Wedy

Wedy operates a two-sided wedding platform. On the consumer side, it curates all-inclusive wedding and elopement packages at partner venues, assembling each venue's preferred vendors into a bookable catalog with roughly three to four curated options per service that fit within a single package price. Packages combine venue rental and permits with services such as photography, florals, catering, officiants, hair and makeup, and planning, sold under one contract and one total price that the company says includes taxes and service charges. Couples select a package, are assigned a dedicated planner, choose vendors from the curated options, and receive day-of coordination of roughly 8-10 hours. Published sample packages range from about $4,200 for a luxe elopement to about $29,650 for a wedding and reception.

On the business side, Wedy sells "Wedy Pro," software for wedding venues and vendors covering lead capture forms, schedulers, questionnaires and automations; branded proposals, contracts and invoices; a client portal, CRM and task automation; and AI workflow agents for proposals, support and revenue forecasting. Vendors can also list packages in the Wedy marketplace. The company describes the combined offering as "the Wedyverse," pairing CRM software, direct bookings and curated package placement.

The company describes itself as the world's first booking platform that lets engaged couples bundle services and book curated packages while driving sales for wedding businesses, and one profile of co-founder Rumaiza Ali describes Wedy as a booking and financing marketplace for the wedding industry.

Founding story

Wedy was founded in 2021 by husband-and-wife co-founders Rumaiza Ali, an architect and luxury destination wedding planner, and Anas Ali, an aeronautical engineer who previously worked in route planning and revenue management for an airline converting to an ultra-low-cost model, where he launched more than 100 new US markets and worked with real-time aggregation of price and inventory data. The idea came from their own wedding: Rumaiza found wedding planning opaque, with hidden costs, contact forms, slow vendor responses, quotes spread across multiple PDF proposals and payments tracked on spreadsheets, and a booked vendor double-booked their date. Anas compared the wedding industry to the travel industry of the 1970s, when travelers had to visit agents in person to obtain schedules and book accommodations, and saw an opening for online price and availability transparency. Rumaiza has also described immigrating from India on an H4 dependent visa, which initially barred her from opening a bank account, working or building credit, as her largest early obstacle, and recounted industry skepticism about publishing prices, which the founders tested through user-testing sessions with more than 150 wedding professionals.

Business model

Two-sided marketplace plus SaaS. Couples book bundled, all-inclusive wedding packages through a single contract and checkout; venues and vendors get marketplace exposure and can subscribe to Wedy Pro software tiers.

Vendor-side membership tiers are published as Free (marketplace listing, unlimited package listings, inquiry management, messaging, payment processing), Pro at $25 per month (full CRM for individuals, lead management, smart documents and contracts, branded client portals, invoices and automated payments, dynamic package pricing), and Elite at $35 per month (priority marketplace featuring, preferred vendor matching, AI sales and workflow agents, auto-proposals, revenue forecasting, credit card surcharge pass-through, buy-now-pay-later, white-labeling and team access), with annual billing advertised as saving up to 29%. Consumer packages are sold at a single transparent price covering venue, vendors, taxes and service charges.

Traction

Company materials cite more than 700 wedding professionals earning over $1.6M through the platform in 2023, $1.4M in gross revenue for 2023 against an initial projection of $1.2M, and a pace to drive over $3M in direct consumer spending in 2024 across 11 destinations in four US metropolitan areas. Current site figures reference 15,850+ couples, a 4.9/5 rating, 10,500+ wedding businesses, data from 5,500-10,500 vendors on the platform, and $30 million directed to local vendors.

Latest developments

Wedy appeared on the April 12, 2024 episode of ABC's Shark Tank, where it staged a wedding ceremony on set officiated by Kevin O'Leary for a Wedy couple, and where Mark Cuban called it a game-changer for the wedding industry. The company subsequently secured an investment from Techstars New York powered by J.P. Morgan and moved its headquarters to New York City. Its vendor-facing product has been extended with AI workflow automation, auto-proposals and AI support agents under the Wedy Pro branding.