Indian Weddings are the union of two families and it is considered for ever. As it is conducted only once in each lifetime, the planning starts at the birth of the daughter. Typically the bride's side is responsible for all the wedding expenses and arrangements. On this topic I had a very interesting discussion with the nephew of a very good friend of mine.
This nephew had recently attended the wedding of his sister and was explaining the arrangements. The family runs a large catering company in their hometown. The wedding arrangement including the banquet cost over Rs 2 crores ($400K). By far, it is not the most expensive wedding. In the recent past, there have been talks of wedding expense exceeding Rs 40 crores ($8 Million).
I wanted to understand how a parent could spend so much money. Apparently it is quite easy. Let us take the wedding that this nephew attended of his sister's. There were 280 dishes, of which 30 were sweets. 210 of them were absolutely perfect and the reminder had some very minor, distinguishable flaws. The banquet had a large number of themes- South Indian, Marwadi Jain, Chaat, Italian etc. The new approach is to go with parlours as opposed to stalls. The parlour gives the attendee a full and rich experience. They are decorated in the styles and colors of the said theme (Gujurati, Rajastani, Tamil etc), the servers were dressed in traditional attire, and the cooks are imported from the respective regions. The paanwallah guides you through the making process and then placed the paan directly in your mouth, so that you hands do not get dirty.
On to the decorations. A net was laid out like a dome over the entire outdoor lawn area. The net had candles and in the night only the candles were visible. There were toy helicopters flying over that continuously sprayed perfumes over the lawn area. There were parachutes with an arrangement of candles that floated over the reception for over 4 hours. Of course there were the standard floral arrangement, large LCD screens with virtual banquet themes and big tasteful cutouts. Along the way to the marriage hall, six large roadside billboards simply said "ABC Family Welcomes You". As with IPL matches, there were a healthy load of cheerleaders dressed in Kingfisher costumes to welcome the guests.
The barat came on three elephants that were fully decorated. The bridge came in a palanquin with a Rajasthani entourage and a leading announcers with traditional horns. The wedding invitation was gold lined with a fine rosewood box containing exotic dry fruits from around the world. During the reception, an exclusive area reserved for VVIP and close family members had a full featured bar and private comfort area.
Lastly the sangeet was performed by Bollywood stars with dancers shipped from Bombay. Of course a wedding is never complete without a Bachelor/Bachelorette night. In this case, it was called a Youngster night.
This nephew had recently attended the wedding of his sister and was explaining the arrangements. The family runs a large catering company in their hometown. The wedding arrangement including the banquet cost over Rs 2 crores ($400K). By far, it is not the most expensive wedding. In the recent past, there have been talks of wedding expense exceeding Rs 40 crores ($8 Million).
I wanted to understand how a parent could spend so much money. Apparently it is quite easy. Let us take the wedding that this nephew attended of his sister's. There were 280 dishes, of which 30 were sweets. 210 of them were absolutely perfect and the reminder had some very minor, distinguishable flaws. The banquet had a large number of themes- South Indian, Marwadi Jain, Chaat, Italian etc. The new approach is to go with parlours as opposed to stalls. The parlour gives the attendee a full and rich experience. They are decorated in the styles and colors of the said theme (Gujurati, Rajastani, Tamil etc), the servers were dressed in traditional attire, and the cooks are imported from the respective regions. The paanwallah guides you through the making process and then placed the paan directly in your mouth, so that you hands do not get dirty.
On to the decorations. A net was laid out like a dome over the entire outdoor lawn area. The net had candles and in the night only the candles were visible. There were toy helicopters flying over that continuously sprayed perfumes over the lawn area. There were parachutes with an arrangement of candles that floated over the reception for over 4 hours. Of course there were the standard floral arrangement, large LCD screens with virtual banquet themes and big tasteful cutouts. Along the way to the marriage hall, six large roadside billboards simply said "ABC Family Welcomes You". As with IPL matches, there were a healthy load of cheerleaders dressed in Kingfisher costumes to welcome the guests.
The barat came on three elephants that were fully decorated. The bridge came in a palanquin with a Rajasthani entourage and a leading announcers with traditional horns. The wedding invitation was gold lined with a fine rosewood box containing exotic dry fruits from around the world. During the reception, an exclusive area reserved for VVIP and close family members had a full featured bar and private comfort area.
Lastly the sangeet was performed by Bollywood stars with dancers shipped from Bombay. Of course a wedding is never complete without a Bachelor/Bachelorette night. In this case, it was called a Youngster night.
ha ha .. the helicopters spraying perfume is a nice touch .... maybe we should see if they spray baygon with the same panache !we once got invited to a wedding where the card was like a telephone directory they had receptions in 4 countries . it came with a silver tray and sweets. we had no idea who the groom or the bride was and who had invited us .so we watched a medley of performances by family members set to music by a london DJ . when it came for the uncle´s disco treat we quietly left the gift on a chair and fled !
ReplyDeleteHope you connected with that nephew so you can get invited to the next wedding in their family ! I am sure you would just love the food part ! :-)
ReplyDeleteIf you have seen some programs on Wealth TV, you wouldn't be surprised at how money is spent on food or for that matter on a variety of other things ! Indians do spend a lot on the food, though !
Take a look at this :
http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/shweta-and-mukul-get-hitched-in-thailand/215439
Wow Dabba, see what you have to look forward to.
ReplyDelete