Cue the marriage puns: Today Nearlyweds announces that we are tying the knot with OneWed.com. You can read the full text of the press release to get the official take.
Let me provide a little more color from behind the scenes though, a look at what really makes us tick.
Allow me to get philosophical first. We love weddings, really love them, and not just because they are exciting and fun, but because they are a moral good. Great marriages make for strong families. Strong families have an extraordinary ability to impact the world around them, do social good, and fundamentally shape the next generation. And weddings are a celebration not just the love of two, but of all that is yet to come in their marriage. This sense of purpose drives what we do.
When we talk with engaged couples, especially brides, what we hear is that the wedding becomes a giant exercise in event planning. A giant stressful exercise in event planning. Couples have to make a lot of decisions in a short period of time, prioritization is difficult, and the overwhelming options can be paralyzing. Of course there is still a lot about the planning process that is really fun, that is exciting, that is part of the celebration and the journey.
Our goal all along has been to help couples rescue their wedding from event planning mania and to celebrate the marriage. Wedding websites were our first step because they bring the families together (through stories, photos, etc.) before the wedding and help the couple efficiently communicate with guests, tally RSVPs electronically, and so on.
OneWed is a huge leap forward for us in our vision. They have the same ethos of honest, truthful advice. To borrow a line from the press release: “[Onewed has a] growing loyal network of exceptional local wedding businesses to create practical, honest, socially driven wedding content and tools to simplify the wedding planning process for engaged couples.”
So much more to come.
John Scrofano
CEO