With the industry growing at an average rate of 25 per cent per annum, the lavishness doled out by Indians on weddings is just getting larger this season as exhibitors and even designers from Pakistan entering the market to target the customers who have begun shopping for the post October marriage season.
   
“The weddings grow larger only. The latest trend is now to fly out the ‘barat’ comprising 250-350 people to Kaula Lampur or Singapore to have the wedding there,” says Tarun Sarda, CEO, Vintage Group, Vivaha Interactive, the organizers of Vivaha exhibitions.

Citing seven such weddings which have taken place in foreign locations such as Sunway Lagoon and the Palace of the Golden Horses in Malayasia recently, he adds, “Everyone is trying to out do each other. With the property and stock boom, India has seen new generation of millionaires coming up and the lavishness that they indulge in weddings are just mind-blowing.”

Gone are the days when great weddings were the ones to be held at some five star hotel with baratis trooping in fanning Rs 10 bundles, points out wedding organisers and industry experts.

“With increased money at their disposal and more awareness, people now don’t just want a five star wedding. The Mittals and Sahara’s along with the Chatwal weddings have changed the way, one would view a grand wedding,” says Saurabh Sen Gupta, Head, event management, Kimaya which organizes individual events like ladies sangeet with Bollywood singers performing and bachelor parties along with theme parties for the marriages.

“The pandlas are more like film sets now. Theme parties are what really excites everyone. With fashion designers like JJ Valya and Ritu Kumar focusing on marraige trousseau more, one cannot even imagine how much can one spend on even individual ceremonies. Moreover, with even some Bollywood set designers stepping in to design marriage pandals, the grand Indian wedding is just getting bigger,” he adds.
    
Industry experts now point out that a good wedding now takes place for around a crore and a half, even though the average wedding expenditure for a middle class family comes to about Rs 15 lakhs without the jewelery.

Recently, the The Delhi Gurdwara Management Committee, the citys top Sikh body, had told the capitals nearly one million Sikhs to boycott weddings that are not teetotaler, vegetarian and over by noon to cut down the cost involved in the usual lavish sikh weddings. While similar measures are being considered in other Indian cities, wedding planners and wedding exhibition organisers point out that such a directive will not in anyway stop the grandness of weddings.

“Look around, young Indians know that marriage is usually a one time opportunity and hence, want to have a great wedding if not a lavish one. Its more like to each its own. The notice put up up the Gurdwara committee will not have much impact on wedding expenditure,” says Kiran Sharma, Director, ITE Group which organised the just concluded Bride and Groom 2007, exhibition in the capital.

It is not just an industry which caters to the tentwallas or the flower shops or the catering firms but even high-end car lending companies to who’s who of the Indian film industry and even the new age photograph firms who easily charge upto Rs 2-3 laks for a wedding album.

“People have money and now want to tell others that they have it. The increasing trend is to have a bollywood star. So,  its not surprising that many leading Bollywood stars are more than eager to dance to the occassion but at a good price,” says Vijay Arora, Director, Touchwood Entertainment which specialises in organising entertainment for such marraiges and adding that the firm has seen a growth rate of 350 per cent in the last two to three years.
    
He adds, “An average evening with a reality show star along with a dance troupe would cost Rs 3 lakh and above while if you want to bring in big names of Indian cinema, then the rates can touch the sky.”

Orgainsers point out that Indian weddings are the most expensive and lavish in the world.

“India is happening and Indians are willing to pay for the expertise to send a style statement through an event like a wedding. A wedding for an Indian is probably the biggest and most serious event in his or her lifetime,” says Bini Kohli, of Pace Weddings, a wedding organising firm in the capital.

Wedding have now become specialised with even some foreign universities offering diploma in bridal consultancy among others.

“The industry is now slowly getting organised with the roles played by wedding planners, exhibition firms providing everything from make up to jwellery under one roof and with other big players now stepping into,” says Urvashi Sharma, a wedding planner based in Gurgaon.
    
“Soon there would be more Mittals and Chatwal style marriages which continued for 10 days among lavish settings happening in India. The best is yet to come,” she adds.

From DNAindia

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A BIG fat Indian wedding. That’s what most of us have, full of noise, loads of food and gifts, gold and silk-draped aunts, rituals and ceremonies, priests, havans andhomas, screaming kids, music, and nosy relatives who maliciously eye even the straw offered with the mandatory cool drink.

The bottomline of the wedding — a question of izzat andmaana-maryadé.

But organising a decent wedding here is tougher than the blessed state of matrimony the couple is stepping into. Starting with the selection of the wedding card, trousseau, venue, bookings, transport, confirmation, menu, gifts, guest list, orchestra, arranging for the relatives’ stay… the “to do” list is staggering.

The oft-quoted Kannada proverb, “Mané katti nodu, maduvé maadi nodu“, throws the glove of challenge in your face and hints at the impending torture — try building a house or organising a wedding…

Professional touch

No wonder such rigours of organising and planning weddings have engendered a new breed of wedding planners and organisers in the city. Dream weddings, theme weddings — they do them all. With tie-ups and contracts with wholesalers and service providers, these wedding planners give that professional “management touch” to your wedding and save you the hassle of running around and worrying. Instead, all you do is, even as you spend time with guests and relatives, worry about the money…

J Lo in The Wedding Planner and Vijay Raaza as Dubey in Monsoon Wedding may have brought romance of wedding planners alive on-screen. And the hype around the Mittal and Sahara family weddings where crores were spent only added mirch to the masala of weddings.

Have money, will spend is the motto here. Ahem… and we’re told it’s a good way to launder that black money. An unforgettable wedding as far as exotica goes in Bangalore, insist those in the know, was the one in a Sindhi business family a few years ago. The wedding eve was a riot in a five-star hotel where the bride was dressed as a queen seated on a golden throne, with hersakhis fanning her even as the male guests — complete with jasmine garlands twisted around their forearms — ogled the belly dancers. The bride’s mother, clad in a sari of sheer gold, hired young college girls to welcome guests Mughal style, applying attar on their hands.

Bangalore is only now and slowly warming up to the idea of big-time spending and lavish glamour weddings at the Palace Grounds and in five-star hotels. South Indians, who have hitherto preferred traditional and austere weddings, are also going in for a makeover. So you have North Indian customs like mehendi ceremony and sangeet in South Indian wedding, giving wedding organisers much more to do.

In-house planners

Ironically, every Indian family has always had in-house wedding planners — aunts and uncles and grandmas who’ve married off enough people to know what it takes to make a wedding go off without a hitch. So most families would still sniff at the idea of hiring some “outsider” to get involved in something so personal. But in an age of nuclear families which find little time to do the endless running around, wedding planners are the professionals who come to their rescue.

Says Srikant Kanoi of Nupur Dreamz that’s been organising weddings in Bangalore for the last five years: “I’ve done weddings for people from all walks of life. But right now it’s young IT couples who come to us to organise weddings. Most of them are from nuclear families that find it difficult organising everything. A number of people who have newly settled in the city also hire wedding planners.”

Cautious Bangaloreans

Bangaloreans on an average are willing to spend up to Rs. 5 lakh on a wedding bash while in places like Delhi, people are likely to splurge Rs. 3 lakh on floral décor alone! The services Srikant offers range from organising the priest and the havan kund, to chartering transport and decorating the nuptial bed! “We take care of everything from A to Z,” he says. The company has franchises in Coimbatore and Chennai too.

Fashion guru Prasad Bidappa is all the rage when it comes to putting together exotic weddings. Prasad, who does around 15 weddings a year, mostly of NRIs and large local weddings that need a lot of co-ordination, is right now working on a wedding that will happen in Dubai. “NRIs mostly want super-traditional weddings. Most of them flock to Bangalore — the most happening wedding destination. They value the Indian culture more than we do sometimes. The locals usually want something westernised, maybe a nightclub event for the engagement.” Fashioning designer clothing for the bride and groom starts six months in advance. One wedding he did had a Vedic theme — so Vedic chants and classical music dominated the ceremonies. The groom was escorted by Kalari dancers holding an umbrella over his head. Among the rich and famous Prasad has planned for is a wedding of the royal family of Nepal.

Women too

A number of women have stepped into the business. Neetha Yashwanth who runs Chhavi Wedding Consultants, started off organising a cousin’s wedding. “After I get an enquiry, I have a first meeting with the client, find out their requirements and introduce the service providers like florists, and caterers to clients who then meet them,” she explains. Bangalore being a cosmopolitan city, Neetha says she is geared to handle any kind of wedding — North Indian, South Indian, Christian. “I do a lot of the running around. Right now I’m helping a client find a good tailor for her wedding gown.” Colour theme weddings are very much in, she says.

The number of guests, the kind of decoration asked for, the menu, and the frills decide the cost of the wedding.

Most planners can organise weddings to suit the client’s pocket — from Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 5 lakh. Organisations like Shaadiwala, a new venture, have a range of services including designer-packaged sweets, booking flight and railway tickets for guests, arranging their accommodation and the like. “We even organise sight-seeing in and around the city for them, special family portraits, gifts for guests and relatives and so on,” says Akash Gupta, a DJ-turned-event manager-turned-wedding planner.

Theme weddings

Bangalore doesn’t go in for too many of the hatke or exotic weddings, says Srikanth. Egyptian, Japanese, and vine-and-root (!) are some of the popular theme weddings he’s done. Designer garlands made of rose petals, tissue and cloth that match with the bride’sghagra, having rose petals showered on the couple, a firecracker finale — any of these could be part of dream weddings.

Avani Shah’s Dreamz Come Tru does everything from the invitation to booking the honeymoon package for the newlyweds. “Even where we don’t know the customs of the community, we have no problems; because we interact with them closely and become a part of the family.”

Days or months

Avani can plan a wedding in three days flat or take eight months labouring over details. Works happens faster when she brings a few invitation cards catering to help the client make the choice rather than have the family trudge to a store and take time to select from a mind-boggling collection.

Clearly, it’s a profitable business, despite the considerable discounts offered by wedding planners.

As for the clients, it all boils down to a status-enhancing social statement to have a well-organised wedding where the guest leaves with a smile.

by Bhumika k in The Hindu