Unless you intend doing a quickie in
court and get back to the office, you would certainly require to
plan that wedding ceremony. This Rediff site lets you do just
that. The Wedding Planner here is a good way of listing things to
be done and keeping track of what's done. After specifing your
community -- Hindu, Christian, Sikh or Muslim (with all the
different sects of each) -- you get a list of ceremonies involved
and what you need for them. Then you can enter your wedding
budget in The Quick Budgeter and in no time you get back a neat
box telling you how much to allocate for each item right from the
trousseau to the hall decorations. The section on jewellery lists
some fine baubles and places where you can buy them. And if you
want to get a photographer, caterer, florist or mehndiwali, the
Wedding Directory can sure prove helpful. If you believe that
marriages are made by the stars, the Astrology section helps you
match horoscopes of the to be bride and groom. Dr Aniruddha
Malpani, Medical Director at Mumbai's Malpani Infertility Clinic,
provides health information for the newly married couple. The
couple can even plan their honeymoon through this site.Matri
This is a straightforward matrimonial
addvertisement site with the advantage of worldwide access. There
are no other features or services offered except an online chat,
through which couples can communicate with each other before
finally fixing a meeting. There is a section called Cupid where
members (you have to register here) can save the profile of the
mate they are interested in and get a notification whenever
matching new entries are posted. When we accessed the site there
were about 10,000 profiles listed. Jeevansathi
This site which is sans any graphics
whatsoever boasts of "21,642 matrimonial listings,
increasing daily!" One would think that at least those who
have found their mates would get off the place. Listing is for
free and so is the search. You can input your search criteria or
browse the complete listings. A new service is the computerised
search of suitable matches as per your criteria with the result
being sent to your mail box. This is a paid service as are the
other 'Revenue Model' services like value added listings (with
photograph) and astrology. Other features of the site include
honeymoon destinations, wedding services, auspicious times,
planning your wedding and counselling. Links are provided to
other matrimonial sites as well.Sumangali
The details on brides and grooms
available here are collected from various news media
advertisements and registerations at different community marriage
bureaus as well as direct registerations with the site. This
Coimbatore-based computerised matrimonial Bureau claims to have
"details and biodatas on thousands of brides and grooms on
250 castes of India." After registering you can get
information of new matrimonial additions to the site (which may
not necessarily suit your criteria) through e-mail. A special
feature aimed specially at NRIs is the conversion of e-mail to
snail mail which is available at a charge ranging from $10 to $100.
There is just one other service offered here, that of an
astrologer.The Knot
If you're planning a western style
marriage, now you don't have to tie yourself into knots before
tying the knot. The Knot is just the place you will log in to
before that big marriage ceremony. Marriage etiquette, wedding
ideas, dresses and suits, bachelor parties ... The Knot touches
on all these and then some more. Like the message board where you
can share the pleasures and traumas of others who are in the same
'predicament' as you are. A key feature here is the facility of
hoisting personal pages where you can broadcast details of your
marriage -- where you met, how you got engaged, how to reach the
marriage venue, photographs etc -- across the globe. You can
arrange thing so that only the first page is visible to everyone,
with the others, with personal details, requiring a password.
There are links to vendors of marriage items too, so if you have
that close relative coming in from abroad for your great event
you can just send across your wish list.Inmatch
This is a funky, youthful singles site
which is not have only a 'view matrimony' objective. You can
register here to make friends, e-pals, arrange dates and, of
course, find that ultimate soul mate. The site boasts of a
membership of almost 60,000, built up in six months. But I would
measure the success of the site by knowing how many have un-registered
themselves in that period, because once you find a mate you have
no use for a singles site, now do you? Or maybe you do. Besides
matchmaking, the site offers other features like contests, polls,
celebrity dates, movie premiers, interactive courses (yes, there
is an 'active' in that last phrase) and the Inmatch Bash where
members are invited to let their hair down and mix with others.
While the essential services are free, the site offers some other
services at a price. Check them out.