A few years ago my eldest brother got engaged. Being the first wedding at our place we all were excited yet nervous. Whatsapp didn’t exist and Facebook was just about to get launched. I was too young then and just had a Windows Pentium 4 computer. 2 months before the wedding we all would sit till late night to prepare the guest list (about 400-500 people), get their addresses for sending them wedding cards, arrange for their accommodation, call them again and again for various wedding events, etc. We called up everyone individually to ask them to make us write their addresses or SMS us. I would then enter all the data in Excel sheet and copy that in a CD and send it for getting printed. Wedding card selection was still a manageable task but distribution of it took us a man-force of about 7-8 people who would go to various parts of Ahmedabad to distribute it or courier it if the guests are based away from Ahmedabad. This consumed a hell lot of time, money and energy but we were helpless. Similar was the condition at my brother’s in-laws’ side. No solution existed then.
A year ago, one of my close friends was getting married. Although Whatsapp and Facebook were prevalent but still it consumed him a lot of time to collect the addresses, prepare the guest list, distribute wedding cards, call them again and again to remind them about wedding events, etc. After his marriage, on one of our casual discussions he mentioned that it was a painful task to invite people and a lot of nitty-gritty was involved in that process. And then it struck us that during all these years no solution has been found out and people are wasting a lot of time, energy and money in this process. What we did then? We again sat till late nights – this time to devise a solution.
Shubh Vivaah, the first-of-its-kind product, is an amalgamation of two things – wedding and technology. A lifestyle-cum-utility product, Shubh Vivaah lets you invite your guests in a few seconds, helps you stay connected with your guests whether they are present or not and lets you remind guests about wedding events, thereby saving your precious time, energy and money. Shubh Vivaah started with solving our own problems but we knew that it had the potential to solve the similar problems of many couples and their parents.
What is Shubh Vivaah?
Shubh Vivaah, the 4-in-1 experience, includes:
a. Mobile App
Available on the Android and iPhone, Shubh Vivaah app lets you send invitation to anyone across the world in just a few seconds via SMS or Email. It even provides the user couple with an option that automatically creates a completely up-to-the-minute Guest List. It lets you record and assess guest Travel Details and have them share Testimonials with you, so that you know what a beautiful time they had at your wedding. There is a beautiful Dress Me Up game where the guests can dress up the couple right from head till toe and in the funniest way possible.
The pre-wedding story, photo gallery, app theme can be shared/changed on a timely basis with the fellow guest users. Live photo upload, comments for the same and guest testimonials are notified to the guest users by way of instant notifications. This lets them remain in the loop of all the happenings at the wedding, whether they are present or not and irrespective of which part of the globe they are in.
b. Wed-site
The wed-site is like a mobile app in form of website for non-smartphone users. Imagine your cousin showing the wed-site to your 70-year old relative who doesn’t use a smartphone. You can already relate to Google’s TV ad, can’t you?
c. Voice Calls
Send automated call reminders to hundreds of guests in just a few seconds. The amount of time and energy Shubh Vivaah saves here is unimaginable.
d. SMS
Who likes to carry a PHYSICAL wedding invitation card these days?? Send instant alerts to remind guests about your events.
Let us say you are a startup entrepreneur or let us say you work in some MNC. You’re getting married in the next month. You just get some free time to start your marriage preparation and the first thing you would most obviously do is send your personalised card to your friends. But you have to go a card-maker, spend a few hours selecting the best design and then get it printed and couriered or hand-delivered to your friends. It would take a few days. What if I say that you can do this process in less than a minute? It’s possible with Shubh Vivaah. Once your content is ready, you can invite your friends, let them see your story, get their travel plans, see who all have downloaded your app and do much more via Shubh Vivaah app. We make sure no guests complain that they did not receive your reminders. Now they will have no excuse not to come to your wedding.
What’s in it for Guests?
The guests can now shower their blessings and love for the couple even if, for some reasons, they are unable to attend the wedding via Testimonials in the app. They get to know the couple better through couple’s My Story section. They can easily reach the Event’s venue with built-in Google Navigation. All guests taking pictures from various devices can now get the pictures in one single place (if they upload them to the app) and hence they need not wait for the photographer’s photos.
Shubh Vivaah Saves You Tons of Money, Time and Energy
Assuming that an average-quality wedding card costs INR 50. Normally you would invite about 300 guests/families to a marriage. Total cost then becomes 50 * 300 = INR 15,000. Assume that 100 of your guests/families stay away from your city and hence you courier them. Let’s take INR 15 as the charge of sending a courier. The courier cost then comes out to be 15 * 100 = INR 1500. Total cost in that case becomes 15,000 + 1500 = INR 16,500.
(I’ve considered very conservative figures as the charges; real costs would mostly be on the higher side. Also, cost of sending the other 200 cards by personally meeting all your guests/families has been ignored)
The average time taken to distribute about 300 cards is somewhere around 7-10 days with an average of 5-7 hours of traveling per day. Also, time consumed for reminder calls to guests (assuming a call lasts for 1 minute and each person is called up twice to attend wedding and its events) would be 1 min * 300 guests * 2 times = 600 minutes = 10 hours.
The amount of energy spent in sending your invitation card as well as following up with your guests about your events as well as their travel plans is humongous.
Shubh Vivaah takes really good care of your energy and saves you a lot of time and money. Want to check? Contact us on shubhvivaahapp@gmail.com.
Shubh Vivaah’s Humble Beginnings
Shubh Vivaah has already catered to 31 clients across India with near to 3000 downloads on the Google Play Store and about 500 downloads on iOS. We have about 98 positive ratings on Play Store (88 of them are 5-star). We recently got featured in the Economic Times and Shubh Vivaah is a finalist at the mBillionth South Asia Award 2014 to be held in New Delhi in July 2014.
Marriages are made in heaven. Shubh Vivaah makes them unique on earth. Experience it here.
Android: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shubhvivaah
iPhone: https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/shubh-vivaah/id737292596?mt=8
We’re spreading happiness here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Love-Passion-Connection/654439111242611
All rodinhooders who are about to get married, please download the app and give us your precious feedback. If you want to get a personalised wedding app, contact us on shubhvivaahapp@gmail.com. You can even gift it to someone who’s getting married. They say, memories are the best gift you can ever give to someone. Give them Shubh Vivaah, give them memories for a lifetime.
