Wedding season is just around the corner, and many brides-to-be are busy finalizing plans for their dream day. But even in Santa Barbara — listed among the Top 10 destinations to tie the knot … worldwide — the cliché, “always a bridesmaid never a bride,” has financial strings attached that may surprise you.
As a mother of daughters who have been bridesmaids as well as the bride, I know firsthand how expensive weddings can be. Attending a wedding or sharing your child’s big day with family and friends — whether on a large scale or small — usually means big bucks.
While not on a par with the bride, of course, accepting the honor of standing up in a wedding can also tax your bank account. Thanks to a Santa Monica start-up with a local connection, budget-conscious bridal parties may soon get a break.
Santa Barbara native Kasey Lundquist is the new operations director at Vow to be Chic, which rents designer bridesmaid dresses from its headquarters in Santa Monica.
Lundquist — whose distinguished academic journey took her from Laguna Blanca School to Santa Barbara High School to Duke University, where she earned a B.A. in Economics — actually started out in business, as an investment banker at Deutsche Bank in New York City before venturing on to Northwestern University’s Kellogg School Of Management.
She certainly knows the numbers side. My aha! moment came when I learned from her that the average cost of being a bridesmaid — besides the dress — is $1,695. And that figure doesn’t include the countless hours a bridesmaid spends planning and consulting with the bride, hosting showers and attending various wedding-related events, preceding the Big Day itself.
Vow to be Chic is a cost-savings luxury style option and provides convenience to the bridesmaid experience. The new e-commerce platform brings an age-old tradition into the 21st century by allowing women to conduct this typically frustrating shopping experience from the comfort of their desktop or smartphone, Lundquist said.
Some additional “did-you-know” tidbits that she shared with me:
» There are 11 million bridesmaids every year.
» 75 percent of women have been a bridesmaid between one and three times.
» 80 percent of bridesmaid dresses are worn only once.
» December is the busiest month for engagements, with one in five occurring then.
» The wedding market is projected to grow by 5.5 percent in each of the next six years.
» Weddings were a $51 billion business in 2012, according to IBIS World.
How It All Began
The question that faced Vow to be Chic founder and CEO Kelsey Doorey before she started her company in the spring of 2014 was a familiar one to just about anyone who has ever been a bridesmaid: If you knew you would wear a dress only once, would you rent it or buy it?
A Columbia University alumna from Wilmington, Del., Doorey earned her MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management (which is where she and Lundquist met). As part of a course assignment at UCLA, she came up with the answer.
After surveying her closet of six once-worn bridesmaid dresses, Doorey thought to herself, “Why is it that guys can rent tuxedos while the girls have to spend a lot of money on a one-time dress?” She quickly developed a business plan, which so impressed her professors that they urged her to enter it in Anderson’s annual Knapp Venture Competition.
She won, and several judges who were venture capital investors offered to fund Vow to be Chic on the spot — reportedly the first time that had happened in the competition’s 30-year history. Soon after, socalTECH named Doorey one of the top 50 people to watch in Southern Californian technology industry.
Vow to be Chic features dresses — some by well-known designers such as Monique Lhuillier, Nicole Miller and Jenny Yoo — that retail for upward of $300 but that can be rented from the website for as little as $95. To ensure a great fit, every rental includes a complimentary home try-on of two sizes months before the wedding.
To accommodate a growing trend, Vow to be Chic has recently introduced little white dresses for the bride’s major events, such as engagement parties, rehearsal dinners and bridal showers. Its selection of little white dresses retails for up to $795 but can be rented for as little as 12 percent to 25 percent of the purchase.
Brides and bridesmaids also have a complimentary, dedicated personal stylist to help them look their best on their important day. Vow to be Chic has been featured on Nightline, Good Morning America and in the Huffington Post.
According to Lundquist — who does everything from steam dresses and pack boxes to manage the warehouse of 500 dresses and update the website — company officials believe their concept is unique, having built out a proprietary reverse-logistics system to track try-on dresses as well as the dresses that are rented for the actual wedding.
Each order includes four shipments, says Lundquist, who works behind the scenes with service providers like dry cleaners, tailors, package suppliers and shippers.
According to Lundquist, the start-up has rented dresses in 35 states so far. No female on Vow to be Chic’s eight-member team has tied the knot yet, but the company has dressed mothers of the brides, wedding guests, junior bridesmaids and Hollywood’s best-dressed women for awards shows and nonprofit galas.
“The oldest bride we’ve worked with is 70,” she exclaimed. “Her daughters and granddaughters are her bridesmaids!”
The team at Vow to be Chic feels perfectly positioned for this affordable, stylish and convenient trend. They all agree and encourage their clients to be comfortable with renting, knowing they will feel beautiful, have the perfect fit and that “the dress is temporary, but the memories are forever!”
Click here for more information about Vow to be Chic, or call 844.932.7869.
— Judy Foreman is a Noozhawk columnist and longtime local writer and lifestyles observer. She can be contacted at judyforeman@noozhawk.com. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are her own.