How AI is transforming wedding planning

Straits Times

2 days ago

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AI is transforming the wedding planning process by providing couples and event planners with many useful tools.
By the time Ms Emily Strand and Mr Will Christiansen exchange vows this fall, most of the tasks on their wedding to-do list will have been created, organised and completed thanks to artificial intelligence.
These include everything from a seating chart to a personalised 70-word crossword puzzle for their Oct 11 wedding at the Rio Secco Golf Club in Henderson, Nevada.
AI is helping them manage their budget and found their officiant and cake maker, too.
Ms Strand's secret for getting it all done? Specificity.
'I asked ChatGPT to list, as a bride, common and uncommon things I needed to do to plan a DIY, 120-person, outdoor ceremony in Las Vegas in October 2025,' said Ms Strand, 31, a public defender for Clark County, Nevada.
Within seconds ChatGPT spit out an Excel document listing 200 suggestions, including ideas from blog posts, Reddit and Google Crowdsource.
'Once it suggested vendors,' Ms Strand said, 'I had AI write my query letters to them.' She also asked for advice on improving her wedding website.
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What probably would have taken her 250 hours of research overall, she said, was completed by AI in about an hour.
Wedding planning has long been time-consuming and stressful, filled with meticulous details and endless decision making.
AI is transforming the process by providing couples and event planners with many useful tools.
Among them: real-time cost analyses and budget tracking; virtual styling assistants; algorithms for seating; automated RSVP reminders; and augmented reality, or AR, which can allow couples to tour venues remotely.
Ms Anne Chang, 32, a freelance DJ from New York City, said she wanted to 'simplify and optimise' the planning for her five-day bachelorette party in Ibiza, Spain, and turned to an AI tool on Bridesmaid for Hire, a wedding service platform.
Seconds after plugging in some basic information, a six-page itinerary was produced that 'factored in that the night we're going to a club, our following morning would be a late rise and breakfast, and a chill beach day,' Ms Chang said.
She paid US$35 (S$45 ) for the assistance.
The itinerary offered recommendations and featured a 'fun meter' for each activity.
Other unexpected touches included group photo shoot suggestions and locations, a packing checklist, emergency precautions and names of the nearest hospitals.
Ms Julia Lynch, 31, and Mr Alex Eckstein, 30, of New York City, used the same site but a different tool to create a seating chart for their 300 guests, who are attending their wedding on Aug 23 at the Hillrock Estate Distillery in Ancram, New York, where Mr Eckstein is a partner.
'The complexities of who to seat people next to is overwhelming,' said Ms Lynch, a personal brand strategist.
After inputting the names and details about their guests, the program created two seating charts, for two meals that will be served on different nights, taking into account guests' commonalities and family dynamics.
'The tool gave me suggestions for designs, layouts and types of tables within the parameters of our tent,' said Ms Lynch, who chose round tables for easier conversation.
She described the experience as fun and, at US$9, inexpensive.
Though her wedding planner is full service, she said she wanted to optimise his time. 'This took seconds and eliminated the need for him to do the work,' she said.
In 2024 , Ms Jen Glantz, a professional vows writer who started Bridesmaid for Hire in 2014, added an AI speechwriting component to her human-driven offerings.
Since introducing the tool, around 1,300 people opted for a US$35 AI speech, versus 20 people who each hired Ms Glantz to write them for US$375.
Now 10 different AI tools, including a 24-hour hotline that people call for advice, are available, and account for 70 per cent of her business.
'The hotline gives users actionable advice and steps they can take, with a bit of sympathy in my trained voice and expertise,' she said.
'For my customers, AI is making this industry more personalised, affordable, faster, and efficient.'
Popular wedding platforms like the Knot, Minted and Canva are also incorporating AI into their sites.
Zola, the wedding website, added two AI programs in 2024 : Split the Decisions, which helps couples divide wedding planning responsibilities, and a thank-you note generator tool available as a mobile app. It is also planning to add a wedding vendor budget assistant in August.
Other AI platforms have been recently built out of firsthand wedding experiences, like Guestlist and Nupt.ai.
When Ms Michelle Nemirovsky, 35, and Mr Federico Polacov, 34, of Austin, Texas, were married in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Dec 17, 2023, the couple wished they had a better way to track RSVPs and connect instantly with guests.
'People have a wedding website, but no one looks at it, and it doesn't give updates in real time,' said Ms Nemirovsky, who, with Mr Polacov, started Guestlist in 2024.
Ms Nemirovsky described the site as a social network that organizes RSVPs and offers real-time updates.
More than 7,300 people have downloaded the app since its launch, and a 24-hour AI chatbot component is in the works for later this year. Some services are free, and others require a US$10 monthly subscription that gives unlimited photo and video uploads, and texting to guests.
Though most professionals and couples agreed AI is a tool, rather than a replacement for people, many said AI was doing the job of numerous people, all at once.
'Not all brides will need a full-service planner if they can do a lot of legwork themselves with AI,' Ms Strand said. 'We only needed 'a day-of coordinator'.'
Ms Nemirovsky, though, was glad to have her planner by her side.
'The night before our wedding, a huge storm hit,' she said. 'Everything we planned was outside and needed to be inside. ChatGPT could not have replaced our wedding planner who consoled me while I was crying, or coordinated our vendors while making sure our Plan B looked like plan A.' NYTIMES