The Institution that Vows Built

Rick DeAngelo has a unique talent of tuning into people’s needs and turning it into a burgeoning business.

“He has always been really entrepreneurial,” Leslie DeAngelo said of her husband. “When he was in college he started a balloon delivery company at Martha’s Vineyard, and also a gift basket company.”

The husband and wife team took their distasteful search for a designer wedding gown at an affordable price and pinpointed a niche market for sample and consignment gowns. That was almost 19 years ago.

Since then their wedding business, Vows Bridal Outlet has flourished to include their own line, Liv harris and selling gowns online at Bridepower.com, which they claim to be one of the first and again Leslie credits her husband for that idea. And it now the company includes a social networking site for brides: Powerbrides.com.

Although the two are a business pair, the social network specifically for brides idea came to Rick when he noticed the brides in their Watertown store chit-chatting including exchanges of wedding day tidbits during dress fittings in the communal part of the dressing room that houses the mirrors.

He acknowledged that an easy to use platform for brides to communicate was lacking in the industry, other sites he said did not combine the instant back and forth communication between brides or some of the more popular sites were just too overwhelming.

So Powerbrides.com give’s brides a thoughtfully designed and well connected venue for brides to share and connect on every aspect of their world during the preparation of the wedding day.

“They are so intense about their wedding and I thought they would benefit from a place where they can share their ideas, and do some shopping, and the buzzing [section of the site] is geared toward the community and it is fashion related,” said Rick.

The Web site that partially launched in February, allows brides located anywhere to consult each other, wedding experts and service related businesses about how to properly prepare for their wedding day and any unsuspecting surprises that a couple has to deal with before they exchange vows.

Brides can friend other brides as well as experts and can participate in the popular “buzz” section where wives-to-be post calls for help, sound advice for other brides and fashion tips.

The site also connects brides to online shopping and encourages all members to communicate and share by offering “bling points” toward purchases within the store.

“The more active they are on the site – give advice, post an article – they get points that go towards wedding items such as veils shoes, and vendor services such as a photo shoot,” said Leslie who is also every brides friend and check’s out the “buzz” to offer her own recommendations to nuptial novices.

 The site also has a vast “phonebook” listing of trustworthy vendors nationwide.

“We went around the country and I looked at different sites and we published the vendors that we thought were reputable, and we put them into a database and we asked them to sign up,” Rick explained how they acquired the vendor database.

Vendors advice can include unnoticeable details, like the length of the wedding party table, that could affect the how well the photographer captures the image of the wedding party.

The vendors profile includes a photo, a description of their business or selves and a price range. They are also privy to the bride’s buzz questions, offering up solutions to high profile wedding details, like the right shoes for a broken bride’s foot or if you should dress your maids in matching dresses.

DeAngelo’s intended to add features to the site like reminders for brides and automated checklist tools.

“We are also creating more integration with other sites, so they can take pictures and do polls,” said Rick.

 He recently fully launched the site placing advertisements on Google and Facebook.

“I didn’t want to grow too quickly; I wanted to ensure we were providing value to the user and I want brides to have a nice experience,” said Rick.

At that time they had approximately 500 users and were adding about 25 each day, however those numbers were conservative given that they were cautious in letting the word about the site spread; the number of users that sign up each day is expected to increase.