgeous face illuminate the screens and inform us about the latest events happening in the country. Her sweet voice made the worst possible news sound not so bad, and her graciousness had us tuning back every day. We’re talking about Susana Rodríguez. At a young age, Susana positioned herself as a prominent voice in the Dominican media, but a desire to find something different somewhere else took over her, and led her to follow another passion of hers: acting.
After dipping her toes into the Los Angeles acting world for a couple of years, she realized that she was grateful for the experience, but she had more opportunities closer to her family. So she moved to Virginia to be with her mom and brother, and launched a new experience for brides-to-be: a podcast where former brides talk about their own happenings and give their tips and ideas to new brides. Along with the podcasts, there’s a blog to illustrate better.
This new concept is called Hey Bride! and it was created out of the love for love, and the desire to make brides-to-be have an easier time while planning the most special days of their lives. This is the story of Susana Rodríguez, and how her passion for love drove her to create this innovative platform Hey Bride!
Latin Times: Susana, tell us a little about your background and how you ended up in the US.
Susana Rodríguez: I was born and raised in Santiago, Dominican Republic. I grew up with my family, I studied there. My father is a photographer, and mostly a wedding photographer, and that’s how I got involved with weddings. But I always had an interest in all types of media, and ever since I was little I did kids TV shows, and then when I was 15 I started my first TV show with another girl. It was about events. We were featuring former brides and quinceañeras, which is a big deal in Latin countries, so we would show videos of weddings and quinceañeras’ parties, and talk about the vendors they used, and interview them sometimes, and that was my first TV show when I was 15.
Then I came to the US, to Minnesota, for an exchange program for a year, and I repeated my senior year to learn the language and the American culture. But I went back to Dominican Republic to study mass communication. As I was studying, I worked in a few other TV shows, and ended up as a news reporter in my city, for the biggest news channel. The company had a few other channels and they offered me to be the main news anchor for one of those, and I ended up being the news anchor for the 11 p.m. news for almost two years. I always wanted to come back to the states, and I finally decided take a huge leap. I’ve always liked all types of media, and I’d always wanted to study acting, which is kinda hard back home, so I said “I’m going to New York or Los Angeles!” After analyzing everything I decided for LA. I stayed there for almost two years studying acting and working as an actress, and ever since I’ve been in the States.
LT: How was adjusting to living in the US?
SR: The first time here was definitely a new experience, because I didn’t know the language, and it was part of my process. So a new family, a new language, a new school… it was a bit of a shock. I always knew that in 10 months I was going to be back home, so I really enjoyed the whole process. Of course, you get sad once in a while, and when the birthdays or special dates are coming, you miss that. But throughout that experience I knew I was going back home.
Now, when I moved to LA two and a half years ago, it didn’t hit me until I was already settled. That’s when I realized, “Oh my God, I’ve just left everything and I am here by myself.” And I freaked out a little bit, and I think the hardest part is just leaving behind everything you know. The culture, the people… back home in a small town, you know you’re always going to see your friends anywhere you went, they’re always there. In 5 minutes you can be in your friend’s house. All of that I think it’s the hardest part. And when you’re an adult, I think it’s even harder to make real friends, or to find places to meet people. So I definitely missed the people and my family. But at the same time it balances out with the opportunities that this country offers.
LT: What prompted the move from LA and leaving acting to pursue this new business venture?
SR: Part of my family is in northern Virginia, and even though LA was amazing in many ways: it’s the perfect weather, it was the perfect switch from the society I was used to, to a very, very liberal, open minded society that really encourages you to follow your dreams and to really be you. But I’m very family oriented, and I think most Latinos are, because that’s how we’re raised, so I was really missing my family and having their support. And that’s why after thinking it through, it just made sense to come here where my family is.
LT: How did you come up with the idea for a podcast targeted to brides-to-be?
SR: My family and I are huge fans of podcasts. We listen to them all the time. I drove from LA to Virginia for 5 days and podcasts saved me. My family and I had always talked about ideas that we wanted to implement for that. I studied mass communications, and on the other hand, I’ve always loved wedding stories, love stories… I am a sucker for that! You can see me for countless hours watching engagement videos on YouTube. So eventually one day it just hit me, I can just combine them both: what I studied, what I like, which is media in general, and then my passion for love. And having my brother and my father being wedding photographers, and my first TV show was about weddings, it just all made sense.
“Hey Bride!” first of all is a podcast in which I interview former brides to talk about their experiences. I like to work more with former brides, because when I just interview vendors, they talk about their point of view, which is extremely important, but most people will hopefully get married only once, maybe twice, and there’s nothing like experiencing things by yourself. So when I talk to a former bride about what she went through and her whole process, many new brides can totally relate. They’re talking about the whole process versus only a detail of the wedding. However, every few episodes I add vendors, because obviously, their expertise is priceless. Besides the podcast, we do a feature on our blog, where you can see pictures of everything we talk about and people get more into it.
LT: Why should people listen to the podcasts and go to the blog?
SR: We want you to find kind of like best friends online that will tell you what they went through while planning their wedding, and you can really understand, relate and believe that process. The whole point is getting ideas from real brides and vendors that will tell you from bride to bride what their process was, different ideas they had, and you will take what you want and leave what you don’t. The good thing about the podcast is this: when you’re planning events like your own wedding, you would like to be talking about it for the whole day, 24/7. But you have to work, you have to walk your dog, you have to go to the gym, go grocery shopping, you have to drive and all of that. And you can’t do anything about it. But if you’re driving, you can be listening to a podcast, if you’re exercising, you can also listen to it, if you’re outside walking your dog, you put your headphones and listen to it. And you can feel extra productive and feel like you’re not wasting time.
LT: How often are the podcasts uploaded?
SR: We started with weekly podcasts, but we’re doing the blog posts two or three times a week. We’re always going to feature a podcast along with a blog post. But the other posts are different stories. Either engagement stories, which I love, Instagram pics, tips from vendors, questions that people ask… Sometimes I get asked about ideas that we post on our Instagram page and people want to know how to execute them, so I make sure to find the perfect answer and post it on the blog. We also post other stories, funny or very real, that we find about weddings. For example, we just posted one of a bridal party taking pictures an hour before the wedding on a little dock by a lake, and it broke and everyone fell in the water. And that was an hour before the wedding! And those are some of the things that we post on the blog that might not be featured on the podcasts.
LT: What has been the major challenge with “Hey Bride!”?
SR: I have a lot of ideas, especially media related. I do want to start video blog posts, and I would love do to the podcasts more than once a week. But it is definitely very time consuming, and that’s one of the major issues. We can get discouraged in anything we’re doing just because we’re not able to see the big picture, or we see the big picture and we get overwhelmed thinking “How am I going to do this?” And like anything in life, you just have to take it one day at a time.
LT: How do you see Hey Bride! in the future?
SR: I want Hey Bride! to be an awesome community of former brides and engaged girls, and even girls who just love like I do, anything related to love and weddings. I want to answer questions that people might have, I want to put together a list of wedding planners and vendors from across the country, and connect people from different states that could help you get ideas. I wanna create a big community in which not only you will have local sources, but you can ideas from people all over the US and help each other out.
The idea of Hey Bride! came because us women tend to be more passionate about the whole planning process and the little details. And the norm is that the guy is more on the side, and they don’t want to get involved with so many details, and they get overwhelmed… But for starters, I definitely would like to do the groom’s version once in a while. Also I would love to involve the LGBT community. I find amazingly cute things and ideas for those weddings in particular, and it’s something that I would definitely like to feature in the future.
Don't forget to follow Hey Bride! on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and don't miss the fabulous Podcasts here!
Want a taste of Hey Bride! right now? We've added one of our favorite podcasts below! Take a listen:
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