A Look Back: The First Five Years of Birdy Grey

Birdy Grey is turning five this week! We’re kicking off the celebration by launching a haul of five gorgeous new dresses. On this momentous anniversary, first and foremost, we want to thank you for letting us be a part of your wedding journey. It’s an honor every single time one of you walks down the aisle in a Birdy Grey gown and tags us in your bridal party pics. We know how special those moments are, and we’ll all be showing our grandkids those pictures for years to come. So, THANK YOU.

The first five years have been an incredible journey — with some soaring highs and some real challenges. We were really hitting our stride in 2020 when the wedding industry — and the world — shut down, in the wake of a scary and unprecedented pandemic. Fast forward to this past June, and we not only survived the pandemic, but we came out winning with tons of newness, from glam satin dresses to our uber-popular Pearlcore jewelry.

Picture it: early October 2017. We’ll set the scene. 

A summer-like heat wave grips Los Angeles. We’re all rocking out to Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do,” commuting here and there. Some app called TikTok appears in the App Store.

Grace had just quit her corporate job with a vision: She wanted to start a company where people could score beautiful bridesmaid dresses without emptying their bank accounts.

On October 12th, Grace’s 36th birthday, Birdy Grey was born. Four days later, we sold our first dress — Jules in champagne. Birdy Grey was officially in business.

Like many great startups before ours, Birdy Grey began in a humble living room, in Grace’s apartment in West Hollywood, to be specific. That’s where we got our first big press hit (Hey, Buzzfeed) and dressed our very first influencer wedding (Hey, Katie). Grace packed and shipped dresses from her home for eight months, until, finally, in June 2018, Birdy Grey got a warehouse.

Business was really picking up now.

Just after Birdy Grey celebrated its first trip around the sun, Grace’s bestie Monica hopped onto the startup ride and joined the flock as co-founder and COO. Monica, whose background is in strategy consulting, brought a different perspective to running Birdy Grey.

In January 2019, Birdy Grey hosted a pop-up at Zola in New York City, and 2,000 women showed up to check it out. The event was a major success!

In July 2019, we launched our first run of groomsmen ties in colors to match our dresses.

With our new warehouse and expanded backend partnerships, we were able to scale our operations, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Right around the time of Birdy Grey’s second bird-day, Insider dubbed us one of the best places to buy a bridesmaid dress, noting the $99 price point as a major value add.

In January 2020, we introduced our curve collection, expanding our size offering up to 3X. This bird is flying high now.

In March 2020, COVID-19 hit the reset button on the entire economy, and in-person events, like weddings, were hit hard. Many couples postponed their big days. Some took their ceremonies to Zoom. Others eloped in socially distant, outdoor ceremonies with only their immediate families present.

The very idea of the bridal party was called into question. And, if we’re being honest, it was a scary time, both personally and professionally. But, as a company founded on the principle of disrupting a complacent industry, we knew we had to adapt to a world that was changing before our eyes.

We took the enthusiasm we had been throwing into expos and pop-ups and threw it whole-heartedly into the digital space, growing and expanding our social media presence to become a resource for pandemic-era brides and bridesmaids.

If we couldn’t be together at wedding venues, we were gonna be together online.

In April 2020, we hosted a virtual bachelorette party on Instagram Live to benefit Safe Horizons. And a month later, we made our TV debut on the Netflix reality series Selling Sunset.

While everyone was stuck inside, we continued to add new styles and colors to our dress collection. And in July 2020, we introduced bridesmaid robes (perfect for the work from home moment), which have since become a fan favorite. 

January 2021 saw our biggest newness yet. We introduced satin midis, bridesmaid shoes, crepe gowns, and the best-selling color Sea Glass. That summer we launched groomsman suits, with our pals at The Suit Shop. In case that wasn’t enough, August brought new colors, including Desert Rose. And, in September, we dropped our first long satin gowns.

The website redesign launched in December 2021, bringing with it improved search visibility, a cleaner shopping experience, and this blog (Hi!).

In 2022, we teamed up with Style Me Pretty to introduce a beautiful floral print capsule. We’re still smitten with these romantic, mixable-matchable dresses.

Whether they’re shopping for a bridesmaid proposal, a bachelorette swag bag, or a thank you gift for the big day, our Birdy Brides love a personalized gift. So, in February, we launched The Monogram Shop, a one-stop shop for personalized bridal party gifting. The selection has only grown since because…

All spring and summer long, we drove hard at the non-dress portion of our business, launching new goodies and gifts almost every week. We introduced flower girl sashes, bach party swag, seamless underthings, sweatsuits, swim stuff, clutches, travel accessories, and more. All of our teams worked together to develop, source, and market a veritable mountain of merch.

We hit No. 305 of INC’s 2022 list of the 5000 fastest-growing companies in the U.S.. And, just a few days ago, Grace landed a spot on Entrepreneur Magazine’s 100 Women of Influence list, alongside household names like Jennifer Lopez and Kim Kardashian.

Hey, welcome to today! We just launched our very first run of made-to-order dresses. This new program allows us to bring you more new styles with less waste. Check out our new arrivals today.