Is your big day knocking on your door? If you haven’t planned anything yet and already have dreamed so much about your wedding, here are some ideas you can go for.
Now for a wedding, there are lots of things to worry about. Firstly, the venue is very important and so are the decorations, catering, garments, makeups. But the one thing we need to decide first is the budget. A wedding mostly depends on the budget and the rest is about spending it right.
The Budget
Sometimes it becomes very hard to choose the right amount of money to spend on our wedding. As for us, we Indians have at least three days of the ceremony. So it gets even harder to determine the budget.
What usually we do, we go on anticipating a lot about this big day and don’t really care about the expenses. But when the day finally comes closer and we actually start doing all the arrangements… our dream wedding might seem a bit out of our reach.
At first, you need to decide whether you are going to contact a wedding planner or not. If you go to any wedding- planner then they will give you different budgets and you can choose whatever package you can afford. Once you choose, they will take the whole responsibility for your wedding.
Some Popular Wedding Planners & Their Packages
- Hiya Wedding Planner ( starting package 2,00,000)
- Pulmad ( starting from 7 lakhs)
- Asparagus Wedding and Event planner ( package starts from 2, 00,000)
The list goes on, but if you are not thinking about consulting any planner, then you’ll have to plan for the ceremony in a different way. Then the budget will depend on what place you choose, how many people you invite etc.
Invitations
Once you are done with the budget, you need to fix a venue. While choosing all these stuff, don’t rush into it. It’s your wedding so take your time and decide which things are at the top of your priority list.
As the marriage is about two of you spending your lives together, talk to your partner and decide whatever you like. Start reading wedding magazines. This will help you to get more organized.
Before deciding the venue of your wedding, sit with your family and make a guest list. Put all the people from your work, family, friend-circle in it and then count. If you have a small, private wedding planned in your mind, then narrow down the list by only including people who are very close to you.
You should always count how many children are there in the list and who will be allotted a plus-one.
Once you have the guest list ready, now it’s time for you to send out the invitations. Start with choosing wedding cards. If you’re consulting any planner then ask them to show you invitation cards otherwise, go to a nearby shop and choose one.
Some shops allow you to customize the designs according to the customers, so you can go for that as well. Besides, there’s this huge range of wedding cards that you’ll find online. Also, do check those out… and then choose the perfect one for you.
Once you’ve chosen the one, print them and send them out to the addresses. You can also use social media and invite people who live far away.
Selecting A Venue
Now that people have been invited, focus on fixing the venue as soon as possible. Start doing these preparations almost 7-8 months before the day you picked as your big day. It will help you to do the things in a slow, steady and neat way.
If you’re interested in having the wedding inside four walls, then you better go for clubs or banquet halls. Some of these offer great deals, and you can have beautiful decorations according to your choice. Other than this, you can go for an outdoor wedding.
You can visit sites like Justdial and find open-air wedding spots easily in the city. Sometimes the budget goes high if you choose an outdoor wedding.
Shopping Shopping
Once you are done with the venue, it’s time for the part you were waiting for …..shopping. This is just as fun as it sounds. We usually need to shop for everyone in the family, because, for us Indians, it’s not only about two people getting married.
So it becomes easier if you choose one place to do all the shopping from. You can go to a shopping mall and try different shops out there. For sarees you can go for places such as Adi Mohini Mohan Kanjilal, Priya Gopal Bishoyi, Indian silk house or you can choose any boutique you like.
For ornaments go for well-known jewelry shops across India. You can shop from P.C Chandra Jewellers, Anjali Jewellers, Ramesh Chandra Parekh Jewelers etc.
It’s your day so go experimenting with things. If you are planning on wearing saree on your wedding day, then go for lehenga or salwar on your sangeet or reception. Also, do the same with ornaments.
We usually focus a lot on our traditional attire and tend to stick to our usual look on our wedding day, so you always have the reception to look different. Talk to your partner about this and decide costumes that you both agree on such as both wearing traditional or western!
This should be fun.
Shopping For Others
Remember another thing you need to take care of is the rest of the shopping as you’ll be needing to shop for different rituals of any Indian wedding. For example on the day of any Bengali wedding there comes rituals like ‘gaye holud’, ‘dodhi mongol‘ etc. Before this very day, there is ‘aiburovaat‘.
All these days need different attires so you need to be very careful while shopping. Apart from these, there is ‘tattwa’ in which you will be sending gifts to your partner’s home. While choosing them, take help of your fiancé. Talk to him and then decide.
Now not only garments and pieces of jewelry, but there are also other stuff both the bride and the groom will be needing. Make a list of that stuff and get them from any nearest superstore in your locality. Make a list of your own things and also get them so you stay always organized.
Sometimes on the wedding day, it becomes very hectic for a bride to keep her mind cool and calm. Anyone can lose personal things amidst the chaos. So keep a bag always close to you that contains mostly your personal things. So do make a list of that stuff and keep them aside.
Don’t let them get mixed with other stuff as this will be your constant.
If you don’t own one, buy a small handbag for it. For example, you can keep a body-mist there, wet-wipes, your cell phone, a hanky, some makeup products etc. Carry this around to your new home as well, it’ll be a great help there.
Bridal Makeup
On the very day we all want to look our best. For that what you can do, is you can contact any parlor and fix an appointment with them two-three weeks before your wedding. Have a good beauty sleep every day and maintain a healthy routine.
Decoration
Now that you are almost done with your shopping, it’s time to pay attention to the decoration of the wedding venue. A lot of thoughts come to our mind when we talk about the decoration. Starting from the lights, flowers, the stage- everything need to be on point.
Flowers
For flowers, which plays a great role in every Indian wedding, go to your nearest flower market. For further decorations such as flower gates, there are some good flower decorators. You may contact them as well.
You can use flowers in different creative ways. If you are planning for an outdoor wedding then you have more opportunities to decorate it just the way you want.
The budget of the decoration will depend on the variety of flowers used for the decoration. Decorate the entrance with an all-floral wreath. The place where you’ll perform the rituals, the arch or whatever, make it something to stare at. You can try flower covered trellis. You can also experiment with bright and bold colors to make it work for any season or setting.
Lighting
Lighting is one of the most important things in your wedding venue decoration. It can make a small space appear as a bigger and brighter one. Chandeliers are always there to make the wedding sophisticated so you can go for one.
Also arrange the lights according to the place where you and your fiancé will sit, so you can get the best lights while getting pictured. Play with different lights and in case of outdoor wedding drape a small chain of lights around canopy or tree.
Also, you can use candles to make the whole thing sober and more beautiful.
The Mandap
On the wedding day, where the bride and the groom perform the rituals is called mandap. Be creative and decorate this place in a beautiful way. Try out colored silk clothes to cover up the canopy area… or you can cover it with flowers.
Car
Once you are done with all these, now think about the car. In Indian weddings, the groom is usually being brought to the wedding and for this, a car is needed to be sent to his home. Usually, the car gets decorated with exotic flowers such as roses and bouquets but then you can always think out of the box.
Go experimental with satin fabric threads and cover some places up. Use ribbons and trust me, this will be one of a kind.
Food
Now, how can we forget about the food!
It is one of the most important parts of the wedding ceremonies. There are hundreds of caterers to choose from. However, as long as it’s food… trust the reviews and book one for the entire ceremony.
For Indians, deciding the menu is probably the hardest thing to do as far as wedding planning is concerned. You can try non-Indian appetizers, pastries, desserts etc. As we have the wedding day, then sangeet, reception day… try out different menus each day of the ceremony.
For example, if one day you are going for chole and naan, then go for different type of bread for the next day. For appetizers, also try various Indian snacks like Pao-Vaji, Phuchka (panipuri), Kebabs, Meatballs, Cheese Balls etc.
While choosing think about both the vegetarian and non-vegetarian guests. Have plenty of items for both of these… and try out different dishes.
Here are some ideas to keep your food and beverage budget in check.
- Certain menu items raise the catering bill. Decide your menu carefully.
- Ask your caterer to buy in-season vegetables. This always brings magic to the taste.
- You may try different dishes from all over the world. Fresh meats and fishes are always mouthwatering.
- Always have coffee and cha ready for the guests. If you want, then set up a counter for hard drinks and soft drinks as well.
Above all serve the food in a very organized way. Have plenty of seats for guests to sit while eating.
Photography
Your wedding might stay captured forever in your heart but all of us want to keep hard copies of these valuable memories, right?
Something to frame and keep inside Little albums or to have on the walls of our bedroom! A wedding is incomplete without videos and photographs. The best way to do it is to contact a professional photographer who’ll do the job with love and care.
You can find some really good packages sometimes.
Breathe
After hearing all these, weddings must seem little hectic to all of us. But once done right, there will be only good memories left to cherish. Once all these ceremonies are over, know your wedding isn’t.
There is still the honeymoon left so get started.
Plan your dream vacation and get going. If you want to go on your honeymoon right after your wedding… then you better start planning it earlier. Choosing a place, booking tickets might take a looooong time.
Now you are all good to go. Don’t take too much stress and take your time to plan your wedding in a unique way. Have a great wedding.
