Grants and support for wedding small businesses

Wedding professionals are small business owners powering some of the most important moments in people’s lives—while navigating rising costs, tighter budgets, and limited access to capital.

The 2026 WeddingPro Grant Program is a $500,000 investment in financial grants, advertising support, and mentorship designed to help expand your opportunity and grow your business.

Applications open between February 23–March 27.

Apply now
WeddingPro Grant Program 2026 - win small business grants for wedding vendors

Grantees will receive:

Financial support

Individual grants between $10,000–$50,000

OR

One year of free advertising on The Knot and WeddingWire

Additional support 

Mentorship:

WeddingPro will introduce you to a personal mentor, allowing you to manage the relationship at your own pace. Mentors will meet in quarterly group sessions, with additional 1:1 support as needed.

Education:

A full onboarding experience into our library of written (and video!) resources, including: industry-leading reports, educator webinars, blog posts, and more.

Editorial & Social Features:

Spotlight stories for social media will be developed to highlight your business.

Community:

Grantees remain connected through WeddingPro events and programs.

How to apply:

Eligibility requirements
  • At least 6 months in business with an established LLC (or equivalent legal entity)
  • An active revenue stream from operations
  • At least 50% of total business activity comes from weddings

What you need to apply

Applicants need to submit a short video showcasing their business, their work and how they would plan to use the grant funds over the next 12-24 months. 

Vendors can opt to apply for a monetary grant, free advertising through WeddingPro, or both—but will only be eligible to receive one or the other.

Evaluation criteria

We’ll focus on three core pillars when judging your video application:


  1. Vision: A clear, multi-year growth plan, detailing how funds will accelerate success.
  2. Execution: Specific, realistic, and executable use of funds within 12-24 months.
  3. Resilience: Demonstrated challenge or headwind (e.g., access to capital, underrepresentation, regional barriers) and how the grant would help overcome it.
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Application timeline:

Submissions open: February 23, 2026, 9:00 AM (ET)–March 27, 2026, 11:59 PM (ET)

Submissions review + judging: April 1–April 30

Grantees notified: May 1

Grantees announced: May 31

Global Entrepreneurship Network logo

Helping bring this program to life:
Global Entrepreneurship Network

WeddingPro has partnered with the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) to administer and distribute funds on behalf of the WeddingPro Grant Program. Global Entrepreneurship Network operates in 200 countries with the mission to make it easier for anyone to start and scale a business. Key capabilities include:

  • Supporting 2.24M entrepreneurs in the past year.
  • Mobilizing $4M+ in funding for entrepreneurs globally.
  • Partnered with 1,000+ entrepreneurial support organizations.
  • The recommended Bronze Tier for Fiduciary Management ensures secure fund distribution and compliance checks.

FAQ

The 2026 WeddingPro Grant Program is a $500,000 investment designed to support wedding small businesses through financial grants, advertising support, mentorship, and education.

The program is open to US-based wedding professionals who operate a small business and earn a meaningful portion of their income from weddings.

No. The program is open to both WeddingPro customers and non-customers.

Eligible businesses include wedding professionals across all categories who can demonstrate that at least 50% of their business is serving the wedding industry. Please review the terms and conditions for full eligibility details.

Applicants must have an established legal business entity (LLC or equivalent) that has been in operation for at least six (6) months, and demonstrate active wedding-related revenue.

Yes. The program is intended for small businesses below a $250,000 revenue threshold, and has 5 or fewer employees/contractors.

Selected recipients may receive:

  • Access to community and networking opportunities
  • Financial grant funding up to $50,000
  • Advertising on The Knot and WeddingWire
  • Mentorship and education

Applicants complete an online application and submit a short video explaining their business and why support would make an impact. The video submission should showcase: your business and work in the wedding industry, your need for support and vision for growth, and how grant funds or advertising support would be used over the next 12–24 months.

All applications must be submitted by March 27, 2026 at 11:59 PM (ET).

Recipients will be notified following a review and judging process by May 1, 2026.

Applications will be evaluated by a panel that may include external educators and/or advisory board members, sponsor representative(s), funder representative(s), and optional participation from third-party partners to promote transparency using a structured scoring rubric focused on  your pitch and need for support, business foundation and execution, growth vision and impact, and resilience and adaptability.

No. Recipients are selected based on application strength and alignment with program goals.