Why Maple & Vow exists

A few years ago, my wife and I hired a wedding planner. She had 5-star reviews across every major directory. She was a disaster.

We later learned that vendors can pay these directories to have bad reviews removed. So that 5-star rating? It was an ad. The reviews we'd trusted were curated by the very people we were trying to vet.

That experience didn't ruin our wedding — we ended up with vendors we love. But it nearly did. And it made me realize how broken the trust layer is in this industry. Couples spending $30,000+ on the most important day of their lives are making decisions based on reviews that have been pay-to-remove for years.

Maple & Vow is my attempt to fix that. The directory is free for vendors to list on — no pay-to-play, no premium tiers, no removed reviews. Ratings come from Google's public review data, which can't be deleted by vendors. We make money separately by selling vendors an AI tool that helps them respond to inquiries faster.

Both products exist for the same reason: the wedding industry deserves better tools.

— Kushal