Own Your Wedding (“we”, “us”) runs www.ownyourwedding.co.za, a marketplace that helps couples find wedding venues in the Western Cape and helps venues receive enquiries. This policy explains how we handle your personal information under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).
1. Who we are
We are the responsible party for the personal information described in this policy.
- Operator: Own Your Wedding
- Email: info@ownyourwedding.co.za
2. What we collect
When you create an account
Your name, email address, password and whether you are a couple or a venue. Your password is stored in hashed form by our sign-in provider, so we can never see it. You can also add a phone number and a profile photo.
If you sign in with Google or Facebook, we receive your name, email address and profile picture from them. We don't receive your password, friends list, posts or anything else.
If you're a couple
- Enquiries you send: your wedding date, guest count, message and contact details.
- Venues you shortlist.
- Messages you exchange with venues, and site visits you book.
If you list a venue
- Your listing: description, pricing, capacity, amenities, address, map location and photos.
- Your business contact details.
- Enquiries you receive and the status you give them.
- Credit purchases and lead charges. Card payments are processed by Paystack; we never see or store your card details.
Other forms
- The contact form: your name, email address and message.
- Our newsletter: your email address and the updates you've chosen.
- The waitlist for venues outside our launch area: venue and contact details.
Collected automatically
- Venue page views. We record a one-way scrambled (hashed) version of your IP address, not the address itself, so that view counts can't be inflated.
- Spam protection. When you send an enquiry or use the contact form, we record your IP address and the time, and use it only to limit repeated submissions.
- Error reports. When something breaks, technical details (browser, page, error) are sent to our error-monitoring provider. It is set up not to receive your IP address or account details.
- Analytics and session recordings, only if you accept them. See Cookies.
3. How we use it
- To run your account and the marketplace.
- To send your enquiry and contact details to the venue you chose, and pass their replies back to you.
- To send service emails, such as enquiry confirmations, new-lead alerts, listing approvals and receipts.
- To review venue listings before they go live, and to keep the platform free of fraud and spam.
- To understand how the site is used and fix problems.
- To send our newsletter, only if you opt in. Every newsletter has an unsubscribe link.
- To meet legal obligations, such as keeping financial records.
We rely on one of these grounds each time: it's needed to provide the service you asked for, you've given consent (analytics, session recordings and the newsletter), we have a legitimate interest (reviewing listings, preventing spam, fixing errors), or the law requires it.
We don't sell your personal information, and we don't make automated decisions about you.
4. Who we share it with
The venue you enquire with
When you send an enquiry, the venue receives your enquiry and contact details so it can reply. Our terms only allow venues to use them to respond to your enquiry and arrange your booking, not for marketing.
Service providers
These companies process information on our behalf and only as we instruct:
- Supabase: database and sign-in
- Vercel: website hosting
- Cloudinary: venue photo storage
- Resend: email delivery
- Google: maps, address search and Google sign-in
- Meta: Facebook sign-in
- Paystack: card payments
- PostHog: analytics and session recordings, only with your consent
- Sentry: error monitoring, and session replays only with your consent
Authorities
We disclose information to authorities only where the law requires us to.
5. Information sent outside South Africa
Several of these providers store or process information outside South Africa, including in the European Union and the United States. We only use providers that are bound by data protection terms giving a level of protection comparable to POPIA.
6. Cookies and similar technologies
- Essential: keeping you signed in, remembering your shortlist on this device, and remembering your cookie choice. The site doesn't work without these.
- Optional, only if you accept: PostHog analytics (pages visited and clicks) and session recordings from PostHog and Sentry, which help us see where the site is confusing or broken. Recordings mask what you type into forms.
You can change your choice at any time.
7. How long we keep it
- Account information: while your account is open.
- After you close your account, we erase or anonymise your personal information within 30 days. The exception is records the law requires us to keep, such as payment and billing records, which we keep for as long as required (usually five years).
- Newsletter subscriptions: until you unsubscribe.
8. How we protect it
All traffic to the site is encrypted. Database access rules ensure each account can only see its own information. Card details never reach our servers. Access to personal information is limited to the people who need it to run the platform.
9. Your rights
Under POPIA you can:
- ask what personal information we hold about you, and get a copy;
- ask us to correct or delete it;
- object to us processing it, including for direct marketing, at any time;
- withdraw any consent you've given;
- complain to the Information Regulator at inforegulator.org.za.
To make a request, email info@ownyourwedding.co.za from the address on your account. We may need to confirm your identity first, and we'll respond within 30 days.
10. Deleting your account and data
- Sign in and open Settings. Couples can find it in the account menu; venues can find it in the venue dashboard.
- Choose Close my account and confirm.
Your venue listings go offline and newsletters stop straight away, and you're signed out. We then erase or anonymise your personal information within 30 days, apart from records the law requires us to keep.
Can't sign in? Email info@ownyourwedding.co.za from the address on your account, with the subject “Delete my data”.
Signed up with Facebook or Google? Removing Own Your Wedding in your Facebook or Google account settings stops them sending us your information, but it doesn't delete what we already hold. To delete that, use the steps above.
11. Children
The platform is for adults planning weddings and for venue businesses. It isn't intended for anyone under 18, and we don't knowingly collect their information.
12. Changes to this policy
We'll update the date at the top when this policy changes, and email account holders about significant changes.
13. Contact us
Questions about this policy or your information: info@ownyourwedding.co.za.
