A startup called JoinMyWedding.com is connecting the dots and offering curious foreign tourists a chance to attend an Indian wedding for a fee.

The website is called JoinMyWedding.com and the idea for it came to Australian start-up mentor Orsi Parkanyi, 33, when a friend told her she was travelling to India for a wedding. “I wished I could go too, but I didn’t have an invite,” Parkanyi says. “Another friend said she would have loved to go too, and after some research, I realised there was a market for such a service and no one to cater to it.”

“I’ve lived in Europe all my life, but a few years ago I was lucky enough to be invited to a high-end, traditional Indian wedding in Tamil Nadu,” says Matécsa. “Right from the traditions to the beautiful saris and accessories, generous hospitality, spicy flavours and decoration, it was an experience of a lifetime. I remember thinking even then that it would be great to open up such weddings to foreigners.”
So far, the website has a dozen weddings listed -- seven in India, and the others spread across Russia, Turkey and the US. There’s even a Lord of the Rings-themed wedding up for grabs, in the Russian city of Novosibirsk.

India, though, will be the focus of the company, and JoinMyWedding is in talks with travel agents in five Indian cities — Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Chennai and Bengaluru — to promote sales.

Parkanyi, along with Hungary-based strategy consultant Márti Matécsa and Mumbai-based brand and marketing consultant Pallavi Savant, launched JoinMyWedding.com a month ago.