When Bryn Khoury was planning her dream wedding, she found herself frustrated that she couldn’t easily sort through potential wedding vendors. After she wrapped her own celebration, Khoury started her next adventure by developing Our Day.
Founded in 2023, Our Day is a Charlotte-based startup providing an online platform that connects people planning events with a variety of vendors—from caterers and bakers to photographers and DJs—with the hope of finding the perfect match for the big day.
Prior to founding Our Day, Khoury had worked for 10 years on various projects in investment banking, including developing a platform to compare the costs of outside counsel.
“I was very familiar with this type of platform structure and sense and process flow, and so it was a really positive inspiration for Our Day and how I wanted to structure it,” Khoury said.
The company started with a focus on weddings in Charlotte, but has since expanded its scope to include a range of events throughout the greater Southeast region, from Georgia to Washington, D.C.
Our Day’s model
People planning an event with Our Day can browse the vendors on the website in a directory, but can also post proposals for specific things they are looking for from vendors—a feature that sets Our Day apart from other wedding planning platforms. When making a proposal, event planners can mention their budget, specific needs and creative vision for their event.
After a proposal is posted, the team at Our Day works as a broker service for vendors, reaching out to clients who wrote the proposals on behalf of vendors whose services align with their desires and sharing more details about those vendors’ costs and work. If the client then wants to move forward with a given vendor, Our Day facilitates the connection between the two.
“This solves the back and forth between the vendor and the couples,” Khoury said. “We save time on the couple side, because vendors come to them with proposals. We also save time on the vendor side because they can set up automations and don’t spend time responding to leads.”
Our Day is completely free to use for anyone planning an event. Vendors, meanwhile, can list themselves on Our Day via one of two options: There is a subscription model, which costs $35 per month for each area the vendor wants to be listed in, or a success-based commission model, whereby Our Day collects 10% of the cost of services paid to vendors booked through the platform.
The success-based commission model is another feature that differentiates the platform from other similar services for vendors, Khoury said.
“All of the platforms out there right now have a subscription model, where you pay for marketing up front, and then you may or may not get bookings,” Khoury said. “Our Day works where we market your business, we respond to leads for you, saving you time and pain in the response process, and if they get a booking, that is when we get paid.”
To list their business on Our Day, vendors must also be inclusive to all races, sexual orientations and religions.
Expanding Our Day
Amidst concerns about an upcoming recession, Our Day’s ability to help people planning events find the best value may help the platform grow even more.
“What is so great about the wedding industry and the events industry is that, over the years, it’s proven to be recession-proof,” Khoury said. “Parties are not going to stop, weddings are not going to stop, but people are going to want to find the best price and the best value.”
QUICK BITS
Startup: Our Day
Founder: Bryn Khoury
Founded: 2023
Team size: 3
Location: Charlotte
Website: www.matchourday.com
Funding: Raised seed
Since the beginning of the company, Our Day has worked alongside the Center for Entrepreneurial Development and the North Carolina Small Business and Technology Development Center to develop the platform.
Over 2,000 vendors are currently listed on Our Day, and more than 6,000 couples have used the platform to plan their wedding.
Our Day is hoping to continue to expand its footprint across the United States and eventually internationally, becoming a widely used tool for a variety of events, Khoury said.
“We are a business that is trying to change the events industry for the better,” Khoury said. “It’s already changing the way that vendors and customers connect.”
