In a world where Pinterest is filled with wedding gear and the economic downturn has scratched “wedding planner” off of the affordable options list, it was only a matter of time before a wedding planning service sprouted up on the web. That service is called Lover.ly.
Lover.ly has recently partnered with various brands like Nordstrom, Kwiat, and Minted to let users buy exactly what they see online. This makes the site a place where tasks actually get executed, rather than simply planned out (or worse yet, dreamed about). Not to mention, Lover.ly is generating revenue by capitalizing on a huge trend right now.
Just look at all of the wedding-centric tech products that have hit the stage recently. Yapp’s Events app-creation platform has a huge wedding-focused user base, and Appy Couple takes it a step further to only create apps for couples tying the knot. Then of course there’s Brit Morin’s Weduary, which leverages Facebook to do a relatively similar thing on the web.
Lover.ly is different from Pinterest in that, instead of pulling user-generated content, all of the images on Lover.ly are sourced from the top wedding bloggers on the web, and categorized by vendor, model name, and item (such as ring, dress, shoes, etc.). From there, the basic premise stays mostly the same. Users can “love” items, which saves them in a Loved folder in your profile, or “bundle” items, which is the equivalent of posting to a certain board.
The site features a Color Bar up top, letting brides immediately choose their color. And every woman who’s ever been through a wedding knows, wedding planning can’t even begin without a color.
I sat down with Kellee Khalil, founder and CEO, to discuss bringing new brand partners aboard, and the decision to use bloggers to generate the content, rather than users. She has big plans for the company, hoping to eventually follow a woman through all the big life stages, like wedding, pregnancy, moving into a new homes, and being a newlywed. It could be a huge online marketplace, considering the fact that women do some serious online shopping these days.
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