Have you ever wanted to dress up for an Indian wedding, apply mehendi, dance to the latest Bollywood tracks? Now you do not need to wait for an invitation to such a wedding, Joinmywedding.com, a month old start up based in Brisbane, Australia, lets you buy a ticket to an Indian wedding for approximately $300 which is about INR 20,000 per person. All other expenses like airfare and accommodation are to be borne by you.
Joinmywedding,com was Marti Matecsa’s brainchild, which took shape after she attended a wedding in Tamil Nadu. Enamored by the ceremonies, the clothes and the food, she broached the idea of opening up Indian weddings to foreigners with her Australian friend. The duo teamed up with Pallavi Savant, a Mumbai based marketing consultant, to build a platform that would help cash strapped couples sell tickets to their wedding and allow customers to sample weddings around the world.
Their website offers 10 weddings, including in the Indian cities of Udaipur, Mumbai and Indore. They also offer bookings for weddings in Russia, Hungary and Turkey.
Joinmywedding.com keeps a 15% commission as a fee on the sale of each ticket.
Selling tickets for a wedding in a country where marriages are steeped in tradition is an indication of how new age business models are intersecting with more conventional and private events.
Besides organizing tickets to the wedding, the website also lets couples register online and ask friends and family to chip in for the big day.
While having unknowns at your wedding might not be acceptable to many, there are often cases where the money from the sale of tickets could ease the financial burden an Indian wedding can put on the parents shoulders. The obsession with foreigners and white skin are desired by some people and they would love to have these guests grace their wedding.
As one hears about these start ups, one wonders how these entrepreneurs get the idea to do something like this and then execute it as well. Whatever next?
[ Via : Qz ]
