Indian startup takes Pinterest-esque approach to wedding planning

Wedmegood founders Anand and Mehak Shahani

When beauty blogger Mehak Shahani was planning her wedding three years ago, she didn’t know of any one-stop-shop for choosing a theme, getting relevant vendors, and budgeting. Much of her wedding planning was done through recommendations from friends and family. Sensing an opportunity, she came up with Wedmegood, a wedding planning portal aimed at making the planning process smoother for every Indian couple.

The site features real-life weddings where couples share pictures of their wedding in a story format and tag a list of curated vendors relevant to that kind of a wedding. This gives couples a source of inspiration for their own weddings and a way to visualize the results created by hairdressers, makeup artists, photographers, jewellery stores, and caterers they might want to work with. A detailed portfolio for these vendors containing information on charges, services, and past work is also provided.

“Featuring real people helps the would-be couple make faster decisions,” says Anand Shahani, co-founder of Wedmegood.

The site also has a blog section where couples can share their experiences and advice on how to avoid wedding pitfalls and mistakes.

Currently, Wedmegood claims to have 3,500 vendors and says it gets 1.5 million users per month.

New funding

Today Wedmegood announced that it has secured US$400,000 in seed funding from the Indian Angel Network (IAN). The founders received a funding commitment from investors after a 10-minute pitch at an event organised by The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). Some of its angel investors include MakeMyTrip’s Sachin Bhatia and Shaadi’s Anupam Mittal.

The funding will be used to scale up technology and sales team and extend its vendor base. It will also focus on the upcoming mobile app and pilot alternative revenue sources.

Wedmegood competes with Indear and ShadiSaga. However, Mehak feels content is its biggest differentiator.

“The content is the hook to engage consumers and help them get ideas on how to plan their wedding and chose vendors based on the portfolios and other information provided on the website,” says Mehak.