Wedding planning traditions and customs may vary by country, culture and religion but one thing remains constant: the hustle and bustle and excitement of wedding planning.
Today’s technologies already allow us to do things faster, more effectively and be connected 24/7. Moreover, most modern couples are digital natives and use online and mobile services on a daily basis.
But what about wedding planning? Are couples eager to make use of technology when planning their big day? Apparently, they are!
The What and Why of WedTech
Over the past years technology has revolutionised the way we plan and attend events. It has opened new opportunities for better planning, attendee engagement and sharing. Meanwhile the wedding world has seen two extremes. In some ways the industry has managed to stay “old-school” in terms of planning processes and traditions. On the other hand wedding planners have been pioneers of social media and always looked to embrace current trends. Fast forward to 2015 and the wedding industry is witnessing an exciting fusion of old and new.
Thanks to wedding technology, many traditional wedding planning processes have become easier, accessible and fun. There are online and mobile tools not only for professional wedding planners but also for couples who want to venture in planning themselves.
As we discovered in our latest book Engaging Events, interaction and attendee engagement is critical to run successful events and weddings are no exception. WedTech startups are revolutionizing not only the way we plan weddings but also the way we attend them as guests. They now enable better collaboration and interaction. It seems like a personalized wedding hashtag will soon become just as an important element as the wedding dress itself.
What WedTech Does for Weddings
WedTech tools aim to ease the hustle and bustle of wedding planning and make it more enjoyable for all parties involved. It also helps wedding planners and couples to create a unique and personal wedding experience.
While some of WedTech startups are focusing solely on one single product or service others are giving the modern wedding planner a full range of planning tools.
There is a huge amount of e-commerce resources that allows you to buy and sell wedding goods. Apart from them there are many innovative companies that are re-thinking the old habits of wedding planning world. Now there are tools that can help you to:
– Build your own wedding website
– Send beautiful digital invitations
– Organise the guest list and create a table plan
– Collaborate with your friends/planner/bride & groom on wedding style and ideas
– Crowdfund a honeymoon
– Find a unique wedding venue
– Get inspired and collect ideas
– Share pictures live with guests
– Create a digital photobooth
Now there is everything you may need to use and implement before, during and after the wedding and new tools are being developed all the time. WedTech not only can help you to better plan and coordinate a wedding but also save you some money.
Tapping Into a Lucrative Weddings Market
Weddings are a lucrative market for technology startups to tap into. A recent study by IBISWorld is revealing that weddings is actually a solid business with the US wedding market being worth $55 billion and $300 billion globally.
And according to Hitched, the wedding industry in the UK was worth £10 billion in 2011 while You & Your Wedding claims the average cost of a wedding in the UK in 2014 was over £20,000 with 50% of all brides expecting to go over their original wedding celebration budget.
The Knot surveyed nearly 16,000 brides to find out that the average national US wedding budgets in 2014 were at $31,231 with 45% of couples going over budget.
Meanwhile, TechCrunch announced that venture investments in WedTech are now higher than ever before with 44 startups raised venture funding in 2014 and $189 million in capital committed in the first four months of 2015.
So is WedTech the next goldmine for venture capitalists?
More and more businesses are focusing on developing wedding technology. WedTech is in its early development stage but the stakes are high. With the emerging industries the question is which services and companies will stay and thrill and which will disappear in history. Through this blog we will keep you informed of all the latest startups and developments.
In Conclusion
With all the WedTech Startups popping up, we can definitely see much interest in this category from both the market and investors. But is WedTech just a fad or is it here to stay?
In our next post we will share the first WedTech Startup Roundup! If you are interested in wedding planning and new technologies subscribe to our WedTech newsletter here tos stay on top of the latest WedTech news!
