Ask any working wedding photographer, decorator, or caterer what they think of the big marketplaces, and you'll hear the same word: haircut. Industry-standard platforms take 20% to 30% off every booking — extracting value without adding it.
Weddings.io operates on a 95/5 performance model. Vendors keep 95 cents on every dollar. We take 5 — and only when work is verified complete. It's the financial infrastructure designed to disrupt rent-seeking and reward craft.
The Rent-Seeking Problem
Legacy wedding marketplaces built their empires on a simple extraction model: own the search traffic, gate the leads, charge the vendors. The pricing isn't tied to performance, accountability, or quality — it's tied to scarcity of access.
The result? Wedding professionals — many running family businesses with deep generational expertise — hand 20–30% of every job to platforms that contribute nothing to the actual work.
The 95/5 Logic
Our model is built on three principles:
1. Performance, Not Access
We don't charge for the lead. We charge for the verified completion. If the work isn't done, we don't get paid — same as the vendor.
2. Infrastructure, Not Gatekeeping
Our 5% covers what we actually deliver: AI visual reasoning, the Green Light dashboard, the digital ledger, the Talc.tv content syndication. We earn it by making your business better, not by holding leads hostage.
3. Reinvestment in the Craft
When a decorator keeps 95% instead of 70%, that extra 25 points goes back into the tools, the team, and the artistry. Better work begets better referrals begets a healthier industry.
What 25 Extra Points Actually Looks Like
On a $40,000 wedding decor contract:
- Legacy marketplace (30% fee): Vendor keeps $28,000
- Weddings.io (5% fee): Vendor keeps $38,000
- Difference: $10,000 — enough for a new lighting kit, a junior hire, or a season of marketing.
Why This Sustains a Better Industry
When the best vendors keep more, they invest more in their craft. When they invest more, the work gets better. When the work gets better, couples get the weddings they actually paid for. The 95/5 model isn't charity — it's a different, healthier flywheel.
And because every dollar we earn is tied to verified completion, our incentives are perfectly aligned with both the vendor and the couple. We win only when the work is done right.
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