Online ‘match-fixing’ business in a fast forward mode

Online matrimony is becoming a big business in the country, where traditional marriages are still a norm. Matchmaking on the Internet is beginning to take off with the user base on such websites growing over 75% jump in the last two years, a survey by the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMI) said. The business of matrimony on the Net is set to cross the Rs 100-crore mark this year with 7 million users expected to sample the matrimonial websites. Online matrimony business was at just Rs 58 crore in 2005.

According to IAMI president, Subho Ray, “The most significant find of our survey is that 31% of the users are women, indicating that the gender divide is significantly lower in case of matrimony sites.”

Three key reasons are driving this boom: need for convenient matchmaking solutions, increased Internet penetration and 35% of the population being under the age of 35 years. “One of the key drivers of this industry is that unlike traditional matchmaking solution, online matrimonial takes away geographical and spatial limitations and provides a platform to meet potential partners on a secure and private platform,” explained Anupam Mittal, chairman, IAMAI, who is also CMD of shaadi.com, a popular matchmaking website.

Industry players tend to agree with this. According to Sanjeev Bikhchandani, founder and CEO of InfoEdge, which manages http://www.jeevansathi.com, 2-2.5 million unique users are added each year on the matrimonial websites.

Wedding Websites Save Brides & Grooms Time and Money

For the past few years, the Internet has served to assist many brides and grooms in planning their wedding day, finding wedding site locations and wedding vendors, but now more and more couples are seeking to publish their wedding details online, too. A wedding website is a great way for couples to express their personalities, share their stories, and eliminate a lot of time and money doing extra leg work like making phone calls and paying for expensive invitation inserts for additional details like registry information, pre-wedding parties, and location maps or directions.

Many modern brides and grooms are turning to wedding web sites as a way to share information on how they met, provide special announcements to the wedding party and guests, and supply details and information about their wedding day and pre-wedding day celebrations including directions to the wedding site and rehearsal dinner location, bridal shower and bachelor party details, gift registry information and links, local hotel and airline recommendations, and top tourist sites for their out of town guests.

Best of all, with so many new wedding web communities now online you don’t need to be a web developer to create your own wedding website. There are many web sites out there that can help you easily create and update your own wedding website or affordable wedding profile with the simple click of a mouse. Surveys have shown that 70 percent of today’s brides want to incorporate a wedding website into their wedding planning. Of those who wanted a wedding site, 80 percent were interested in using the website primarily for event details, about 70 percent were interested in publishing their gift registry information, and 25 percent showed an interest in an online RSVP system.

Here are some links to the most popular online resources for building your own wedding website: http://www.jeevansathi.com, http://www.irishta.com and http://www.zawaj.com.

Whatever type of wedding website you choose, from a simple information site to a full narration of your entire wedding event process, a wedding website can save you time, money and valuable energy that you will be grateful to have once you step up to the altar.

Marriage & Weddings

Marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman that plays a key role in the definition of many families. In modern terms, the term marriage is generally referred as a state of sanctioned union. The phrase legally married can be used to emphasize this point.

The ceremony in which a marriage is enacted and announced to the community is called a wedding. A wedding in which a couple marries in the “eyes of law” is called “civil marriage”. Religions also facilitate weddings in the “eyes of God”.

In most societies, a number of wedding traditions or customs have emerged around the wedding ceremony, many of which have lost their original symbolic meaning in the modern world. Wedding ceremony symbolize the bride's departure from her father's control and entry into a new family with her husband. In modern Western weddings, this symbolism is largely vestigial, since husband and wife are of equal power and status.

The wedding vow is the most well-known demonstration of verbal love. A vow is a line of words that are a solemn promise, or assertion, someone makes that binds him or her to an act, service, or condition. In the case of a wedding, it's a declaration of love.

Because religion plays a significant role in many people's lives, some of the more traditional vows were created by individual churches. Each vow has a slightly different way of phrasing the dedication words to make them fit each belief system better.

Many couples choose to continue with tradition and repeat the vow just as others in love have done for thousands of years. However, a contemporary trend has been for couples to write their own vows.

Marriage & Rituals

Diverse as the sea is the culture of India. And so are the rituals for marriages. There are at least 40 rituals followed all over the country during weddings.

Here goes a brief account on these rituals:
1. Arya Samaj wedding- Arya samaj was founded in nineteenth century by Swami Dayanand Saraswati. The Arya Samaj is based on the teaching of Vedas that aims at knowledge and elevation of all irrespective of their cast and colour.

Following are the rituals involved in an Arya Samaj wedding:
The bride gives the groom water three times, Giving away the bride, Lighting the sacred fire, The groom vows to look after his wife, Using the rock as a symbol of permanence, Sacrifice offered to the sacred fire
Circumventions around the sacred fire, seven steps around the sacred fire, invoking blessings from deities,
Vows taken by the couple, the groom applies vermilion on the bride, viewing the Pole Star, Invoking blessings from Arundhati and Vashisht and finally the blessing


2. Punjabi wedding:When it comes to lavish wedding and wedding gifts… it has to a Punjabi wedding.

Following are the rituals involved in a Punjabi wedding:
Acceptance of the alliance, The engagement, Dressing up and blessing of the bride, Beautification of the bride, Tying of the symbolic bracelets on the couple's wrists, Adorning the bride with the ivory bangle presented to her by her maternal uncle, The 'haldi' ceremony, Musical get together by the ladies of the families, Decorating the mare, Tying of the traditional headdress on the groom, Receiving the groom's procession or 'baraat', Welcoming the groom's 'baraat', Exchange of garlands, Actual wedding rituals, Bridal send off, Untying of the bracelets, Introducing the bride to her husband's family and finally Post wedding celebrations.

3. Gujarati wedding:
Gujarati weddings are arranged on a grand scale and are bright and colourful.

Following are the rituals involved in a Gujarati wedding:
Acceptance of the alliance, Commencement of all marriage rituals, The henna ceremony, Traditional Gujarati dances, Constructing the canopy for the wedding rites, Beautification rituals, Invoking harmony within the planets, The bride receives gifts from her maternal uncle, The groom's procession, Welcoming the groom, The wedding ceremony- divided into following segments, The couple exchanges garlands, Giving away the bride and Circumventions around the sacred fire.

4. Bengali wedding:
Bengali wedding is a happy and colourful family occasion where tradition and age old customs play an important role.

Following are the rituals involved in a Bengali wedding:
The engagement, The bride's last meal as a maiden in her parental home, Anointing the bride and groom, The bride is adorned with coral and shell bangles by 'sumangalis', The wedding procession, Welcoming the groom, Actual wedding rites - divided into following segments, The couple exchanges garlands, Giving away the bride, Tying of the marital knot, Seven steps around the sacred fire, The groom applies vermilion on the bride, The groom stays back in the bride's home, Bridal send off, Welcoming the bride in her marital home, Formal acceptance of the bride by her in-laws, Post wedding celebrations and finally the bride is bedecked with jewels made from flowers

So find the jeevansathi of your community. Links of some Matrimonial sites are given in our link section.

Indian Marriages

Whenever you hear the word marriage what comes into your mind are colours, music and a bride, especially when you are talking about Indian weddings. India being a single country has several forms of marriages unlike the West.

The center of attraction in Indian marriages is the bride. With all her attire, beauty, grace and shyness, a bride never fails to capture the attention of the individuals present in the wedding. After all she is about to start a new life with her jeevansathi.

Preparations for a marriage begin with the search for matrimonials. Since in India arranged marriages are most prevalent, here the parents start looking for prospective brides and grooms for their children who have grown up for a matrimonial tie up. After a lot of search in the matrimonials and conduct of match-making, the lucky-one is finalised.

Though, with time the definition of marriage is also changing. Today it is not only about matrimonial search, match-making, a wedding party, a bride and a groom. This generation knows what it wants and this also implies when it comes to finding the most suitable life partner.

Along with news paper matrimonial classifieds and marriage bureaus, which are the most popular means for searching matrimonials. Matrimonial sites are also quickly gaining momentum as people are finding it to be the fastest and the most convenient medium for searching the most potential life partner.

So if you are looking for your jeevansathi, then go ahead and find one now. Links of some Matrimonial sites are given in our link section.