David’s Bridal Launches Media Network With Love Stories TV Purchase

David’s Bridal says it has acquired wedding media brand Love Stories TV.

The wedding bridal and wedding planning company announced the purchase last week in tandem with the launch of its Pearl Media Network.

“Our customers look to David’s for all things wedding and planning, and Pearl Media Network will now allow advertisers to authentically capture our audiences, tapping into consumers during the household formation — a true first for the industry,” David’s Bridal Chief Business Officer Elina Vilk said in a news release.

“It’s no longer just a 12-month planning cycle — people are diving into years of planning and consuming content that sparks ideas, often via video, which outperforms every other medium. Love Stories TV is at the heart of this trend, and now David’s Bridal and Pearl Media Network will serve as the ultimate inspiration network.”

Buoyed by Love Stories’ 20 million monthly viewers and a library of more than 30,000 wedding videos, David’s says it is now moving from a wedding retailer to a media company helping people seeking wedding inspiration.

Rachel Silver, founder and CEO of Love Stories TV, will become general manager for media at David’s and the chief product officer for Pearl Media Network. That network will aim to build on Love Stories TV’s content on social media platforms, YouTube, podcasts and streaming TV.

The news comes weeks after David’s signed a partnership with DoorDash, becoming the delivery platform’s first collaborator in the wedding and special occasion category and letting customers purchase wedding dresses and more from their phones.

“This ongoing cultural shift in how consumers approach online shopping is transforming the way shoppers approach goods that were traditionally considered high-touch or required a physical experience,” PYMNTS wrote at the time.

“Consumers now expect online availability and delivery for nearly every product category, with the ability to have a wedding dress ‘DoorDashed’ only signifying how deeply digital commerce has integrated into even the most personal and high-stakes consumer decisions.”

As a result, that report added, the line between what can and cannot be found online is becoming more and more blurred — and is increasingly surprising.

The COVID pandemic helped speed up an existing shift in consumer confidence toward buying high-value or high-touch items online. More consumers make online purchases using mobile devices than do so via computer, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Tracking the Digital Payments Takeover: Catching the Coming eCommerce Wave.”