Rishika Agarwal, currently the Co-Founder at WedHaven, a wedding management app is a former software engineer by profession. She has an enriching experience of more than 5 years in the industry. Amidst the pandemic, Rishika Agarwal and Navam Gupta, next-gen couple-preneurs and technophiles, introduced this app that aims to make weddings fun by simplifying the tasks at hand, be it for the hosts, wedding planner or the guests. Originally hailing from India, both of them pursued their education in computer science and completed their Masters from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Before WedHaven’s creation, they worked in the heart of Silicon Valley as engineers with an ed tech startup for more than 5 years.
A wedding is an emotion and a journey in itself. It’s one of the most special days in our lives – something that a lot of us dream about since an early age. Like our careers and/or life partners, we want this day to be just perfect and truly cherishable forever. Whichever part of the world or society one belongs to, a wedding is something that is celebrated with utmost joy and cheer everywhere. All parents try to make it as memorable as they can for their kids, utilizing any and all resources at their disposal. Over time weddings have gotten bigger and more personalized and just like in every other field, technology comes to the rescue here as well allowing folks to turn their dream weddings into a reality.
From dating and matchmaking to post-wedding gifts and honeymoons, technology is present in all aspects, making our lives easier at every step of the way. Here are some of the facets where technology has disrupted the wedding saga and continues to make its mark:
Invitations
Gone are the days when you could only invite someone by visiting them or mailing that invitation card, which would not even be delivered at times. Save the dates and video invites are all the rage now. People are getting more and more creative by the day to invite their guests in the coolest way possible!
Wedding website
Creating a personal website for your wedding to share with friends and family and being able to customize it as per your own needs is quite chic! It can be used to send invitations, share all relevant details and even track guest RSVP status. No need to manage anything manually now!
Guest management
From creating separate guest lists to inviting and managing different groups of guests for each function, all from that device in your pocket – it’s that simple! You can manage anything, anytime, from anywhere!
Instant communication
This is one area where tech has evolved the most! Moving on from telephones, SMS and Whatsapp – live notifications and instant updates (using applications like WedHaven) is the latest trend now! Folks want all the info at their fingertips now and don’t want to miss out on that cake cutting ceremony while they were enjoying drinks outside.
Photography
Wedding albums and videos are one thing couples just don’t want to compromise on.
With the smartphone cameras becoming so superior nowadays, there’s a whole digital album of memories captured by friends and family apart from the photographer. And there are companies providing solutions to collect all these high quality images from all your guests on a single platform. Another advancement is the use of Drones, which provide unique aerial shots of the venues and couples, making them look gorgeous, in utmost creative ways!
Finding, shortlisting and finalizing vendors
Vendor aggregation platforms are how tech made its way into weddings and is something we can’t live without. Being able to find everything from florists to venues online is something the younger generation of today is used to and eventually this is how things will be done in the future.
Checking out venues, decor sets
Companies are coming up with innovative ways of showing venues and decor setups to customers using AI and VR without having to visit the location, given the pandemic times and giving an almost real feel of the day to make their clients happy.
Virtual weddings
Virtual weddings came to limelight during the Covid Lockdown. It’s basically hosting the wedding completely online where the guests join over video. This is likely going to be an option a subset of couples will opt for the years to come.
Gift registry
This western trend is slowly making its way into Indian weddings as well. Starting from gifts for bridal showers and wedding presents to honeymoon funds and baby shower gifts, gift registries are sure to become a common practice in the times to come.
Using technology is smart and not even an option several times! It not only helps you save time and money in a plethora of ways, but is also environment friendly and helps you do things on-the-go. While terms like FinTech, EdTech, HealthTech, etc. are quite mainstream already, WedTech has also started getting quite popular recently. It gives people more control on how to organize their special day and plan things their way, all from the comfort of their homes and with a lot more ease than before. Like most other industries, there’s a lot of scope in the world of weddings for technology to disrupt at a much larger scale, and we at WedHaven are excited to be a part of the WedTech revolution!