Get Your Dream Dress For Your Wedding With Nearly Newlywed

Are you going to get married soon?  Do you know that the expense of a marriage now has become very high?

You have to spend a good amount of your income on buying a wedding gown.  Understanding this Courtney introduced a solution to this problem of would-be brides. 

For this, she required help from the commercial platform. Hence,  she decided to appear on the popular TV show Shark Tank in December 2012.

She represented her company, Nearly Newlywed on Shark Tank and she made the sharks spellbound at first.  Do you want to know what occurred on the show?  If yes, go through this article carefully to know more about it.

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A Short Note On Nearly Newlywed

Jacqueline Courtney introduced the company, Nearly Newlywed in 2011 so that the brides can purchase and sell designer dresses in almost new shapes for a small amount of the cost of their new counterparts. 

Jacqueline was trying to buy her wedding dress.  Then she understood that the designer bridal gown market only concentrates on budget-shame brides who do not want to go up above 5-digit figures. 

She understood that there must be some better alternatives for the would-be brides who wish to have an amazing dress for their wedding and a great honeymoon or down payment on a house.

Keeping all these things in mind she set up her bridal dress reselling firm with the money she got by reselling her wedding dress. 

She featured Nearly Newlywed on Shark Tank.  The company has enabled a lot of brides to purchase and sell their wedding dresses and in this way save a lot of money along the way.

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Who Is The Founder of Nearly Newlywed? 

Jackie Courtney is the founder of Nearly Newlywed. It is truly an outstanding approach to getting married that can enable you to save a lot of money as it allows you to rent or sell wedding dresses. So, Nearly Newlywed is the brainchild of Jackie Courtney. 

Courtney was a small-town girl who resettled to New York City to take part in glamorous living. She worked as a fashion journalist at the time living in New York.

How Does The Nearly Newlywed Work? 

The website of Nearly Newlywed allows the former brides to advertise their gently worn wedding gowns.  This enables the would-be brides to find the perfect bridal gown for them. The most interesting part is that they can get them by spending only a small portion of the original price. 

The webpage of the Nearly Newlywed acknowledges the photos and descriptions of gowns from women who want to sell them. As soon as their submission gets approval,  the dress is put up for sale. 

When a bride purchases the dress she gets two options.  She may either keep it for herself or resell it later. 

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How Was Nearly Newlywed Going Before Shark Tank?

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Dress is the most important part of the wedding of any bride. Jackie Courtney realized that sometimes it gets really hard to get the perfect fit at the perfect price.

Sometimes,  you have to spend a lot of time and travel to find the best dress for your wedding. Jackie Courtney wished to introduce a solution to these problems for the would-be brides.

She believed that planning a wedding and locating the dress for the bride should never be a tiresome experience. That is why she made up her mind to start the Nearly Newlywed business.

Nearly Newlywed is a platform that allows former brides to sell their gently used bridal dresses. In this way, the soon-to-be brides easily locate their dream wedding dress at a fraction of the retail prices.

The former brides who wish to sell their wedding dresses have to submit images and a description of their dresses to the website of Nearly Newlywed.

As soon as their submission gets approved,  the dress is put up for sale. Nearly Newlywed has been able to stand out from the crowd as it is not a rental service. It gives options to the brides to keep the dress for themselves or resell it subsequently when they buy their wedding dresses. 

Jackie knew very well that her business could be very successful. She also realized that it was too difficult for her to maintain the business alone. Therefore, she made up her mind to take part in Shark Tank to check whether she could manage to convince one of the sharks to invest in her business.

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How Was The Nearly Newlywed Shark Tank Pitch? 

Jackie Courtney appeared on Shark Tank intending to get an investment of $35k in exchange for a 10% share in her business. After that, she started to demonstrate how she,  from a small-town girl in Iowa resettled to New York City to take part in the glitz and glam lifestyle.

She shared that she had served as a fashion journalist when she was in New York. She was able to dress up celebrities as well as editors but she noticed that something was intriguing about all of the red carpet events they went to. 

She found that most people borrowed the dress for the red carpet event in place of buying them.  At the same time, she was very stressed as she was planning for her wedding. These things inspired her to give birth to Nearly Newlywed. 

She showed the sharks a screenshot of the Nearly Newlywed website and some of the new dresses available. Among the dresses, there was a dress the detail price of which was nearly $11k but it was being sold only for $3.8k on the Nearly Newlywed website.

One of the most interesting features of Nearly Newlywed is that the site allows the nurses to sell the dress again to the business for half of what they purchased it for. But it is not compulsory to see the dresses again.  They can also keep the dresses for themselves if they want. 

Robert Herjavec was the first shark who felt uneasy about the idea. According to him, most brides wish to keep their wedding dresses as it is very special for every bride.

In reply to this,  Courtney said that the mentality of wedding dress has now completely changed.  The website allows the nurses to make a little bit of alterations to the dress they purchase. They get more freedom with it in comparison with the dresses taken on rent. 

When Courtney introduced Nearly Newlywed it had only 30 dresses in stock. But soon their stock tripled.

The dresses available on the site are taken from consignment from brides and stylists. Designers are now approaching them. So, there are chances of good partnerships in the business. 

Nearly Newlywed is a company that was introduced to provide designer dresses at affordable prices to women.  When a dress is approved for the website, Courtney puts up to sell it at 30% to 40% lower than the retail price.  

Herjavec was the only shark who was unable to wrap his mind around a bride who wished to purchase a dress for her special day that had been already used. According to him, only a divorced woman would decide to purchase a used dress for her wedding.

Courtney did not agree with the perspective. There are a huge number of brides who wish to wear lush and elegant dresses at their wedding.

Sometimes they have to go over their budget only to wear their dream dress for their wedding. Nearly Newlywed is allowing those brides so they can see their dream dresses without going over their budget.

She said that she has managed to sell 4 of the first 30 dresses from her inventory. Though it was not something big, it was a good beginning for a new business.

Mark Cuban inquired how she had planned to develop her company and lead it towards success. Cortney was trying to get a lot of press reviews to bring the Nearly Newlywed name out there.

She said that her company had been featured in the Washington Post and Mashable and she wanted to carry on that press roll.

According to Cuban, it was a difficult task to maintain that type of attention but the women who are purchasing and selling dresses are gossipping about it too. 

Courtney shared that Nearly Newlywed was going to be in an edition of Martha Stewart Magazine and she was talking with Kleindfeld’s Bridal for a partnership.

Being a lady with a PR background, Courtney had a huge amount of skills and potential to make this business successful. Barbara Cocoran admitted this but she was concerned as Nearly Newlywed has been open for 3 months only.

According to her,  it was an idea rather than a business. She thought that it would be too early to offer an investment in the business.

Robert Herjavec was concerned about the business from the very beginning of the pitch. He did not believe that any bride would wish to buy an already used dress and that too for a special day like a wedding.

He did not understand the concept of the business. That is why he decided not to invest in the business.

Daymond John had the same opinion just like Robert Herjavec. He said that a woman’s wedding day is the only time she is ready to expend more money than she presumably should.

That is why he wanted to sell cheaper products for a higher price so that he could be able to make a lot of profit from it. So,  the opinion of Courtney and Daymond did not match and they could not be able to work as partners.

Only the sharks Mark Cuban and Kevin O’Leary left. Kevin O’Leary said that he liked Courtney and her fascination for the business.

He said that if Courtney wanted Kevin O’Leary to invest in the business she had to give up a larger stake in the business. He was ready to invest $35k in exchange for a 40% share of her business.

Before making her decision, Courtney asked Mark Cuban whether he had any different offer.

Mark Cuban wanted to offer her some advice. According to him,  Nearly Newlywed was very much press driven and it could be the cause of the downfall of the business.

Mark Cuban thought that her idea was too specific and too risky. That is why he made up his mind not to invest in the business.

So, Kevin O’Leary was the only shark who gave an offer to Courtney. Courtney tried to talk to him to decrease the amount of share he claimed but he was not willing to negotiate.

After thinking for a while,  Courtney finally decided not to accept his proposal.

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What Occurred To The Nearly Newlywed After Shark Tank? 

Courtney was too unhappy as not a single shark was ready to invest in her business. Nevertheless, her participation in Shark Tank enabled her to bring her company Nearly Newlywed to the attention of the media.

She was able to make her business successful gradually and finally, she made the partnership of a lifetime. She was able to make a partnership with the world-famous Kleinfeld’s Bridal.

Kleinfeld is one of the best places for brides who want to buy a perfect dress. They have a lot of selection and designers and they have become very popular after their show Say Yes to the Dress.

There is no doubt that Jackie was very happy when she was able to make a partnership agreement with Kleinfeld’s Bridal.

After that,  Nearly Newlywed became popular among brides who are on a budget. There are a lot of dresses available on the website of the company.

The most interesting thing about the business is that all the dresses are available at reasonable prices. So,  we can say that Jackie was successful in creating something that makes the lives of a lot of couples easier.

The approximate net worth of Nearly Newlywed is $5 million. And the founder of the business,  Jackie Courtney has annual assets of $6 million.

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Nearly Newlywed Reviews

Nearly Newlywed is an outstanding platform to save a lot of money by providing you with gently used designer wedding dresses. It even allows you to try it at home and if you do not like it you may return it.

Most of the buyers have given positive reviews about the company. But the sellers have given mixed reviews.

The sellers did not understand how much they would be able to make and did not understand it was only 60% of the sale price. Some of the sellers have complained about the time it took to get their payments.

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Conclusion

The appearance of Courtney on Shark Tank no doubt brought her company to the headlines of multiple newspapers. She was able to fulfil her dream without any monetary help. After the partnership of Nearly Newlywed with the world-famous Kleinfeld’s Bridal,  the business flourished more.

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