Introducing Pearl Connect: First AI-Powered Platform for Wedding Professionals to Market, Connect & Book Couples Providing Real-Time, Qualified Leads Backed by First-Party Data

Pearl Connect addresses two painfully obvious truths within the wedding industry; firstly, wedding professionals shouldn't have to pay for basic vendor directory listing, forcing them to track couples across email, texts, calls, forms, DMs, and calendars just to say "Hello." Secondly, couples shouldn't have to repeat their love story, likes/dislikes, wedding aesthetic and budget every time they meet a new vendor, or ask if what they're looking for is in that vendor's "wheelhouse." Both couples planning their weddings and the vendors that help make it happen deserve better.

Pearl Connect gathers all that scattered chase-and-repeat into one connected place. It links couples to wedding professionals through the planning details they already shared in Pearl Planner - date, venue, style, vision, budget - and turns that into useful context for the vendors competing for the work, and creating one seamless tool to grow their business instead of multiple dashboards, subscriptions, and apps. Simply put for wedding professionals -- Pearl Connect lets you stop chasing and start connecting.

"Our couples already told Pearl Planning everything. Pearl Connect makes sure wedding professionals hear it too!" said Kelly Cook, CEO of David's Bridal. "No more digital scavenger hunts for wedding pros. We know what couples are planning, what they're looking for, and where they are on their journey. Pearl Connect puts that context to work for the businesses on the other side of the aisle. We're simplifying all those disjointed ways of connecting into one place with the goal of removing any friction so wedding professionals can have a more meaningful, real connection with potential couples. It's a very different way to think about a wedding vendor marketplace - it's about vendor listings, it's about creating real connections that can lead to revenue and growth for wedding pros."

Wedding planning remains one of the largest consumer categories operating without a unified digital infrastructure. Couples navigating the $70B U.S. wedding industry move between inspiration platforms, vendor directories, spreadsheets, email, calendars, messaging apps and social media, while wedding professionals manage leads across the same fragmented ecosystem. The result is an industry built around disconnected touchpoints. A couple may discover a photographer on one platform, communicate through another, receive pricing over email, schedule through a separate calendar and keep notes somewhere else entirely. On the vendor side, the same relationship can be scattered across inboxes, DMs, phone calls, spreadsheets and scheduling tools. Pearl Connect is designed to simplify that experience by creating one touchpoint around the relationship itself leading to a more streamlined planning process for the couple, and real business growth for the vendor.

Rather than functioning as just another vendor directory, Pearl Connect acts as an AI-powered operating layer for the demand already being generated through wedding planning. It brings discovery context, communications, lead management, tasks and scheduling closer together so couples and vendors can spend less time managing the mechanics of connecting and more time actually connecting. And because Pearl Connect is native to Pearl Planner, that connection starts with context. Vendors can understand what a couple is planning before the first conversation, while couples can move forward without repeatedly starting from scratch.

Key features include:

• CONNECTED COMMUNICATION HUB: Pearl Connect brings vendor communications into one place, automatically organizing threads by wedding and urgency, identifying intent such as pricing or timeline requests, and drafting replies.
• CONTEXT-RICH LEAD MANAGEMENT: Pearl Connect carries relevant planning information from Pearl Planner into the vendor experience, helping professionals understand the couple, their wedding and what they are looking for before the first conversation.
• AI-POWERED FOLLOW-THROUGH: Pearl Connect identifies commitments and next steps, such as "send contract by Friday," and turns them into tracked tasks synced to Google, Outlook or Apple calendars.
• SELF-SERVICE SCHEDULING: Couples can instantly self-book consultations based on real-time vendor availability, eliminating unnecessary back-and-forth and making it easier to move from conversation to connection.
• PROFILE OPTIMIZATION & ANALYTICS: Pearl Connect helps vendors manage how they appear across the Pearl ecosystem and understand performance to improve their presence and conversion.

David's reach across the wedding journey gives Pearl Connect a differentiated source of first-party planning context. With nearly 90% reach among U.S. brides, David's has visibility into a significant portion of the consumers moving through the wedding journey. That context changes the first interaction. Instead of receiving an anonymous inquiry and beginning the qualification process from scratch, vendors can enter the conversation with a better understanding of who the couple is, what they are planning and what they need. Traditional wedding marketplaces are built primarily around discovery: find a vendor, click a profile and send an inquiry. Pearl Connect is designed around what happens next. By combining planning context, communication, AI-powered organization and scheduling, Pearl is building a more connected path from "I'm interested" to "let's talk" to "we're booked."

"Pearl Connect is designed around the simple idea that a vendor should know more than a name and an email when a potential client reaches out, and they certainly shouldn't have to pay to be listed in a glorified phonebook," added Elina Vilk, President and Chief Business Officer at David's Bridal. "When a couple comes through Pearl, we can connect that inquiry to the context they've already shared - their date, venue, style, budget, and what they're actually looking for. That gives both sides a better starting point. The couple doesn't have to start over, and the vendor doesn't have to spend the first several exchanges figuring out whether the opportunity is a fit. Together, Pearl Planner and Pearl Connect create a wedding planning flywheel: couples plan and share intent, vendors gain context around that intent, and both sides get a simpler path to a real connection and tangible business growth."

Pearl Connect introduces a subscription software model to David's broader marketplace ecosystem, creating a new recurring software revenue stream while extending the company's relationship with the businesses already participating within that ecosystem. For wedding professionals, it combines access to demand with technology designed to help them manage, qualify and convert that demand.

Pearl by David's is building a connected technology ecosystem around the wedding journey, from discovery and planning to vendor engagement and booking. David's "Aisle to Algorithm" strategy is designed to bring the fragmented wedding journey into one connected ecosystem, creating value for both the couples planning their weddings and the professionals serving them. Pearl Connect represents a broader shift in David's and Pearl's business models: using technology, first-party planning context, media and marketplace capabilities to participate in more of the wedding journey - and make the journey between people and businesses simpler, more relevant and more human.

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ABOUT DAVID'S BRIDAL

With over 75 years of experience dressing people for all of life's special occasions, David's Bridal exists for magical moments. Since its "Aisle to Algorithm" strategic pivot, David's has evolved from iconic bridal retailer to wedding technology company, media powerhouse, and marketplace platform transforming how people plan, shop, and celebrate life's biggest moments. From assuming full production of Vera Wang Bride to launching Diamonds & Pearls, a curated couture boutique experience, David's entrance into this new era marks a pivotal moment for retailers going beyond traditional scopes and expanding into new categories.

At the center of David's technological and retail evolution is Pearl by David's, Pearl Planner, and Pearl Media Network-the all-in-one digital wedding destination connecting consumers with everything from AI-powered planning tools, inspiration, and vendor directories to expanded retail categories and leading content.

Under the Pearl Media umbrella is *Love Stories by David's*, the top wedding media brand taking a digital-first approach to wedding content and inspiration with over 20M viewers per month across content platforms, including the wedding industry's sole podcast network, streaming TV, Snap Discover channels, and a library of over 30,000 real wedding videos. Each video comes equipped with wedding data and details, contributing to a marketplace of over 60,000 wedding professionals to help couples better dream about, research, and plan their big day.