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The big fat Indian wedding

Forget that aunt or uncle who was the in-house wedding planner. It's the day of the professionals who can pull off dream weddings and theme weddings, reports BHUMIKA K.

In a cosmopolitan city like Bangalore, South Indian weddings are getting that distinct North Indian touch and the mehendi ceremony and sangeet are increasingly becoming a part of the celebrations.

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 and homas, 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 and maana-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 her sakhis 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's ghagra, 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.

What they take care of

From the modest to the spectacular, anything can be arranged, for a price of course.