Accuser Claims Foul after getting tossed by Wedding Wire

By Paul Pannone

Growing unrest against the wedding review  website, Wedding Wire, continues to mount and has now forced the silence to be broken. Wedding Wire responded to a claim of thievery by a vendor who got tossed off the site for a conflict of interest.

According to Pat Kelly of I Do Appointments :

“About 4 years ago my brilliant sister came to me with the www.idoappointments.com idea and I have been working hard at it ever since.  We officially launched the site about two years ago and have been boot strapping the company financially and growing slowly.

I attended the WMBA conference in 2010 with a booth to announce our idea and met Sonny and we exchanged cards.  He said WW broke out of the pack when they got in contact with Martha Stewart.  I mentioned how WW could be I Do’s Martha and why could we not work together.

WW had a mixer that night and after the mixer about 10 of us were asked to go out with WW after and have drinks.  I saw Sonny (Ganguly) the next day and thanked him for the invite and went to the airport.

In 2011 I Do got another booth and we spoke very little through the convention in the hall.  Two weeks ago a friend in the business sent me an email that WW was coming out with a new promotion for their paying clients – online
appointments that look striking like my site down to the bride we use. While no laws were broken, it just seems very unethical.”

After numerous attempts to reach Ganguly,  anyone at Wedding Wire or the Catalyst Group, an email of Kelly’s allegations was answered by an unknown source at the organization saying:

WeddingWire has always had the ability to contact vendors and set up meetings since we first launched in 2007.  As one of the largest online marketplaces for the wedding industry, our appointment scheduler is an enhancement to our existing contact form, to help coordinate a time for in-person or phone meetings. More importantly, the feature makes it simple for wedding pros to add a ‘Schedule Appointment’ button on their own website to book appointments online, directly from visitors on their website. This is a unique feature in the industry and similar to what OpenTable has pioneered since 1998.   

We’ve always admired market-leading sites like OpenTable (restaurant scheduling), MindBodyOnline (scheduling for beauty + health), ZocDoc (scheduling for doctor appointments) and many other like-minded sites that have shown the value in helping consumers schedule appointments with professionals.  We will continue to put effort into ensuring we are the industry’s best marketing platform for wedding pros, which includes appointment scheduling and many other features, such as our ProMotion Builder (to create a commercial for businesses) and our GoMobile utility (to mobilize any site in seconds).

Thank you,

The WeddingWire Team

According to Kelly no NDA or agreement of any kind was ever signed or executed. Kelly was invited and accepted to be a part of the Wedding Water Cooler in March where the discussions involving this matter continue.

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