Latest news with #BridesmaidforHire
CNBC
2 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
37-year-old 'bridesmaid for hire' has been in over 100 weddings: Here's the No. 1 thing she's learned about relationships
When Jen Glantz, 37, graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2010, she didn't know what she'd do for a living. She tried consulting for sororities, doing public relations for Jewish nonprofits and copywriting for startups. By 2014, Glantz picked up on a pattern in her personal life: Her friends regularly asked her to be their bridesmaid. And she was good at it. Glantz posted an ad on Craigslist as a "bridesmaid for hire" to see if she could get paid for her unique skillset and within days, she'd received hundreds of requests. Glantz ultimately founded her business, Bridesmaid for Hire, where she offers an array of services from helping couples write their vows to being a bridesmaid. Bridesmaid for Hire services include phone calls, texts and in-person meetings with local clients. Glantz says she works to build a "foundation of friendship" and helps to guide her brides "through the drama and the chaos" that comes with planning a wedding. Glantz has now been part of over 100 weddings and says the No. 1 thing she's learned so far is that "people are inherently lonely." The people who hire Glantz don't want for close ties in their lives. "[They] have tons of friends," she says. But they don't seem to have anyone they feel like they can be honest with. Glantz has observed that it can be difficult to open up, even to the people who are closest to us. "We're scared of how they're going to react," she says. "Or we're scared that they're going to remember what we said for years, and the relationship will never be the same." And so in this flurry of excitement, stress and high-stakes decision making, Glantz becomes the unbiased outsider and the listening ear her clients need. "They tell me their deepest and darkest secrets," she says. Her clients have shared that they're getting married because they want kids and feel like they're running out of time, or because they want the financial stability. One person even confessed that they weren't interested in getting married at all. "She sat down and said, 'Jen, I didn't hire you to be my bridesmaid. I hired you to help me end my engagement,'" Glantz says. "She knew she didn't want to marry her person, but knew if she told her friends, they'd talk her into it, or if she told her parents, they'd remind her how much money she spent on the wedding." Glantz can relate to feeling that loneliness and the want for someone she can just be honest with. "Sometimes it's easier to talk to strangers about really serious, tough things," she says. But she's working on it. Her advice to anyone who feels like they don't have someone they can truly talk to in their lives is to ask "what parts of yourself can you open up to different friends about?" and to remember that you don't have to tell everyone everything. You might also want to consider reaching out to a professional, like a therapist, who you can spill your inner most secrets to and who can help you work through whatever feelings that brings up. "It does make a huge difference in your mental health and also [gives] you that safety you need as you go through life," she says.
The Star
14-07-2025
- Business
- The Star
How AI is transforming wedding planning
By the time Emily Strand and 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. 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 Strand, 31, a public defender for Clark County, Nevada. Within seconds it spit out an Excel document listing 200 suggestions, including ideas from blog posts, Reddit and Google Crowdsource. 'Once it suggested vendors,' Strand said, 'I had AI write my query letters to them.' She also asked for advice on improving her wedding website. 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. 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,' Chang said. She paid US$35 (RM149) 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. Julia Lynch, 31, and 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 Aug 23 at the Hillrock Estate Distillery in Ancram, New York, where Eckstein, is a partner. 'The complexities of who to seat people next to is overwhelming,' said 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 Lynch, who chose round tables for easier conversation. She described the experience as fun and, at US$9 (RM38), 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. Last year 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 (RM149) AI speech, versus 20 people who each hired Glantz to write them for US$375 (RM1,595). Now 10 different AI tools, including a 24-hour hotline that people call for advice, are available, and account for 70% 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 last year: 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 When Michelle Nemirovsky, 35, and 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 Nemirovsky, who, with Polacov, started Guestlist in 2024. Nemirovsky described the site as a social network that organises 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 (RM42) monthly subscription that gives unlimited photo and video uploads, and texting to guests. This year, another couple, Alvina Putri, 29, and Deepak Venkatesh, 32, of Los Angeles, created a wedding planning platform powered by AI. The couple married in Newport, Rhode Island, on Sept 17, 2023, and had longed for some help organising and executing their wedding-planning tasks. Their site can generate personalised checklists based on cultural or traditional nuances; curate vendor recommendations; manage guest lists; streamline repetitive tasks, 'like emailing vendors or chasing down RSVPs, and do smart vendor matching,' Putri said. 'Our average couple is 25 to 34, who spends over 500 hours planning their wedding,' she said. 'We're bringing that down to 50 hours.' According to Putri, some parts of the platform are free; others cost US$20 (RM85) per month or a US$200 (RM851) annual plan, which 60% to 70% of couples pay for and stay on until their wedding happens. 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,' Strand said. 'We only needed 'a day-of coordinator'.' 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.' – ©2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Indian Express
13-07-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
How AI is transforming wedding planning
By the time Emily Strand and Will Christiansen exchange vows this fall, most of the tasks on their wedding to-do list will have been created, organized and completed thanks to artificial intelligence. These include everything from a seating chart to a personalized 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. 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 Strand, 31, a public defender for Clark County, Nevada. Within seconds it spit out an Excel document listing 200 suggestions, including ideas from blog posts, Reddit and Google Crowdsource. 'Once it suggested vendors,' Strand said, 'I had AI write my query letters to them.' She also asked for advice on improving her wedding website. 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. Anne Chang, 32, a freelance DJ from New York City, said she wanted to 'simplify and optimize' 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,' Chang said. She paid $35 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. Julia Lynch, 31, and 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 Aug. 23 at the Hillrock Estate Distillery in Ancram, New York, where Eckstein, is a partner. 'The complexities of who to seat people next to is overwhelming,' said 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 Lynch, who chose round tables for easier conversation. She described the experience as fun and, at $9, inexpensive. Though her wedding planner is full service, she said she wanted to optimize his time. 'This took seconds and eliminated the need for him to do the work,' she said. Last year 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 $35 AI speech, versus 20 people who each hired Glantz to write them for $375. Now 10 different AI tools, including a 24-hour hotline that people call for advice, are available, and account for 70% 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 personalized, 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 last year: 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 When Michelle Nemirovsky, 35, and 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 Nemirovsky, who, with Polacov, started Guestlist in 2024. 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 $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,' Strand said. 'We only needed 'a day-of coordinator.'' 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.'
Straits Times
13-07-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
How AI is transforming wedding planning
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox 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. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Government looking at enhancing laws around vaping to tackle issue of drug-laced vapes in Singapore Singapore Why the vape scourge in Singapore concerns everyone Singapore I lost my daughter to Kpod addiction: Father of 19-year-old shares heartbreak and lessons Singapore Organised crime groups pushing drug-laced vapes in Asia including Singapore: UN Asia Why China's high-end hotels are setting up food stalls outside their doors Singapore Geothermal energy present in S'pore, but greater study on costs, stability needed, say experts Singapore Prison school to NUS: At 36, former drug abuser finds it's never too late to get a degree Singapore Driver arrested after 66-year-old woman dies in car crash at Geylang pasar malam 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 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
CNBC
27-06-2025
- Business
- CNBC
4 AI tools to help with your side hustle: One ‘increased my website traffic by 30%,' says expert
Summer's here and with it opportunities to earn some extra cash. You could rent out your home to travelers on Airbnb or Facebook, pet sit for families going away, create social media content about your job — the opportunities are endless. If there's a chore that needs doing, someone could very well pay you to do it. And there are tools to streamline and make your side hustle easier once you've gotten started. That includes various AI tools introduced in the last few years. Here are four to consider using according to side hustle experts. Claude is a generative AI tool built by Anthropic. Like ChatGPT, you can use text, audio and visual prompts to create various written content. Jen Glantz, founder of Bridesmaid for Hire and the creator of the Monday Pick-Me-Up and Odd Jobs newsletters, uses Claude "to write out social media strategies and posts," she says. "I will share my own social media pages as well as other people's content I admire. I'll ask the tool to generate a 30-day plan for me with captions, posts, hashtags, and more." There are three plans for those interested in trying out the bot: a free plan with basic capabilities like analyzing text and images and creating content; a $17 per month plan, which allows for access to research and connecting to Google Workspace; and a $100 per month plan, which offers early access to advanced Claude features. Swiftbrief is an AI tool geared toward improving SEO strategy. "The tool helps me identify topics I should focus on by analyzing my website and competitors and then writes the blog posts for me," says Glantz. "This has saved me thousands of dollars and increased my website traffic by 30%." Subscriptions cost $12, $119 or $239 per month, depending on the amount of insights you want to derive from the bot. This tool allows you to create and manage automatic messages with people who interact with your social media platforms. "You can program it to answer direct messages and also to share links with followers if they comment on your posts asking more about products, outfits, or items that you share," says Glantz. "It's like having a social media assistant on-call 24/7." If you've seen a call to action on Instagram like "comment 'toast' to get the recipe" and gotten a DM with that recipe, that could have been Manychat at work. Subscriptions range from free to "customized to fit your needs," according to its website. Manus is an AI tool designed to do complex tasks like create websites, analyze stocks and build itineraries. Side hustle expert Daniella Flores has used Manus to build a Pinterest schedule for the month, including images and descriptions they could post, for example. "You can tell it to do, like, 20 different things if you want to in one message," they say, adding that "it'll show the windows that it's browsing, what it's doing behind the scenes." You can tweak your ask even while it's working to ensure you get the results you're looking for. There's a free version of Manus, as well as versions that cost $16, $33 and $166 per month, depending on the amount of video generation, slide generation and other capabilities you want to use and unlock.
