Share the big fat wedding experience - online

Hyderabad: If you are in the US and can't make it to your best friend's wedding in India, take heart. Here's a unique website that will take you through the precious moments of the marriage experience.

Moving beyond matchmaking, market leader Bharat Matrimony has launched Matrimony Diary, a first-of-its-kind service for couples to share their wedding experience with family and friends, no matter where they reside.

The free wedding site, www.matrimonydiary.com, which offers a free domain name with free hosting for one year, is aimed at helping couples invite their families and friends through e-invitations and keep them abreast of wedding preparations and events with stories, photographs - and even videos at a later date.

Free domain names

"This is the first of its kind wedding site in the world as we are offering free registration of domain names like raghavwedsrekha.com and snehasathish.com for one year," said Murugavel Janakiraman, founder and CEO of Bharat Matrimony.

"Technology has revolutionised the way people marry. Marriage is an occasion that brings all your life's dreams come true. Families try to capture each of these memories in various ways like photographs, videos, wedding cards and each day becomes an interesting episode in the groom/bride's diary.

"It can cover every aspect of the marriage - from an introduction by the couple to anecdotes from family and friends. You can post photographs and even determine who gets to view your page. It's a fun and simple way of sharing wedding details such as the engagement, bridal shower, stag party and sending out e-invitations," says Janakiraman.

The offer is open only to those whose wedding is coming up within six months. It is, however, also open to those who found their match elsewhere.

The diary will be free for one year, after which the user can choose to continue using it by paying a fee of Rs1,000 (Dh90) per year.

Janakiraman said that although it costs $100 for the portal to maintain the site for an year, it was offering the service in order to continue the relationship with users who usually left the portal once they had found a partner.

"The users can choose from the various facilities and different templates we are offering. They can also choose to make the site public or private," he said. More features like wedding reminders and wedding planners for fund management are due in the second phase of the initiative, he said.

The portal plans to tie up with jewellery shops, clothes stores, tourism departments and fast moving consumer goods, which can offer gift vouchers for couples registering with the diary.

Yahoo! and Canaan, a venture capital firm, invested $8.65 million last year in Bharat Matrimony, which is growing at a rate of more than 100 per cent.

Chennai-based BharatMatrimony.com Private Limited also runs other portals like Indiaproperty.com, Clickjobs.com, Indiaautomobile.com and Indiapages.com.