I had the pleasure of being interviewed by a wonderful colleague of mine about
Indian weddings. Her name is Eileen and
she is the CEO and founder of A Simple Toast where you can create personal and
corporate gifts that are really fun. You can read more about her company at http://asimpletoast.com/.
Many of our readers are
not familiar with Indian weddings. In a nutshell, can you tell us what
makes these weddings unique?
The most prominent thing that makes Indian weddings
unique is the fact that they include multiple days of festivities. The first
few days leading up to the actual wedding day are filled with smaller
ceremonies and festivities to pamper the bride and groom and also to introduce
the two families together. Working with
a wedding that includes many days of festivities, involves working with many
vendors. Each event occurs in a
different venue and requires its own set of decorations, food, and
entertainment. Once the wedding festivities go into action, all of the vendors
involved work like a well-oiled machine working together in order to deliver
services that are above and beyond the client’s expectations.
On the wedding day, before the wedding ceremony
starts groom processes into the ceremony space usually on a horse or car (Called
a Baarat). After this there are
smaller rituals done on the groom and then the main ceremony starts with the
brides and grooms families. The ceremony lasts hours long and is based off of
ancient Vedic traditions. The ceremony occurs
in a Mandap; a raised structure that
can be very ornate. It is very dynamic
and involves participation from immediate and extended families.
Indian weddings are not based off of one main
ceremony but many smaller rituals and ceremonies that the bride and grooms
families participate in throughout a course of several days. They are filled with vibrant colors and lots
of good food!
We saw on your website
that you offer elephants for the groom. What in the world is involved in
bringing an elephant to a wedding event?
I have been asked this request many times in my
professional career. It’s actually not
as hard as you would think as there are companies out there that cater to
renting elephants for events and especially Indian weddings.
As
an event planner, maintaining a high level of security for the guests
processing in the Baarat and for the animal is always the first priority in a
process such as this so the presence of fire and police are extremely
crucial.
With that said, there is a lot of communication
involved with city officials and police and fire officials in order to secure
permits to close streets and have security present. On the flip side, there are a lot of
counties/cities and even venues that do not allow permission for elephants to
be present at events. In this case the
client has to opt for a horse or car.
A lot of clients think that it would be very
cool to have an elephant at their event without thinking about the financial
costs associated with this kind of request.
The cost to just rent the elephant can be in the thousands of dollars
without adding city permit fees and fees for having emergency services
present. In the end the client has to
think about if they really want to go through all the red tape and financial
costs to wow their guests.
In the United States
A majority of the weddings that I have done have
been in hotels and banquet halls; however Indian weddings can take place
wherever a client wants. I’ve done
weddings in parks, museums, and loft spaces.
They could also be in exotic or unique venues like boats, and
piers.
When hosting Indian weddings in some of these
venues however you have to think about the logistics very carefully. Most Indian weddings have an average guest
count of 500 people so the venue has to be able to hold this volume. In addition, 99% of these weddings involve a
horse for the baarat so the venue has
to be ok with allowing this. Aside from a few requirements, Indian weddings are
like any other wedding and can take place where any other wedding can.
What was one of the most
difficult requests you ever received?
The most difficult request that I’ve ever
received aside from the elephant would be a helicopter landing as part of the
Baarat. The problem wasn’t the request
but the avenues that we had to go through to be able to fulfill the
request. The groom wanted something
elaborate for his procession and they had already signed the venue, so the most
logical action would be to have the helicopter land in their parking lot.
We found a couple of helicopter companies that
were a perfect fit for this type of event.
We went as far as talking to the Department of Transportation in NJ to
get the proper paperwork approved, but in the end we could not deliver this
request, because we had a very hard time getting permits from the city for the
landing. The groom ended up renting an exotic car for the baarat. Sometimes fulfilling requests such as this
don’t turn out positive and it’s out of our control. These outcomes can be really disappointing as
we spent so much time trying to work with the state to work something out.
Finally, what is your
favorite part of planning weddings or events?
There
are many parts of planning weddings that I enjoy, so this is a really hard
question to narrow down. One of my
favorite parts is the look on the clients’ faces when I present them with an
idea that they love. Another, and this
might seem a little cliché, is on the day of the events. The stress-free feeling that the couple expresses
to me that they have throughout their festivities because of all of the work
that I put in is something I don’t think I will ever get used to.
