Plan a wedding together, without losing a single number

The situation

An Indian wedding is a project with dozens of people and hundreds of details. The caterer, decorator, photographer, mehendi artist, pandal, band, transport and hotel each have a contact person. There are five or more functions, each at a different time and place. The bride’s side and the groom’s side, the cousins running errands, and the uncle in charge of the bus all need the same information, and it changes daily.

Usually it lives in a dozen chat groups and one stressed person’s phone.

How OIOA helps

Create one OIOA Group for the wedding. It gives you three things a chat group doesn’t:

1. A shared contact list that members can export straight into their phone’s Contacts app, so “the decorator” is a real, tappable contact for everyone who needs it.
2. Events with alarms. Each function is an event with a start and optional end time, and it rings on members’ phones with Snooze and Dismiss.
3. Updates that don’t get buried, which can be shared with the whole group or selected members, such as only the people handling payments.

Step by step

1. Create a Group, for example “Riya & Arjun’s wedding”, and invite family by OIOA-ID, or share an invitation via WhatsApp or email.
2. Decide who posts. For a large family, choose only admins can post and make the core organisers admins. For a small team, allow members to post.
3. Add vendor contacts under Shared contacts, with notes such as “ask for Ramesh, available after 10 am”. Members turn on export to phone contacts.
4. Add each function as an event: haldi, mehendi, sangeet, the wedding, the reception. Add the venue and details in the description.
5. Post updates as plans change: “Bus leaves from the hotel at 5:30, not 5”. Share sensitive ones with selected members only.
6. Make the invitations with OIOA’s card maker: wedding invitations in 13 languages, with your choice of layout, photo and wording. Save or share them directly.
7. Tap SYNC after changes. Everything is saved on your phone first, so you can keep working in a venue with no signal.

Extra touches

• Choosing a date? Many families look for a favourable day. OIOA’s Shubh Yoga finder and the panchang can show you options, and many families also consult their priest or elders.
• After the wedding, add the new family member to your Family so they get the family contact list in one go. See share family contacts in one go.
• Record the marriage in the Family Tree, with the marriage date and tithi, so the anniversary shows up every year.
• Say thank you with a Thank You card to everyone who helped.

When the wedding is over

Leave the group or ask an admin to wind it down. When members leave, the vendor contacts OIOA put on their phones are removed on their next sync, so nobody’s phone book stays full of a wedding’s worth of numbers. Contacts they saved themselves aren’t touched.