Fianceés, marriage-affiliated companies and freelancers are feasting their eyes upon a new Web site created by three BYU students.

ProvoWedding.com is "your one-stop wedding stop", according to the site.

Jonathan Chan, Nicholas Pasto and Kelly Ditto designed a free, common ground for shoppers and businesses to search for and sell ceremonial goods.

The site caters to two audiences, said creators.

"We are catering to the companies we are trying to serve, like freelancers and big businesses, and bring exposure to them," said Ditto, 22, a junior from Prineville, Ore., majoring in marketing. "We're also catering to the users so that we have a good resource for them to use."

The Web team said one of their main goals was to cater to freelancers at BYU.

"There's no place to really get good advertising for freelancers," said Pasto, 22, a junior from Stockton, Calif., majoring in graphic design. "There's a lot of talent here, and people offer good prices and we're trying to cater to them to help them out."

Ditto said ProvoWedding.com will help expose BYU students' skills and gifts.

"There's brilliant talent on this campus- florists, photographers, people who do invitations," Ditto said. "What a wonderful resource it could be if we could tap into some of that talent for our own weddings?"

The "computer guy," graphic artist and business major said they designed the site when they realized the hunt for marriage ceremony apparel was overly difficult in a community inundated with wedding traffic.

"It's very hard to find businesses that do wedding stuff," said Chan, 22, a junior from Albany, N.Y. majoring in computer science. "There are not too many resources besides the yellow pages, so we thought, 'Why don't we bring all this stuff to the people?'"

Pasto, Chan and Ditto are bringing wedding information to the Provo community through a user-friendly Web site.

"I haven't seen a single site that has come anywhere close to matching the functionality of this one," Chan said. "As far as the niche we have, once we get our exposure and people see the type of stuff we're offering, they're going to be jumping for the chance to advertise."

ProvoWedding.com allows BYU students and other individual solicitors to promote their work on the Web site at no cost.

"The site is custom-tailored to (businesses') needs," Chan said. "For each sample there is a different price, but (businesses) can put up as many as they'd like."

Individual solicitors can post basic information for free. Samples in the form of MP3s, photos, resumes, brochures, logos and other graphics will vary in cost.

However, everything is free until May.

"Businesses are getting a ton of bank for their buck," Chan said.

Prospective customers are excited about website benefits, too. Newly engaged student Crystal Hemming, 19, a sophomore from St. Louis, Miss., majoring in humanities, said she thinks the Web site is a good idea.

"(ProvoWedding.com) takes less time, so you can focus on other things you need to get done," Hemming said. "You don't have to run from place to place to find everything you need."

Web site partners said part of their drive to create ProvoWedding.com was to build a quality company with a good reputation that provided an excellent service to customers.

"We really are dedicated to making people happy and realizing the value of the site," Chan said. "Our internal motto is to have 100% integrity and 100% honesty in everything we do."

Web site creators encourage students to check out the site.

"Once you try it, you'll be sold," Pasto said.



Copyright Brigham Young University 13 Feb 2003