Bride goes viral for unorthodox wedding strategy: 'This is the right thing to do’

Dillon Thompson
Updated ·3 min read

A woman who has spent years working as a "the world's first professional bridesmaid" is now planning a wedding of her own. Well, actually she's letting the internet handle it.

Jen Glantz, who got engaged this summer, has launched a website that gives total strangers the ability to vote on every single aspect of her big day, from the cost of her dress to the flavor of her cake to whether or not she and her fiancé will meet with a psychic before their wedding.

The 31-year-old handed over all the planning power when she launched her website, FinallyTheBride.com, where voters can weigh in on each and every step of the process. It's a decision Glantz said was easy to make.

"It took me 15 minutes to pick out a nail color," she told INSIDER. "It would take me a lifetime to make a decision about my wedding. I've been to hundreds of weddings — more than the average person. It made me feel like planning my own was just way too overwhelming and difficult."

She's not exaggerating on the "hundreds of weddings" part either. In 2014, Glantz launched Bridesmaid for Hire, a business that, according to its website, "provides professional bridesmaid services to brides, maids-of-honor, and wedding guests in need."

The company, which now features both male and female bridesmaids, allows customers to pay Glantz and her employees to attend their weddings, where they help with speeches, organizing ceremonies and even getting attendees dancing at the after-party.

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@bridesmaidforhire is 5-years-old. Still think it's a crazy idea? Well, sure, it is. But to the hundreds of brides and maids-of-honor we've worked with over the years, it's been a complete and utter game changer. ▫️▫️ This photo was taken by @wanqing_luo the day after I secretly posted the ad on Craigslist. I didn't tell her about it, but she could tell something was iffy with me. You can see it in my eyes, the look right before every.thing.changes. ▫️▫️▫️▫️ But here we are today and here's what you should know: ▫️▫️▫️▫️ Hundreds of brides have hired us for their weddings all over the world. -30,000 people have applied to work for the company and a handful have worked weddings, while hundreds of others have taken the steps to be empowered to start their own biz. -Hundreds of maids-of-honors have hired us to write their speech for them + help them smooth out the stress of their bridal party problems -I wrote an entire book of short stories about life as a hired bridesmaid was published by @simonandschuster and is available all over the place! ▫️▫️▫️▫️ Moral of the story: eat your doubts. Swallow them fast. Do scary things. Start businesses even if you don’t know how. The secret to it all? Be the one who believes in you. Be the one who never gives up.

A post shared by Jen Glantz (@jenglantz) on Jun 28, 2019 at 8:15am PDT

"I know it sounds crazy, but strangers have let me be part of their wedding for the past five and a half years," Glantz told INSIDER. "It would be strange if I didn't let the strangers become part of my wedding."

Glantz and her fiancé, Adam, have been dating for three years, but now their relationship is approaching uncharted territory. The bride-to-be said she's adding new decisions on the first and 15th day of every month, giving users plenty of chances to decide how her wedding will unfold.

Only a few votes have concluded as of now. According to the site, it appears the wedding will cost somewhere between $15,000 and $30,000, will occur sometime in July or October and may not feature an open bar.

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After going on 14 first dates in one month, I decided to give person number 15 a try, before officially swearing off dating for the rest of my life & that's when @adamkossoff walked through the door at @irvingfarm. I sat there, covering my shaking with nerves body in a fuzzy apple red coat as he walked over to me, arms wide like he was giving the air a chest bump and a smile that stretched so long I could see the back of his molars, and he said, "JEN GLANTZ!" in an all-caps-like voice with imaginary exclamation points popping out of his ears. And never in my entire life had a stranger been more excited to see me. At some point, in the middle of our date, we talked about the show The Amazing Race and how we both wanted to go on it. When the date ended, we hugged goodbye, he mentioned getting pizza soon, and I saved his phone number in my phone as Adam Amazing Race. And 3 years and a handful of months later, he's still in my phone as that and yes, the truth is, we did try out for the show and we made it to the final round but what's been the most amazing race of them all is that two complete strangers, formed this unbreakable relationship. Three months into our relationship, my life went through a kaleidoscope of chaos and I sat Adam down on the couch and pointed to the door and said, "Look. listen. Things will get really bad soon and maybe you should leave now." And I'll never forget that he sat there, stone cold and stiff, and said no. Do you ever watch The Amazing Race and see the couples who win it all? They never win because they are the strongest, or the smartest, or the luckiest. It's because they have something nobody else has. And that thing is that they fight, they fight so hard, they find a way to grab onto each other and dance through it all, feet stepping on one another, even when the music notes are funky, high pitched, mismatched. The most amazing race you can go on in life is one beside someone who makes your heart swell with courage and melt like silly putty. I'll never stop feeling a gobblygook of things when I think about you + me & this life. My dear, Adam Kossoff, this amazing race we're on has us winning it all.

A post shared by Jen Glantz (@jenglantz) on Jul 21, 2019 at 10:13am PDT

Voters also spared Glantz the horror of writing a "post-engagement letter" to some of her exes, in addition to deciding the couple will not be eloping.

To follow along with the ever-changing wedding plans, voters can also pre-order Glantz's new book, which she describes as an "interactive book" being released "chapter by chapter."

The 31-year-old has previously written two other books, "Always a Bridesmaid (for Hire)" and "All My Friends Are Engaged." Both are available on Amazon.