One of the most memorable occasions in a woman’s life is the day when she walks down the aisle and says, “I do” to the man of her dreams. However, the path to that aisle can be fraught with nerve-wracking preparations with all the details that can take the joy and anticipation out of every bride-to-be. So when the dream day starts to take on nightmarish proportions, call on Bridestory, the leading online wedding marketplace in Southeast Asia that recently launched two applications: Bridestory, an app that connects couples with over 15,000 wedding vendors worldwide; and Bridestory Pro, a business app for vendors to manage their Bridestory profile and client inquiries anytime, anywhere.
In September last year, Bridestory – which has more than 500,000 users visiting its site every month – launched its local site www.bridestory.com.ph, and since that time, over 400 local Filipino vendors have joined the community, with the site receiving increasing traffic and social media followers from Filipino audiences. This has prompted the company to mull the idea of setting up a local team in Manila to support its ground operation.
According to Kevin Mintaraga, co-founder and CEO of Bridestory, the Philippines is one of the most exciting markets for the company to expand its business. “With the country being the second most populous country in Southeast Asia, we foresee a big potential in its wedding market. Besides, through both apps, we hope to make it easier and faster for many more engaged couples to connect with thousands of wedding vendors across the world; in alignment with our mission – to make dream weddings possible,” he says.
Bridestory also owns one of the world’s largest wedding Instagram networks, reaching out to more than two million people globally with daily wedding inspirations. With the help of the app, brides-to-be (and the prospective groom) can plan their wedding seamlessly by exploring millions of wedding inspirations from 15,000 wedding vendors across more than 50 countries listed in Bridestory.com. Couples-to-be can browse through Bridestory’s vast library of wedding inspirations and filter based on country, color and category.
Doni Hanafi, co-founder and chief technology officer of Bridestory, observed that the increasing number of smartphone users contributes to the growing importance for mobile app development in a technology company. “Our data reveals more than 60 percent of the traffic to the Bridestory site comes from mobile devices,” discloses Hanafi, adding that the Bridestory app is an ultimate solution to the tedious process of planning a wedding.
The Bridestory app’s Inspiration Board function enables users to create wedding mood boards that can be shared through email and social media. Not only does this allow brides-to-be to search and save their wedding inspirations, it also allows them to instantly connect with the wedding professionals behind those inspirations. Plus, users can view the price lists, previous clients’ reviews, and even send instant messages to vendors.
Bridestory Pro app on the other hand enables wedding vendors to manage their Bridestory business profile, upload new projects and promptly respond to business inquiries from their smartphones.
“Approximately 100,000 business leads are received by registered vendors monthly in our platform, and vendors who are more active in updating their profiles and uploading new projects in Bridestory received significantly higher business queries. Bridestory Pro was created for wedding professionals to access their vendor dashboard on-the-go,” says Hanafi.
Mayad Studios, a wedding photographer based in Boracay, acknowledges Bridestory Pro as a very beneficial tool for wedding vendors like it as the app made it easy for the vendor to update its profile, post new photos and videos for its portfolio. “We receive more business leads and can respond to them immediately. The application has made us visible to our clients and potential clients,” the vendor said.
Bridestory and Bridestory Pro are now available in App Store and Google Play.