WeddingWire Ties the Knot with Spain-based Wedding Planner

WeddingWire Inc. can’t help you with your cold feet. But it can help you weed out wedding venues and florists.
The website, known as the Yelp of the wedding industry, includes reviews and tidbits about the key components of a wedding. Newlyweds have left reviews under a variety of aliases including their own names—many female—and even the likes of “UpsetBride.”
“People use Yelp to figure out where to eat and Trulia for finding a home. We help people make very important decisions about their wedding,” said Tim Chi, co-founder and chief executive of WeddingWire.
Mr. Chi launched the Washington, D.C.-based company in 2007 after struggling to find information online about wedding vendors. Soon after it was established, the website expanded to about 10 cities. Now it’s usable throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Today the company announced it acquired Wedding Planner S.L., the Spain-based version of WeddingWire that has websites in 12 countries in Latin America and Europe.
Since the wedding market is primarily made up of local vendors, from venues to photographers to florists, the website gathers information and reviews about many small businesses. Wedding Planner’s websites have similar models, and will operate as a separate entity.
WeddingWire is partially backed by Spectrum Equity, Catalyst Investors and Southern Capitol Ventures. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia took a 40% stake in the company in 2008, but later sold it.
WeddingWire says it has helped 10 million people plan their weddings, and has an average of 8 million searches across the company network each month, in categories including florists, attire, photography, music entertainment, catering and venues.

Consumers have been reading more reviews when making decisions on local businesses, from restaurants and hotels to doctors and hair and beauty salons.