WEDDING WEBSITES ARE A RAGE
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Better internet access and reduced cost of creating wedding websites has contributed to its demand |
It
is the big fat Indian wedding season. And, these days more couples are
putting together their wedding websites with info, photos and videos to
make friends and relatives living far away a part of the gala. Floating
wedding websites is not new, but the trend has caught up now, thanks to
better internet access and reduced cost of creating such sites.
Newlyweds Mayuri and Shashank Baruah
created their wedding web site soon after engagement. “We have our
roots in Assam, but we stay in Delhi. We have studied and worked all
over the country. Shashank was also in London for three years. So we
have friends all over,” says Mayuri. “Soon after we got engaged, our
friends and family kept telling us how sorry they were about not being
able to attend the ceremony. We realised that the scenario will be
similar during the wedding. And we didn’t want to leave out anyone from
sharing the moment with us. So we decided to give almost as good an
experience through a personal wedding website,” she said.
The website, with the couple’s name
as domain name, looked right out of a movie. They uploaded pictures and
video clips of their engagement and all the pre-wedding events, right up
to the D-day in Guwahati. Of course, with the bride and groom busy, the
responsibility of updating the website on important days was entrusted
to a techsavvy cousin.
“Apart from videos and photos, we also gave information on time and venue of all events along with maps so that there was
no confusion. Since it was the first time many of our guests were
coming to Assam, we also added details such as places to see a ro u n d
Guwahati, places to eat, shopping destinations and emergency phone numbers. They loved the package!” Mayuri adds, smiling in delight.
Nelly
Abraham and her husband, Matthew, created their wedding website and
uploaded a video clip of them inviting others for a personal touch. The
couple are settled in Singapore, although they hail from Kerala and that
is where the wedding was a month ago. “Nelly and I had got two weeks
off for our marriage. That’s hardly any time to organise a wedding,
Indian style! So we were doing everything to help our parents online —
from organising caterers and florists to hotel accommodations,” Matthew
says. “But the most important thing, inviting people personally, was
what concerned us. So we created a wedding website and made a video clip
of us inviting people to the wedding, just like we would do personally,
and uploaded it,” he says. Many of the wedding sites also come free,
like blogs, but the couple have to do all the uploading and designing.
There
are the experts, too. Sumit Bhowmick from Bangalore said his team
creates hundreds of websites for couples every month. “A wedding website
is like an extension of the more traditional wedding card, and much
more. If we have details such as venues, dates and photographs, it
hardly takes any time to create one. It’s a trend now,” Bhowmick says.