Insider Q&A: The Knot Worldwide CEO on keeping up as Gen Z starts to wed

Tim Chi, the CEO of The Knot Worldwide, attended eight weddings in the year leading up to his own 2005 nuptials

Tim Chi, the CEO of The Knot Worldwide, attended eight weddings in the year leading up to his own 2005 nuptials. After seeing all that stress and emotion firsthand, he started thinking about ways to make wedding planning easier.

“I felt very strongly that the wedding industry needed something user-generated that really helped good vendors stamp their reputation and gave consumers more information to make better buying decisions,” Chi said.

So Chi and three friends created WeddingWire, a marketplace for couples to research photographers, bakers and other vendors. In 2018, WeddingWire merged with its rival, The Knot, to form The Knot Worldwide

The company now connects more than 4 million couples to 850,000 wedding vendors each year. It operates in 16 countries and also runs The Bump website for new parents and The Bash for party planning. In 2022, it reported record revenue of $400 million.

Chi spoke with The Associated Press about how weddings are – and aren’t -- changing. His answers have been edited for length and clarity.