Photo Credits: PG1. ANCHOR
If you’re getting married and want to make some money in the bargain, especially since weddings today cost an arm and a leg, then you can sell a few tickets and let others experience the wonder of an Indian wedding. A startup called JoinMyWedding.com aims to aid you in this endeavour.
Join My Wedding helps you sell tickets to foreign tourists hoping to get a glimpse of an Indian wedding. All you have to do is sign on to the site, register your wedding, mention the number of tickets you want to sell, what there is on offer, what the traditional elements are etc, and you’re ready to go. If you are looking to attend wedding you can register on the site too, and then choose something interesting to attend. For those about to be married, this is a way to crowdfund part or the whole of your wedding. For the foreign tourists, it’s a way to experience a traditional Indian wedding. Interesting isn’t it?
The startup was founded by an Australian startup expert, along with two other partners, from India and Hungary. The idea for it came to Australian start-up mentor Orsi Parkanyi, when a friend told her she was travelling to India for a wedding. Parkanyi wanted to join in, but didn’t have an invite. When another friend also expressed an interest in seeing an Indian wedding, the 33 year old Parkanyi realized that there might be a market for this. So, she, along with Hungary-based strategy consultant Márti Matécsa and Mumbai-based brand and marketing consultant Pallavi Savant, launched JoinMyWedding.com a month ago. They were all connected through common friends.
Now travel agencies are tying up with Join My Wedding, hope that they can get some of their foreign clients more bang for their buck. This is a very interesting concept, even though many traditionalists may scoff at the idea. Weddings were earlier intimate affairs for family and close friends, but they have evolved and morphed into extravaganzas that are more about pomp and splendour than about sharing a precious moment with the people you love. Or perhaps a little bit of both.
With Join My Wedding, you can raise some funds. Take Rajasthani couple, Bengaluru-based software engineers Lavina Purohit and Abhishek Paliwal, who will be married in traditional ceremonies to be held in Udaipur and Indore over four days in January. They are offering 10 two-day tickets to either city for $400 (about Rs 27,000) each, and 10 four-day passes to all events in both cities, including transportation between them, for $550 (Rs 37,000). Or Mumbai-based chartered accountants Urvi Ambavat and Paras Shah, who are selling 40 tickets to their December wedding at Rs 20,000. Each guest will get accommodation and all access across three days of festivities -- including the haldi ceremony, sangeet, baarat procession, pheras, reception and vidaai.
So far, the website has a dozen weddings listed -- seven in India, and the others spread across Russia, Turkey and the US. There’s even a Lord of the Rings-themed wedding up for grabs, in the Russian city of Novosibirsk. India, though, will be the focus of the company, and JoinMyWedding is in talks with travel agents in five Indian cities — Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Chennai and Bengaluru — to promote sales.
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This story in 30 seconds
• Sell tickets to your wedding via JoinMyWedding.com
• Website allows foreign tourists to experience traditional weddings in other countries
• Way to crowdfund weddings and manage expenses
• Founded by 3 partners in Australia, India and Hungary.
• Website has over 10 weddings listed, from India, Russia, Turkey etc
• India is the main focus country, with its massive wedding industry
