Dive Brief:
- David’s Bridal has integrated a free AI budgeting feature within its wedding planner platform, Pearl Planner, according to a company press release.
- Pearl Planner users can enter their total budget, location and guest count to see a real-time chart of average costs based on their region.
- The tool uses AI to track expenses, distribute funds based on the user’s priorities and local market data, and suggest adjustments to keep a budget on track.
Dive Insight:
Pearl Planner uses AI tech to keep budgets on track as couples face increasing financial pressures, according to the company.
“By pairing several decades of heart-led wedding expertise with the precision of our proprietary AI, we’ve created more than just a calculator — we’ve built a partner,” Elina Vilk, president and chief business officer of David’s Bridal, said in a press release. “Pearl Planner gives couples certainty, so they can stop worrying about the math and focus on moments that truly matter.”
The retailer debuted its AI tool, Pearl Planner, last August to help couples manage numerous wedding tasks such as organizing guest lists, creating a wedding website and building a registry.
The Pearl Planner updates are part of David’s Bridal’s Aisle to Algorithm initiative, which aims to transition the bridal retailer into a “wedding technology powerhouse,” the release noted. The company launched the transformation initiative after undergoing multiple bankruptcies and reshaping its leadership team.
Beyond its Pearl Planner platform, David’s Bridal has integrated AI into other parts of its business. In April, the bridal retailer became part of Shopify’s Agentic Storefronts for ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, enabling users to browse products based on silhouette on ChatGPT and view the retailer’s collections on Copilot.
In addition to executing its AI strategy, David’s Bridal has continued to shake up its leadership team. This spring, the company appointed Heather Braddock as its chief global transformation and operations officer and Scott Saeger as its chief technology officer. COO Bob Walker retired and CFO Rob Cooper exited the company after two decades.
