LokumLaddoo while planning our wedding

I’m getting married next year, and for a while the “plan” was just… everywhere.

Stuff in Apple Notes. Vendor names in WhatsApp. Budget in a spreadsheet that neither of us really trusted. Half the important things were said out loud once and then vanished. My fiancée would remember one piece, I’d remember another, and then we’d both sit there going “wait, did we actually book that?”

I started putting it into an app mostly so we could stop losing track of our own wedding. That’s it. Not a big vision at first. Just: can all of this live somewhere we both open without dreading it?

Then I kept thinking, there’s no way we’re the only couple dealing with this. So I kept going, and LokumLaddoo turned into something I want other people to use once it’s ready.

The name’s a bit silly. Lokum is Turkish delight, laddoo is the South Asian sweet. Our wedding sits in that mix, so the name felt right.

What it does, basically

There’s a Grand Plan, which is the full pile of things that need to happen, broken up by event and category. And there’s a Timeline, which is the same stuff sorted into Now / Next / Later.

I got weirdly stuck on that split because most wedding apps mash those together, and then everything feels late. Like you open the app and it scolds you for not researching a DJ when you still have months. That guilt flood is what I was trying to get away from.

So in ours, something is only actually overdue if you set a due date. Lead times are more like “hey, this is a good window to start,” not fake deadlines. Early on, Now stays pretty quiet. Which sounds small, but it changed how the whole thing feels.

Around that I’ve been adding the boring-but-necessary pieces: guest list, vendors, a light budget tracker, notes, RSVP setup. Onboarding can start empty, with a shorter checklist, or with a bigger master plan if you want something to react to.

For us specifically, the plan has a Nikkah at the Diyanet Center in Maryland, a Mehndi, and a reception at Lucien’s. Having our real events in there mattered more than I expected. It stopped feeling like a prototype and started feeling like our planning board.

How I’m using it right now

Mostly to dump everything that needs doing into one place and figure out what actually matters this week. I’m building the guest list, tracking vendors as they come in, and getting the invite side ready so we can send RSVPs later without inventing a process from scratch.

I don’t live in every screen. Dashboard for a quick look, Grand Plan when we’re shaping the whole thing, Timeline when we need to prioritize, Guests when the list is growing. Budget and notes when something messy shows up. The goal isn’t to be in the app all day. The goal is to stop hunting through chats for a phone number from three weeks ago.

Guests and RSVPs

Guests started as a simple list. Households, how many people, contact info, which events they’re invited to. Already better than the spreadsheet-plus-memory combo.

Then I built out invites: branded RSVP page, meal options, plus ones, email links guests can open without making an account, responses coming back in, reminders, export when catering needs numbers. That’s the part where it stops being only for us and starts being something relatives and friends actually touch.

There’s also a venue side for places that manage multiple weddings. Couples can still use it alone. I’m not making that the whole story. The center of gravity is still two people trying not to drop the ball.

Stack, if you care

Next.js, React, TypeScript, Tailwind. Firebase for auth and the database. Some server routes for sending invites and handling RSVPs. Email through Gmail. Hosted on Vercel.

I’m not going to pretend the UI was perfect from day one. An earlier version worked and looked like a tool. I spent time calming it down so it feels quieter. Mobile needed love too, because half the time you’re checking this stuff on your phone between other things.

Still private

We’re using it for our wedding while I keep iterating. It’s not public yet. Soon.

I’m not trying to launch some giant wedding platform tomorrow. I just want one place that holds the plan, doesn’t yell at you, keeps guests and vendors findable, and makes RSVPs less of a scavenger hunt.

If your planning currently lives in notes, WhatsApp, a spreadsheet, and a bunch of “I’ll remember that” moments… yeah. That’s why this exists.