Bridal Babes on 'Shark Tank': What is the cost, who are the founders, and all about inclusive and trendy bridal wear
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Wedding planning is no cakewalk, especially for the bridal party. From finding the perfect wedding gown for herself to narrowing down food and venue, there's a lot on the bride's plate. In the midst of all this chaos, the bride is also responsible for picking out dresses for her bridesmaids. While its challenging by itself to find the perfect color and silhouette for the bridesmaid dresses in general, if the bridesmaids happen to be curvy ladies or women of color, then it gets even more challenging.
After going through hell and back while picking bridesmaid dresses for her own wedding, Ashley Young gave up and decided to stitch them by herself. Her bridesmaids' dresses soon went viral on the internet, motivating Ashley to launch Bridal Babes alongside her new husband Charles Young. The duo will be pitching for their inclusive bridal clothing brand on the upcoming episode 5 of 'Shark Tank' Season 14 before Mark Cuban, Robert Herjavec, Kevin O’Leary, Lori Greiner, and guest Shark Emma Grede. Will the Sharks take the bait for the 10% equity in Bridal Babes in exchange for an investment of $250,000? We'll just have to wait and watch. In the meanwhile, you can read all about Bridal Babes and its founders here.
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What is Bridal Babes?
Bridal Babes is a bridal tech company that creates bold, beautiful curve-hugging gowns for both brides and bridesmaids. As an inclusive brand, Bridal Babes has size options ranging from 2 to 26, in a wide array of colors and designs that flatter every skin tone, especially melanin-rich brides and bridesmaids. Wondering how to find your perfect bridal wear? Shopping online for an occasion like a wedding can seem daunting. Haven't we all seen those infamous what I ordered vs what I got memes?
To combat this issue, Bridal Babes offers fabric swatches to its clients. You can simply place an order for a fabric swatch of the color you like, and then proceed to place an order for a gown in the color and design of your choice from their huge catalog of designs.
With immersive online experiences like our virtual consultations, Signature Bridal Babes Q&A Sessions, and thriving social media community of 100K+ bridal enthusiasts!!
Bridal Babes’ mission is to create a community celebrating love and honoring sisterhood, during the wedding planning process and beyond.
Who are the founders of Bridal Babes?
Husband-wife duo, Charles and Ashley Young are the founders of Bridal Babes. Created as a solution to a common problem that co-founder, Ashley, experienced when planning her wedding, Bridal Babes is the answer to what traditional bridal boutiques lack – fashion-forward, curve-hugging dresses for brown and black women. She remembers thinking “It shouldn’t be this difficult to find bridesmaid dresses that will make my best friends look and feel amazing by my side". After that experience, she and her co-founder Charles got to work building Bridal Babes.
Bridal Babes is not just revolutionizing how people shop for wedding attire, but the company is also making a space for diversity in the multi-billion wedding industry by showcasing models and clients of all shades, shapes, and sizes. In an interview with The Guardian, Ashley shared how people are often surprised to see her husband Charles work in the bridalwear department. "We are co-founders and he quit his job to run the business. People see him and are surprised he’s in bridal, but he definitely manages more of the logistics and operations side as the president and COO. As you can imagine, we get thousands of dresses from our production facility each month, and they have to go out to our customers. So, he manages all the supply chain issues and the inventory issues."
What is the cost and where to buy Bridal Babes from?
Depending on the design you pick, Bridal Babes gowns can cost anywhere between $125 to $300. You can get your very own custom-made wedding outfit for your bridesmaids or the bride from the brand's website here. The Bridal Babes gowns have earned rave reviews from its clients. A customer named Jennifer left the following feedback on the brand's website alongside a picture of herself with her bridesmaids from her wedding day, "Let’s just say my bridesmaids had no complaints!!! This dress is made for BODY !! And that we didn’t lack, the stretch was perfect and snugged to my ladies curvy bodies !! Absolutely loved… I was happy as the bride to have all my ladies love the dress they purchased… I want to purchase one for myself soon!!!"
Where is Bridal Babes now?
Bridal Babes was on track to earn a revenue of $1 Million by the end of 2021. Alongside selling bridal gowns and robes, the brand expanded to add accessories, shirts, etc, to its catalog based on client feedback and that reportedly helped them boost sales. Ashley shared, "We have an online network of over 65,000 brides of color who tell us what they want. They were telling us they wanted bridal shower dresses, courthouse dresses, and T-shirts to show off their new status as wives. So even though people weren’t having big weddings, they were still getting married, and they told us how we could still pivot and be profitable. We listened to them and made the shifts in our inventory."
Who will steal the deal?
Considering Bridal Babes was launched with the mission of creating inclusive bridal wear, with focus on women of color and curvy ladies, we think guest Shark Emma Grede might take the bait. Although the brand's sales numbers and profit margins will ultimately be the major deciding factor for the sharks on whether to invest in the business or not. So, we will just have to wait and watch to see if the Sharks even make a deal.
'Shark Tank' Season 14 Episode 5 airs on ABC on October 21, 2022, at 8 pm ET. Catch the latest episode featuring products like Big Bee Little Bee, Bridal Babes, Plufl, and Pretty Rugged.
Missed an episode? Been wanting to catch up? Episodes can also be viewed the next day on demand and on Hulu. Not just that, you can also watch old seasons and episodes on Amazon Prime Video and iTunes.