Hi,
I obtained Lightroom when I purchase a Leica M9. Before thatMy workflow was Bridge -- ACR -- Photoshop (I use CS4) and Bridge is essential to keep my jmy layouts, images, texts, and so on organized for the publication jobs I do. I developed a fairly good and efficient method to print photographs using this workflow, but then I also ended up with multiple image files: full size with all layers including the soft proof layers, that size print, that other size print, etc.
Lightroom's catalogue is far beter than Bridge, and must faster.
I find that developing in Lightroom is similar to traditional darkroom work, and that is how I trained.
So, for my publication work: Bridge, InDesign, Acrobat...
For photography: Lightroom
And, [ with no conflict of interest whatsoever :-) ] if you want to get a fast start using LR, get the tutorial from this site.
Jean-Michel