They say marriages are made in heaven. Then came the wedding planners and it began to look like marriages are made by wedding planners. But the surge of matrimonial and networking sites made one believe that marriage definitely happened on the web. No matter how it happens, the happy news of a wedding come with other plans and discussions; bridal trousseau, wedding theme, venue, food, jewellery and much more.
And oh! outfit for the guests. For guests? Yes, you read it right. It is not good enough to just decide the bridal/groom and their immediate family wear. Taking the tradition of honouring the guests with a return gift forward, families are now planning designer threads for their guests.
Sure the big fat wedding spread over days is back. An Indian wedding that made news abroad saw 800 guests and 72 hours of celebrations, the high point of which was a performance by Shakira. Closer home is a fat wedding that spread itself over – not just a day or two but almost an entire week. The family of an NRI industrialist S. Ravindra who had organised this had hired a public relations agency to create the much required buzz, so that long after the wedding, the ‘events-packed' wedding remained the talk of the town.
The high points of this mega-wedding were the pre-wedding festivities and theme parties spread over four days, with mouth-watering Nizami, Bengali, Rajasthani and Punjabi cuisine. Then came a wedding where the family had a leading sari retailer set up a stall right at the venue for the guests to choose their pick from the hazaar silks. Film actors and politicians are no longer the talking point of weddings , the buzz begins with the invite itself. There was a time when silver boxes with invites became quite a routine with the richie-rich. Recent wedding invites have gone beyond that. A recent Hyderabadi invite came in a basket with four boxes that had sweets, imported chocolates, silver box, et al. Who can forget the invites sent by Allu Arjun and family for his wedding with Sneha Reddy?
The Varudu actor's wedding mandap was designed to resemble the Tirumala temple and the invites made it to the news and gossip columns. One of the invites sent across was in crème and gold and had a box of chocolates to go with it. Another invite was a framed painting of Radha-Krishna, meant to be used as a decorative piece.
But this can hardly compare with (Jr.) NTR's wedding set. The mandap alone is said to have cost a whopping 18 crore. On the net, fans are still debating on which was the costliest wedding.
A few weddings are written about or aired in the media but a few other weddings and engagements that did not make news cannot be missed. Engagement ceremonies in exotic Bali and Mauritius have all been tried and the guests come back happy as they get to fly free on chartered flights. Along with it come the traditional designer clothes for invitees.
The latest, most talked about, wedding is of a top businessman's daughter. Lots of speculations are doing the rounds as to who would perform and who would grace the occasion. Guess what is keeping the guests excited, besides the fact that they get to attend another hi-profile wedding — designer saris by Sabyasachi but only for 500 close friends. So next time you want to tell a bedtime story, make sure it's not ek tha ladka ek thi ladki who fell in love and decided to get married. In fact dialogue writers must seriously think about rephrasing shaadiwala lines of hamein bahu ek jori kapda mein bhejiye.
