Startup offers simple, inexpensive ‘pop-up’ weddings
“Imagine if you could just show up to your own wedding. What would that look like?”
That’s the question that Ramneek Purewal and Lisa Zhu asked themselves when they were dreaming up their recently launched business, Evented (evented.ca).
Evented offers “pop-up” elopement and wedding services for couples who want a sense of occasion and ceremony to their nuptials — but who don’t want to labour for months over elaborate and expensive blow-outs.
“We asked ourselves what was wrong in the wedding world,” said Purewal. “Obviously, it’s time-consuming and stressful.”
To alleviate that stress, Purewal and Zhu offer a variety of efficient and (mostly) intimate packages that can be customized to a couple’s taste. The Skywalk Social package, for example, gets you a wedding at the Telus World of Science with up to 20 guests for $5,240. (Most venues can accommodate more guests — some up to 200.)
Purewal and Zhu plan and coordinate the whole affair with their preferred vendors, alleviating the bride and groom’s wedding-related anxiety.
Plus, said Zhu, they do it for a great price.
“A typical Canadian wedding can cost $30,000. With us, with 200 guests, your wedding could cost $10,000,” she said. “We keep costs low because we want to focus on what’s important and what the couple will remember in 10 years, and not have the frivolous stuff or the crazy spending.”
For their prices, you aren’t getting an open bar and dancing into the wee hours. The ceremony, mini-reception and photos go for 90 minutes.
But that doesn’t mean Evented’s pop-up weddings are no-frills. Their elopement and wedding packages include things like decor (a choice of three themes), flowers, photography, a champagne toast, cake and appetizers.
Plus, add-ons run the gamut from hair and makeup to surprise honeymoon packages and live musicians.
Purewal and Zhu met at the University of Alberta’s eHUB for budding entrepreneurs.
“We both had experience with family and friends events — and that was the kind of space that we wanted to be in,” said Purewal. “From there, we decided that doing wedding planning would be fun, but it would be more fun to do something a little bit different.”
Now, the pair work out of the ATB Entrepreneur Centre on Calgary Trail — a free, shared space for up-and-coming businesses, where resources like marketing, market research and advisory meetings are available to them.
Purewal and Zhu launched Evented’s website back in November 2016, making this summer their first wedding season.
They’ve booked a few ceremonies already, including one Shh Surprise Location package, in which the couple knows the date of their wedding — but not the place.
“We’re super excited about it — we’re going to tell the limo driver where the address is, and they’re just going to show up,” said Purewal.
Purewal and Zhu found this unique surprise location themselves, but in general, venues and vendors, they said, were eager to get on board.
As a result, you can get pop-up married in the Citadel Theatre’s Shoctor Lobby, at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald or — if you fancy it — the West Edmonton Mall’s Santa Maria ship.