The WeddingRelay Story:

Over the past few years, we have been involved in planning and organizing many weddings and related events. As each event passed and we assumed various important roles in those weddings, we saw the myriad planning details involved in the wedding, showers, and other events as seen from the perspective of the bridesmaids, groomsmen, parents and planners. Over the course of planning, hundreds of emails began flooding our inboxes and it became increasingly challenging to manage the different communications, events and tasks we were involved in. We thought that somehow there needed to be a way to make sure that everyone stayed "in the loop" and that planning and communicating ran smoothly.

We built WeddingRelay because we realized, upon talking to many different engaged couples, bridesmaids, groomsmen and parents that there was really no wedding planning utility that involved the whole wedding party. Additionally, there is so much that goes in to planning a wedding and all of the ancillary activities (wedding showers, bachelor(ette) parties, transportation, attire, etc.) that really involves decisions and planning by more than just the bride and groom. With that said, we decided to create something that is easy to use, as well as fun and convenient.

For the Wedding Party:

Whether your wedding party is a few close friends from your immediate geographic area, or a large group spread out all over the country, everyone can get to know each other better and keep coordinated with respect to wedding related activities. Your profile can give your fellow "team members" a better sense of who you are and how you know the bride & groom. For the bride & groom, it can lessen the stress associated with connecting people from different areas of your lives. Parents of the bride & groom can participate easily in helping to plan activities - not only the wedding itself, but other events such as showers and rehearsal dinners. Selected guests or Wedding Planners can also be included in relevant conversation threads.

Functionality:

The tools on WeddingRelayTeam provide an efficient and fun way for all of the members of a wedding "team" to stay organized.

• The MESSAGING functionality allows you to choose who sees and can respond to messages (great for planning bachelor(ette) parties, etc. without the bride and groom knowing).
• The ANONYMOUS POLLING lets people find out answers to questions without alienating people via big group mass emails (and yes, you can tell the bride you hate one of the bridesmaid dress selections without her knowing who responded!).
• The CALENDAR and TASK functions let you stay organized and focused - we even send you a weekly reminder of messages, events and tasks so there are no more embarrassing "Oops I forgot!" moments.
• ACCOUNT SETTINGS let each person decide what e-mail notifications they receive. Won't it be nice to participate in group-discussions without everyone hitting "Reply All" and clogging up your inbox!

For Wedding Vendors:

Virtually every wedding related website is geared to the bride & groom. However, every wedding has attendants and guests, so why not capitalize on a greatly expanded market? WeddingRelay is the only site on the internet that incorporates every member of the wedding party. Our vendors can reach an average of 12x as many potential customers by targeting the entire bridal party, parents and guests on WeddingRelay. Remember, "always a bridesmaid, never a bride" is not usually true! Vendors can list their businesses in a variety of categories for even greater exposure and become Featured Vendors on industry specific pages within the site. Our "team members" will be able to search by geographical region and/or vendor category, as well as view Featured Vendors on every page that is relevant.

For Everyone:

We will finish by letting you know that we are in the process of building a vendor community that is going to improve the way people do business in the wedding industry. We will be rolling out some innovative ideas over the next few months which will give our users great value for their money and give our vendors far greater exposure and business opportunities than they currently have on "vendor listing" sites. Watch for that in the next few months!