Stand-up comedian Megan Mooney spoke for generations of bridesmaids when she said the bride-to-be always tries to talk up the ugly bridesmaid's dress.

"All my friends that I'm in their wedding, they always say the same thing. They're like: 'These are not bridesmaid dresses, ladies' ... they're like, 'these are dresses you can wear over and over again.' Then they pull out something taffeta and you're like, 'Where do you hang out that you can…? " Mooney riffs.

So true, said Kelsey Doorey, a Brandywine High School graduate now living in Santa Monica, California. She has six bridesmaid dresses – totaling about $1,800 worth -- hanging in the back of her closet. She's worn each dress once.

But Doorey did more than laugh about one-hit-wonder bridesmaids' dresses. Last year, Doorey, 29, launched the first and only e-commerce company purely devoted to renting designer bridesmaids' gowns by such luminaries such as Monique Lhuillier, Jenny Yoo and Nicole Miller. Dresses that sell for an average of $300 can be rented for as little as $95.

Vow To Be Chic in Santa Monica was launched with Doorey building on her life experience as a serial bridesmaid. She remembers only too well the first time she was asked to be a bridesmaid. At the time, she was a cash-strapped junior at Columbia University studying in Europe.

When her friend called to say she was getting married in two weeks, Doorey had to borrow money from her parents.

"The first time you're asked to be a bridesmaid, you're so excited and honored," Doorey said. "After that, you realize what an expense it is."

The concept has taken off. In the year since it opened, Vow to Be Chic has exceeded all its business targets, coming in under budget and ahead of schedule on its metrics, Doorey said.

One reason for the success is the comfort the millennial generation has with the shared economy and e-commerce, Doorey said.

Take Kelly Grace, 29, of Washington, D.C. She used Vow to Be Chic's services for her nine bridesmaids at her September 2014 wedding in Annapolis.

"Everybody loved it. My friends appreciated and loved the ease of it. Most people pretty much hate to have to go to a salon and watch people try on dresses. I'd rather poke my eyes out," she said.

What's more, the designer dresses are far better quality and fit better, Grace said.

"And I don't know anyone that's ever worn a bridesmaid's dress again," she said.

Birth of Business

Still, Vow to Be Chic took its time to be born.

Doorey was still a student, getting her master's degree in business administration at UCLA Anderson School of Management, when she hit on the idea of renting designer bridesmaid dresses.

Although she had studied psychology at Columbia and initially worked as a management consultant at IBM for four years, Dooreys wanted to get into retail. She went to Anderson with the idea of landing her dream retail job on the corporate side. While working on her MBA, she interned at Bloomingdale's and Michael Kors.

Her plan was to work at Bloomingdale's corporate office after graduation.

But her life took a unexpected turn when she was given an assignment by one of her professors at Anderson to develop a business plan for a new company. Then, she remembered the time she went with a guy friend to pick up a rental tux and wondered why women don't have options.

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"I had maybe four bridesmaids' dresses hanging in my closet," Doorey.

With a little digging, Doorey discovered that nearly three-fourths of all women serve as a bridesmaid between one and three times in their lives, with the average three times.

Each year, there are approximately 11 million bridesmaids who spend $1,695 per wedding on average.

The average dress runs $250, with roughly 86 percent worn just once.

"It's a $2.5 billion market for bridesmaids dresses alone," Doorey said.

Doorey's professors were so impressed with the concept of rental gowns they urged Doorey to enter it into the 2013 Knapp Venture Competition, the school's business plan competition.

Doorey won the competition and the $15,000 prize. Two of the competition's judges were venture capitalsits also offered additional funding for a start up – the first time in the competition's history.

"My plans changed overnight for what I would do with my life," Doorey said.

Developing the business

Even with the endorsement of venture capitalists, Doorey was still reticent about starting her own business.

"I had a six figure job offer. If I started my own business, the business could flop in a few months. And I wasn't going to take a salary," Doorey said. "It was a risky decision."

But after talking to her parents and advisers, she decided to give it try. Her father is a cardiologist and her mother is an educator.

"They told me they wouldn't let me be homeless," she said.

Doorey spent the summer of 2013 "trying to get it to fail." She couldn't. After a year of testing, she launched Vow to Be Chic.

She realized millennials are more than comfortable with having something as personal as a bridesmaid dress sent through the mail.

"We're used to having everything delivered right to our doorstep," Doorey said.

And unlike previous generations, millennials are more interested in spending their money on experiences rather than "owning things," she said.

Customers go to the Vow to Be Chic website and browse the selection of dresses, Doorey said. Once a dress is chosen, the dress is sent out in two sizes for the bridesmaid to try on at home months before the wedding. Ninety percent of the time, a dress will fit, she said.

If a bridesmaid wants to alter the dress, it can be purchased, said Vow to Be Chic bridal stylist Kristina Moreno.

"That happens very rarely," Moreno said. "Most of the time the dresses fit. It's really amazing. The designers really know what they are doing."

Almost all dresses are returned to Vow to Be Chic in the same condition in which they were sent out, Doorey said. Only one or two have been ruined by a red wine stain. They were retired because Doorey wants dresses to be in perfect condition.

Doorey keeps on top of the latest styles and looks at data on what's selling. She also listens to customers and attends all the trade shows.

"Buying is the hardest part," Doorey said.

But she has a golden rule: She won't rent a dress she wouldn't wear herself.

Little White Dress

Vow to Be Chic has also introduced "little white dresses" for major bridal events, such as the engagement party, bridal shower and rehearsal dinner.

The dresses, which sell for as much as $795, can be rented for 12 percent to 25 percent of the purchase price.

The business has come to the rescue of few weddings.

In one case, a bridesmaid came into Vow to Be Chic a month before the wedding because she discovered she hated the bridesmaid dress she had purchased, said Monica Bennett, chief bridal stylist at Vow to Be Chic.

"We find that our brides really want the bridesmaids to be happy," Moreno said.

In another case, Doorey had to come to the rescue of a bridesmaid who lost her luggage while traveling.

"I ran into the office and overnighted the dress," Doorey said.

Doorey said she knows she made the right decision in forgoing the fix-figure job. Not only is she learning new things every day, but she loves the constant challenges.

"We're disrupting a massive industry and bringing e-commerce and the shared economy into the bridal market," Doorey said.

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