Problem
Planning a wedding is stressful and expensive
Planning a wedding can be one of the biggest sources of anxiety and stress a couple may face — and it happens right at the beginning of their marriage. Couples regularly spend 2X their wedding budget on event expenses due to the lack of transparency of pricing, services, and quality in the deeply inefficient wedding industry.
On average, couples have to read through 67 contracts to plan a single wedding. This creates stress for couples and slows down the process for vendors.
This causes unnecessary stress and burnout for all parties involved — all to plan what’s meant to be one of the most joyous and happy events in a couple's new life together.
Solution
An e-commerce marketplace for planning a wedding
Event Hollow is a wedding platform that enables couples to view pricing, availability, filter by style, then book and pay for all their wedding vendors in one place.
Event Hollow has solved the difficult contract process for both vendors and couples. Our two-sided marketplace has full pricing transparency, a streamlined pairing and hiring process, simple payment and financing, and one contract to review and sign.
With Event Hollow, the couple can estimate the entire cost of their wedding with no commitment to vendors. They can dynamically and instantly create customized wedding packages across all service categories, with only the best local vendors.
Package options
The budget is an important part of just about every wedding. We've made it really easy to choose from a range of standardized packages and then customize those to meet your needs.
What customers can book
All Event Hollow wedding vendors have been curated based on the quality of their work.
Choose a pro
Once you've determined what specific services you want and you've customized the package to meet your needs, it's time to choose a pro. You already know how much you're paying, now it's time to choose who you want to work with.
We've made it super easy to check out vendors that have been selected based on the results of your style quiz.
You can click into each pro's profile page to see their Instagram, Pinterest, and learn more about them. You can even set up a call before you book them.
Event Hollow gives users flexible payment options.
Even with a budget, there's no escaping the fact that weddings are expensive. That's why we've made it extremely easy to see how much your wedding will cost before you've even made a single purchase.
When you're ready to pay, you've chosen a package and a pro, you can check out and pay without ever having to leave Event Hollow. Even better, You can choose if you want to pay 100% now or 50% now and 50% once services are rendered. Or you can finance all or part of your booking and pay over time.
With an Event Hollow wedding, you have transparency in pricing, efficiency for booking curated quality pros, and peace of mind knowing Event Hollow has your back every step of the way.
Product
Integrating the wedding planning process
Curated Vendor Network
Our vendors are hand-selected by the top Bay Area wedding planners and are vetted by Event Hollow to provide top-tier service.
Wedding Planning Concierge
Our professional concierge service guides clients through the entire planning process and gives them full disclosure for every price tag. Every payment comes with a 100% money-back guarantee, so it's risk-free and easy event planning, all in one place.
Wedding Financing
We give complete financial flexibility. Choose a payment plan and have the option of financing your entire event.
Instant Booking
All vendor calendars are integrated into the platform, making vendor-availability for your date known instantly. Couples can book tastings and interviews with any vendor before booking them, or book them instantly.
Intelligent Pairing
We have designed an algorithm that pairs couples to vendors based on the results of a wedding style quiz they take on the platform.
Transparent Pricing
We offer fully disclosed pricing in all vendor categories. Build a custom proposal without sending a single email.
Only Sign One Contract
Gone are the days of reviewing and negotiating dozens of contracts. Our legal team has designed a master contract for all vendor categories, that protects everyone involved, that only requires one signature.
Traction
300+ vendors in the Bay Area
The curated network consists of over 300 strictly-vetted, high-quality wedding vendors located in the Bay Area, California — one of the most popular places in the world to get married.
150+ active users with carts totaling $500k pre-launch
Customers
Couples are saying "I do" to Event Hollow
We are launching to engaged couples in the Bay Area. We have over 150 couples planning their weddings with over $500k in their carts pre-launch.
"The wedding industry has been craving this platform since I started photographing weddings in 2010. Couples are truly overwhelmed when it comes to knowing which vendors to trust in a highly saturated market. They also are starting to pay for weddings on their own and really appreciate the option to make convenient payments on their big day.
Partnering with Event Hollow to deal with the minutiae of business frees me to focus on my strengths rather than the often monotonous task of marketing, admin and contract negotiations. It levels the playing field for those of us who have experience and proven continued customer satisfaction through the years. When that happens, the client is able to focus on what they like about us, our style and personality.
The wedding industry has sorely needed a vetting system—both for clients and professionals. How many horror stories have been told about photographers who don’t show up or planners who are unresponsive? When those stories go viral it creates an atmosphere of fear and distrust in the mind of our clients and this affects everyone, from the client to the photographer to the planner. My clients can rest assured that I have been vetted as well as any other Event Hollow professionals they choose. Peace of mind is invaluable."
-Nicole Di'Giorgio | Sweetness & Light Photography
"The wedding industry has truly been struggling to find a platform like this one, that not only streamline funnels more clients to our creative small businesses but also helps support and build a sense of community that actually cares about the success of one another. It’s a refreshing new tool that I am so excited to be a part of; it’s precisely the thing my business (all our businesses, really) needs."
- Katie Laines | Katie Laines design + coordination
"Event Hollow has succeeded in breaking through what has traditionally been an antiquated, frustrating and sometimes nerve-racking process of wedding planning. Couples can now select, book and finance everything associated with their special day via an intuitive, highly interactive platform that brings couples and creative providers together in a seamless way. What's more, the Event Hollow user experience mimics the deep and valuable interactions a coupe gets when working with first-rate wedding planners — all the while being easy, fast and affordable."
-Greg White | Partner, COO, Sway Ventures.
High-quality businesses in the wedding industry are applying to our network and engaging in our community
We are launching with over 300 bay area industry partners and we currently have over 100 vendors waitlisted in Southern California and Oregon.
Business model
20% for each service booked
Revenue Projections
Market
A staggering $100B national market
Trends
- 80% of wedding planning is conducted online.
- 35% of brides are buying their attire online.
- 30% of brides are building Pinterest boards for wedding style inspiration.
- Americans are paying double their expected budget. Couples, on average, expect to pay $20,000 but end up spending roughly $40,000.
(All trend statistics pulled from The Wedding Report - 2019 license)
Competition
The all-in-one event solution
Prices, packages, and availability are not published on any of these websites. What if all that information was published? It is with Event Hollow.
- None of our competitors provide the option to purchase wedding services in an e-commerce user flow.
- None of our competitors offer wedding financing options. We offer wedding financing from day one through third-party lending partners.
- Unlike our competitors that provide thousands of wedding vendor options, we’ve chosen only the best, and use our intelligent pairing algorithm to match them with like-minded couples based on shared style.
Vision and strategy
Becoming the go-to for all things event planning
Next steps
- Build deeper sophistication into our vendor/client style matching algorithm using AI and Machine Learning. Eventually we hope to make it possible to book entire teams, make budget suggestions, and more.
- Turn on our paid marketing on Facebook, Pinterest and Google.
- Build out our customer success offerings.
We believe all of this will simplify the process of planning any event, making it easier to organize, budget and pay for.
Funding
Bootstrapped to date with investments from founders, friends, and family
Plus, we have over 65% of our Seed round committed or in the bank with:
Founders
Executives that have collectively planned over 600 weddings in the last 10 years
It is our mission to empower and serve both couples and wedding vendors through connection, education, inspiration, and human-kindness.