Weddings in India are big business; according to reports, the Indian wedding industry is a multi-billion dollar one and nothnig short of grand. In fact, according to a report in May this year titled ‘Market Study of Online Matrimony and Marriage Services in India’ by KPMG, the marriage services industry in India is estimated to be worth approximately ₹3,681 billion in 2016.
Anybody who has planned or organised a wedding knows just how elaborate Indian weddings are and the nitty gritties that need to be looked into. There’s the trousseau to be organised, caterer to be brought on board, decor to look after, venue to be finalised, guest lists to be drawn up and what not. And, finding multiple vendors, keeping tabs on them and constantly following up with them can take most of the fun out of weddings.
It is in the midst of this chaos that technology comes to the rescue. Several Indian startups are now looking at making wedding planning easier. Right from online portals to apps, there’s a slew of tech solutions for wedding planning these days. Some offer you access to vendors, others provide you with tips and ideas to organise that dream wedding.
Take for instance, PlanningWale. Founded in 2015, the portal is a wedding and event search directory listing thousands of vendors related to wedding planning. There’s jewellers, designers, band companies, venue providers, caterers, mehendi artistes, astrologers, choreographers, decorators, and wedding planners to choose from. Users can search and compare vendors before booking them. The portal also has an app that makes planning weddings as easy as tapping one’s smartphone screen.
Varied choices
Closer home there is My Grand Wedding, a Chennai-based app launched by Sharath Singh, who also runs an event planning company called Vibration Events. “The idea for MyGrandWedding came about when we realised that there was a need for a one-stop destination for all wedding related needs. It can be quite painful to find and book vendors. So the app allows users to browse through our list of vendors across various categories, read reviews about them, compare prices and then get in touch with us to receive their contact details. We also have a tab that lists trends in terms of bridal outfits, jewellery, decor and sangeet trends that people can view and draw inspiration from while organising their own wedding,” he says. The app also has song suggestions for a sangeet ceremony if one is looking for interesting numbers to short list.
My Grand Wedding currently has a presence in nine Indian cities and by next year plans to reach 30 cities. “Some of our interesting features include, a wedding countdown, vendor discounts and a complimentar Save The Date video for people who want to send invites via WhatsApp and social media invites,” says Singh.
Then there’s also the Delhi-based WeddingPlz, which was launched by Manas Wadhwa which lists vendors across wedding related categories to choose from. The portal also offers users useful features such as wedding checklist, budget tips, e-invites and a wedding website as well.
The right space
Besides start-ups, match-making giant Matrimony.com, which has a database of profiles comprising 3.03 million active profiles (being profiles that have been published or logged in at least once during the prior 180-day period) recently started a service called MatrimonyMandaps.com, “a wedding venue discovery platform, which has detailed information of more than 500 wedding venues which include kalyana mandapams and banquet halls across Tamil Nadu,” says Murugavel Janakiraman, founder and managing director at Matrimony.com.
This is apart from the other services such as MatrimonyDirectory.com, a wedding classified portal with more than 50,000 listings in India to facilitate and connect customers with the right service provider, MatrimonyPhotography.com to provide wedding photography and videography services and MatrimonyBazaar.com to help customers in availing wedding-related services such as wedding apparel, venue, stage decorations, photography, make-up, catering and honeymoon packages from various vendors to meet customers‘ wedding needs, which they launched in the recent years. He says, “A majority of the categories of marriage services in India are unorganised and highly fragmented, presenting a potential opportunity for an organised aggregator to provide these services. In this regard, we have leveraged our brands, user activity on our platforms and our online matchmaking client base to diversify into marriage services to take advantage of the lack of organised services .” The range of products and services are tailored to meet the requirements of customers based on their linguistic, religious, caste and community preferences as well as personalised matchmaking services through EliteMatrimony and our Assisted Service package — making a wedding literally just a few clicks away.
