Popular Wedding Website Hit With ‘Fake Brides’ Lawsuit

Popular wedding website The Knot Worldwide, or “The Knot,” has been hit with a lawsuit over allegations of defrauding small businesses.

Why It Matters

The suit, which was brought by events and photography companies “concerning [The Knot Worldwide’s] fraudulent and otherwise unfair business practice of inducing various wedding businesses and vendors to pay thousands of dollars for lead-generating services and advertising when The Knot either does not generate any leads or the leads that it does generate are predominantly fake.”

Mark Rodman of Rodman Wedding Photography, Alana Banner, the founder of A Salon Santa Fe, Elite Casino Events, Emme Photo Booth, and the owners of Morina Photography, allege that they paid for a specific lead-generating service on The Knot, only to receive false enquiries and non-existent leads from “fake brides.”

A spokesperson at The Knot Worldwide told Newsweek: “The Knot Worldwide team does not, and has never, sent fake leads to vendors, under any circumstances. Nobody benefits from fake leads—not our vendors, couples, or The Knot Worldwide as a business.”

What To Know

The Knot’s alleged business practices caught the attention of Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, who called for a federal investigation into the company in March 2025, following accusations of “deceptive business practices.”

Now, the wedding site is also facing a lawsuit from merchants who used their services in the past. It has denied the accusations put forth in the suit.

The events groups suing The Knot and their WeddingPro service claim they were told they would be connected with more wedding parties if they signed up for the more expensive lead-generating advertising package on the site.

Although, according to the suit, The Knot “purports to connect ‘4 million+ couples with nearly 850,000 vendors within its global wedding marketplace,'” signing up for their higher tier advertising package left the plaintiffs without any additional business.

This package cost the plaintiffs thousands of dollars, but they allege that they uncovered after signing up for the package “The Knot’s lead-generating and advertising services are nothing more than a sham, as they are either left without any meaningful leads or come to realize that many of the leads they do receive are in fact fake.”

The plaintiffs have sued in California, claiming that the company is violating the state’s Unfair Competition Law and that The Knot’s conduct “constitutes intentional misrepresentation and unjust enrichment.”

The plaintiffs shared their stories of working with The Knot in their lawsuit. Rodman said not only did he see a fall in clients, from nine to two, following a purchase of their ad package ,but he never saw the Banner Ad Spotlight that he purchased from the company. According to Rodman, The Knot told him the ad would only appear at certain times.

According to Rodman, and covered by reports in The New Yorker, he received calls that were “formulaic in nature,” and when he reached out to leads they did not respond.

According to sources familiar with the suit, The Knot provides pre-written questions to customers when they are reaching out to vendors.

Additionally, users of The Knot may reach out to more vendors than they intend to use, and then “ghost” the people they do not end up choosing. This can result in what may appear to be a bogus message.

Banner had a similar experience to Rodman. Although she initially saw a rise in clients after joining the service, she then saw her leads dry up. She tried to cancel her subscription, but found the company to be unresponsive.

Elite Casinos and Emme Photo Booth, who throw casino-themed parties in the Pittsburgh area, believe the leads they were generating from The Knot were fake, as, “In the approximately six years Elite Casino utilized The Knot’s Storefront service, it only received 19 total clients from the various leads that populated on The Knot’s platform. And, in general, only one out of eight leads Elite Casino received on The Knot for its Emme Photo Booth service would actually respond to its messages.”

Morina Photography, which was ranked one of the U.S.’ top 30 wedding photography firms for 2023, is claiming that not only did The Knot fail to hold up its end of the bargain, but also engaged in “unethical billing practices.”

“Morina agreed to pay The Knot $1,648.90 per month for its services, but was instead charged $1,798.80 per month,” according to the suit.

The Knot is also accused of raising the price for its services when Morina canceled one of its other items. Meaning, despite canceling some requested services, Morina was still paying the same amount to The Knot for less.

These allegations have been backed by a team of The Knot whistleblowers. Jennifer Davidson, who, according to her website, was a “former global fashion director with nearly 21 years at The Knot across both local and national sales teams,” told Newsweek: “We believe the harm currently being inflicted on the wedding industry is a direct result of the company evading accountability for years.”

The whistleblowers are not involved in this lawsuit, but have been lobbying for the federal government to investigate the company.

What People Are Saying

Abbas Kazerounian, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told Newsweek: “We hope to reimburse our clients and putative class members, that are mostly small business owners, for the alleged misrepresentations outlined in our complaint.”

A spokesperson for The Knot Worldwide told Newsweek: “While we are disappointed that this group of four vendors did not have a positive experience with us, we strongly dispute the claims made, which do not reflect the integrity of our business.

“We will respond to their complaint and intend to show that the legal claims are baseless. Our commitment to the wedding professional community is unwavering. Feedback from our community of more than 900,000 small businesses and wedding professionals will continue to guide our decision-making.”

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley: “I have recently been alerted of alleged deceptive business practices by The Knot from several Iowa small businesses that suspect they have been defrauded.

“Namely, they separately told my staff that they entered into a contract with The Knot which assured the businesses it would advertise them on its website and then provide the businesses with a monthly supply of high-quality leads. However, according to the businesses, The Knot defrauded them by providing leads that were either largely worthless or completely fake.”

Lawsuit against The Knot Worldwide: “At all times relevant hereto, The Knot has and continues to bait and switch wedding vendors into spending thousands of dollars for lead-generating and advertising services that are promised to deliver meaningful results when, in reality, such services either generate no leads or leads that are fake.”

What Happens Next

The plaintiffs are suing for relief, and have called for a trial by jury for all claims in their suit which are triable. It is unclear whether, or when, this trial will happen.

Kazerounian told Newsweek that he had been contacted by several other businesses. He said: “we may decide to amend the complaint to add others, should we decide it serves the class.”