PlanMyVows
Wedding planning for the couple who'd rather not open a spreadsheet.
Took real couples from "47 open browser tabs" to one guided plan — validated first as a concierge service through Joy Events before writing a line of product code.
Origin
I sold the service before I built the software.
Joy Events Planning came first. Doing the planning by hand — for real couples, for real money — was the cheapest possible user research. I learned exactly where the anxiety lives: it's not the big decisions, it's the fear of the thing you forgot. The vendor you didn't book in time. The cousin you didn't count.
PlanMyVows is that hard-won checklist, turned into a product. Every screen exists because a couple at Joy Events was visibly stressed about that exact thing.
How it works
One guided flow, four anxieties handled
- Budget that updates itself as you book, so 'are we okay?' is always answerable.
- Vendor shortlists with the questions to ask baked in — the planner's knowledge, not just a directory.
- A guest list that does the math (RSVPs, seating, meal counts) you'd otherwise redo five times.
- A backwards-planned timeline from the wedding date, so nothing important sneaks up.
Tradeoffs
Decisions
Start as a concierge service, not an app
Doing it by hand told me which features actually reduced stress before I spent months building the wrong ones. The service was the research budget.
Opinionated guided flow
Couples planning their first wedding don't want a blank canvas — they want to be told the right next thing. Flexibility is a feature for power users this product doesn't have.
Honest status
What's real
The concierge service ran and served real couples through Joy Events. The product is live and usable for the core planning flow. [PLACEHOLDER: state exactly which features are shipped vs. on the roadmap, and add real traction numbers if you have them.]