

Offer HN: Getting married October-March? I need alpha users. - midnightmonster
http://papercrown.org/wedding-websites

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Jem
I know at least 3 couples (all 3 brides are web geeks) getting married in the
next year or so - not sure of dates but I'll pass this on.

~~~
midnightmonster
Thanks! Before October, it won't be ready. But after October the date doesn't
really matter if they're interested in participating.

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maggie
I know bunches of web-savvy women who are engaged, I'll pass it on.

Looking at all this makes me very, very glad that I'm not getting married
anytime soon. Jeez, what a hassle.

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Tichy
"I have it on good authority that the average pro photographer wishes the
Internet and all its copyright-violating denizens would just go away"

You say it. I have been unable to find a photographer who could take a picture
of me that I could just use on all the social networking sites, no strings
attached. I told a friend she should become a "Web 2.0" photographer offering
exactly that kind of thing, and she said she couldn't - I think out of
solidarity with the other photographers or something like that. I guess
somebody else will eventually step up to the task.

~~~
midnightmonster
My local extended family actually did get a photographer who would assign
copyright recently. It was all about finding someone who needed work and
didn't suck. We paid her to come out to our neighborhood for a couple hours,
and we got a ton of pictures of everyone. It turned out pretty well.

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toby
I just sent you an email. I'm getting married in about three weeks and I
didn't like any of the wedding website options, so I built my own.

My favorite part was the interactive guest list, so everyone can see who else
is coming (and who they might be interested in, etc.)

(sorry, I can't put the link here, it has an RSVP form and I don't want it to
get too spammed)

~~~
lief79
Congratulations!

What's it written in, and what's required for hosting? I'm getting married in
5 weeks, but I've let my new job and house take priority over creating the
website.

Hmmm ... is there no way to private message someone on here?

edit* If you are willing and you have a reddit account, could you private
message me so we can take this offline? I have the same user name. Thank you.

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ErrantX
Im guess ing you were the guy asking about this last night on chatterous.

I'll be interested to see how this goes forward (though I dont think users
from this community will be great test subjects) and if you can fix out the
main problems.

Good luck :D

~~~
midnightmonster
Actually, I've never used chatterous, so I guess that wasn't me. Curious what
you were discussing, though!

Which main problems were you thinking of?

~~~
ErrantX
That's interesting - there was a guy on last night that was asking peoples
opinions on trying to tap the wedding planning market...

The main problem that was pointed out is that your dealing with a very
emotional point in someones life. Or as Troy Simpson noted last night
(accurately):

> its something about how society projects it as the 'most important day of
> your life' that makes everyone involved really demanding and evil

At the end of the day if something your building interrupts the process or
screws up to "spoil things" (using that term loosely - with the emotions
involved spoiled could have a very diverse/off-the-wall meaning) then you
could end up being blamed...

However it was also pointed out people are willing to lavish money on weddings
- so if is has value people are very likely to pay :D

I guess it's a perfect example of taking the rough with the smooth!

(the history of last nights, very brief, chat is here:
<http://www.chatterous.com/hnyc/history/>)

EDIT: I'd like to add I love the idea btw! One thing about weddings is their
one of the few mass-family and inter-family "joy" occasions. Lots of people
together having fun. Now that more and more people are online and interacting
it's a great opportunity to extend the "fun" either side of the wedding day
too.

~~~
midnightmonster
I'll just have to make sure the site doesn't screw up :-)

As far as _planning_ , I see my project as facilitating some forms of it in a
very lightweight way--not a "serious" planning app. I'm going for beautiful,
fun, informative, and friendly.

The convergence of interest in this space is--interesting! I just got an email
from someone saying he'd like to help, except he's working on a competitor.

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ieatpaste
I know you want to look in your online communities, but I have a friend who is
a wedding photographer who can introduce couples with specific dates. Let me
know if interested.

~~~
midnightmonster
Yes, please--really, the idea is any personal connection so people have some
reason to trust it when there's nothing but a blog post yet.

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gammons
I am getting married oct 13th. gammons gmail com

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lief79
I'm getting married in 5 weeks, but I'll be happy to provide feedback, if you
need it.

Chris Erickson

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vaksel
you should probably try looking on a bunch of wedding forums. Would get a ton
more users

~~~
midnightmonster
True, I'm sure. I only want a handful of users for alpha (too many to
communicate with and I won't make my schedule), and I wanted to ask in my own
communities first.

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vaksel
wouldn't that give you selection bias?

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teej
He's not looking for a statistically valid sample, he's looking for alpha
users to try out his new thing.

~~~
vaksel
not what I meant, I meant that he might get the wrong type of feedback,
because the brides that people on a site like HN know have different
priorities compared to the "airhead" type bride on one of the wedding forums

~~~
midnightmonster
"Hey, I'm new at wedding forums dot com, but I wonder if any of you airheads
want to try out my new wedding website service?" Contempt for customers is
always a great place to start.

Seriously, if it turns out my alpha users are disproportionately nerdy (which
adjective I use with all love) and/or smart _and_ they turn out to be
misleading about what "airheads" want, then I guess I'll have built the
wedding website service for nerdy/smart couples. I can think of worse
positions to be in.

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antidaily
i'm starting a gift site. different idea entirely but we should compare notes.

~~~
midnightmonster
My email's at the bottom of the page linked above. Ping me.

