Today we’d like to introduce you to Verla Deeker.
Hi Verla, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My story starts on what was supposed to be the happiest day of my life my wedding day. Instead of joy, that day was overshadowed by outside circumstances beyond my control. The dress wasn’t right. The experience wasn’t what I had dreamed of. And for years I carried that with me quietly.
Seventeen years and four daughters later, I decided I was done carrying it. I wanted to rewrite that story, not just for myself but for every bride who deserved better than what I experienced.
That’s when Vowlio was born.
I built Vowlio from the ground up as a free wedding planning platform that connects brides with trusted, vetted vendors across the country. Because no bride should ever feel alone, overwhelmed, or taken advantage of on the most important day of her life.
I’m not a tech background person. I’m a bride with a story, a vision, and a business partner named Brian who believed in this as much as I did. Together we built something real, nearly 8,000 vendors across 90 cities and growing every single day.
And on December 27th, 2026, seventeen years after the wedding that broke my heart. I’m renewing my vows and finally having the day I always deserved.
That’s why I built Vowlio. Every bride deserves her moment. 🤍
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Smooth? Not even close. And I wouldn’t change a single hard moment because every one of them made Vowlio stronger.
The honest truth is that building a technology platform when you’re not a developer yourself is humbling. I had the vision but I needed someone who could bring it to life technically. Finding the right partner in Brian, who not only understood the vision but believed in it as deeply as I did, was the first real breakthrough.
Then came the building itself. There were late nights, pivots, moments of doubt, technical challenges that felt insurmountable, and days where I questioned everything. Building something from nothing is never a straight line.
Getting vendors to trust a brand new platform was another challenge entirely. Why would an established wedding photographer or florist list themselves on something nobody had heard of yet? We had to earn that trust one vendor at a time.
We started right here in Tennessee, building the foundation locally and growing outward from there. Every vendor we bring on is a step toward making Vowlio a truly national resource for brides.
And underneath all of it was something deeply personal — building a wedding platform while carrying unresolved pain from my own wedding experience. There were moments when that felt contradictory. But eventually I realized that pain was never an obstacle. It was always the fuel.
The road has been anything but smooth. But every struggle pointed us exactly where we needed to go.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a stay at home mom first and foremost. That has been my most important job for years and I wore that title proudly. While my husband Brian worked I raised our four beautiful daughters, poured everything into our home and never looked back.
Before that season of life I lived on the stunning island of St. Croix in the United States Virgin Islands where I worked as a hotel receptionist at the King Christian Hotel. That experience gave me something I didn’t fully appreciate at the time — I learned how to make people feel welcomed, seen and taken care of from the moment they walked through a door. That’s hospitality at its purest and it lives in everything I do today.
Outside of Vowlio I’m a crafter and a cake decorator. I bake and decorate cakes just for the joy of it. Creating beautiful things with my hands has always been part of who I am.
Now that all four of my girls are in school I felt something shift in me. A calling to step back into something purposeful. Not just to work but to build something that actually mattered. Something that came from my own pain and my own story.
That’s what sets Vowlio apart from everything else out there. It wasn’t built in a boardroom. It was built in a mother’s heart by a woman who knows exactly what it feels like to deserve better.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
My advice to anyone any person out there to just keep pursuing and find the niche that is needed because there are people out there that are looking for something new and yet something so simple to make their lives a whole lot easier that is my hope and wish for anyone who wants to do something that they love with passion and makes them smile everyday.
Pricing:
- Couples can sign up for free
- Vendors can sign up for subscription and have a 7-Day free trial
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.vowlio.com
