The Knot Launches Local Wedding Sites

The Knot has launched 75 local URL sites as well as several niche sites, including Chinese weddings, gay wedding, beach weddings and destination weddings. More than 200 local and niche sites are planned by the end of 2009, according to coverage in The Wall Street Journal.

Much of the local sites content is repurposed and put on a template. The New York-based public company, which also publishes 17 regional magazines, has long had local city-by-city guides in the same markets. It has been aggressively verticalizing in the past year, acquiring such life-stage-oriented sites as Weddingbook by WedSnap, a Facebook app; breastfeeding.com; and TheBump, a local pregnancy guide.

The local sites feature local directories for wedding categories such as photographers, florists, DJs, wedding dresses, wedding cakes and reception locations. It also has a well used message board (at least in some of the more popular markets).

A quick look at the popular San Diego board shows that it has valuable tips from other readers, such as whether specific vendors provide free chair covers (sometimes), and logistical issues for getting back and forth between a wedding site and hotel.