Author Spotlight
Caroline Wood
“First in ‘The Tank’ is a modern way to celebrate your union.”
The doors open and 2013 East alum Caroline Creidenberg walks down the “Shark Tank” hallway and into “The Tank” dressed in a veil and white dress to pitch her virtual wedding planning business, Wedfuly.
You’ve got this, stay cool, calm and collected and have fun…and don’t do too many crazy facial expressions, Creidenberg tells herself in an attempt to calm her nerves.
Wedfuly helps couples virtually plan their wedding and hosts, films and monitors Zoom weddings so the couple is able to enjoy their special day with their guests who can join from anywhere in the world.
Before COVID-19, Creidenberg was doing 50 weddings yearly. However in 2020, Wedfuly held over 700 weddings — the most being 35 on one Saturday.
“People were obviously freaking out last year, just because they were so unsure what the world would look like and a lot of people couldn’t have their nearest and dearest even come on site,” Creidenberg said. “We were kind of the backbone of their wedding and saved the day for a lot of people. We also saw a ton of people — which is where we kind of decided to fully pivot to virtual weddings — who were actually planning to begin with, but had a different idea of what a wedding could be for them.”
Last February, “Shark Tank” emailed Creindenberg to notify her that her application she submitted to appear on the show had been approved, however Creidenberg and her staff never sent in an application.
“We definitely had a couple clients and couples who loved ‘Shark Tank’ and used to tell us all the time that we should go on it,” Creidenberg said. “But honestly, I have no clue [who filled out the application].”
While she doesn’t know exactly how she ended up on the show, Creidenberg didn’t want to pass up the opportunity.
“Our team’s approach in general was just like, ‘why not?’” Creidenberg said. “It’s an amazing experience. It’s amazing publicity. I felt confident enough that we could prepare well enough and that my business was strong enough that it wouldn’t be negative publicity for us but also passing up this opportunity would have been silly.”
After the initial interview and submitting her company’s statistics, Creidenberg had to film a video to pitch her company. With advice from a friend who’d been on the show, Creidenberg decided she needed to show her quirky side, so being in Denver, she thought what better way to stand out than wear a wedding dress while skiing?
Her video was quickly approved and Wedfuly moved into the pre-production stages. For two months, Creidenberg met with the two producers that were assigned to her twice a week, going through her script, set-up and presentation.
During the time spent preparing to possibly be on “Shark Tank,” Wedfuly was still hosting their virtual weddings. Despite there being a lot to do, Creidenberg was glad she still had her business to work on to keep her from freaking out about making her debut on national television.
“It was a lot,” Creidenberg said. “That’s why I think I stayed so calm, as there was just a lot going on with the business in general. So I didn’t really have time to focus too much on ‘Shark Tank’ in a good way. I prioritize the business over ‘Shark Tank’ and just really made sure that I was still focusing on that.”
Creidenberg received the official news that she’d be actually presenting to the Sharks three weeks before her film date. After being flown out to Los Angeles in July, the producers put her and one of her full-time partners up in a nearby hotel. They spent the next morning at Sony Pictures getting prepped in their own personal trailer, being carted around the studio and getting a pep talk from the executive producers.
“I like blacked out,” Creidenberg said. “Just because it’s so exhilarating. But I was so exhausted at the end of it. I really gave my all, it was fun. Looking back on the experience, it was such a great experience.”
After an hour and a half of pitching her business and answering questions from five iconic multi-millionaires, Creidenberg received an offer from entrepreneur Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary for $200,000 and a 20% stake in her company. But she’d studied “Shark Tank” for hours, so she knew she should make a counteroffer, so she pitched $200,000 for a 10% stake. Although Mr. Wonderful stayed strong on wanting 20%, CEO of Herjavec Group, investor Robert Herjavec ended up taking her counter offer instead.
“I didn’t think I would get the counter that I countered with, so when Robert came in and offered that, I was just really excited,” Creidenberg said. “I love Mr. Wonderful and I know he has a ton of wedding businesses, but I liked Robert’s demeanor better.”
The episode filmed in July finally aired on Nov. 5. For Creidenberg, she thinks the partnership will help bring awareness to her company and is excited for future opportunities.
“Obviously so many people know about us now,” Creidenberg said. “And so we got just a huge influx of business partnership requests, a ton of investors reaching out. It was really big on the business side and then it created a huge pipeline of leads for weddings.”
Creidenberg looks forward to working with Herjavec and his team and hopes that his reach from his platform will help her to grow the business even more. She also hopes to put some of the $200,000 towards hiring a marketing manager to also expand that reach.
While some thought her business would be a COVID-19 fad, Creidenberg and her team has seen how these intimate, virtual weddings are more frequently becoming couples’ plan A’s and the Wedfuly team hopes to revolutionize how the world views weddings.
“In terms of changing the industry as a whole, that’s always been our mission, to continue to chip away at changing what a wedding is and how people celebrate their marriage,” Creidenberg said. “And so [going on ‘Shark Tank’] is only fuel to that fire. And so, virtual has been the vehicle right now, but we’re super excited to continue exploring what that next step will be for us.”
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