There isn't any festive occasion as an Asian wedding - regardless of one's community or background, for South Asians, a family wedding is a big deal! After all, Indian weddings aren't simply the wedding of two individuals - but of two entire families (and families in the Indian lexicon could number anything between three and three hundred people).
A standard wedding could stretch over a whole week - involving various individual functions such as the mehndi evening, the sangeet , the cocktail reception, the bachelor and spinster parties and finally, the wedding and reception.
When it comes to the final night however, it is a case of the best being reserved for last. The opulence and grandeur of a well planned Indian wedding, right from the platform bedecked in flowers, to the bride in her shimmering lehenga standing next to the turbaned groom, is truly an occasion to remember.
To plan a wedding-to-remember however, is a specialist's task. And that's where the hordes of wedding planners, caterers, decorators and designers come into picture. These are specialists, who negotiate the difference between making your wedding just another wedding or the wedding of the season.
Often at the end of it all, one might wonder whether the whole affair was worth it. Does the success of a marriage depend on the opulence of a wedding? Or are the relationship and mutual values of trust, honesty and compatibility more important?
On one hand, we could make the argument that sense lies in simplicity; but for most people a wedding is once-in-a-lifetime event. And as such, it should be worth remembering over a lifetime. As the beginning of a very special relationship that would last through one's life, it deserves the best of pomp and grandeur that we could muster. What better way to start a new life - than with a suitably big bang!
Simple weddings are a dime a dozen. Each wedding has essentially the same ingredients - a baraat , weddings feasts, marriage halls - and anyone with time on their hands can churn out a wedding with all of these. To move beyond the mundane, though, it takes a reputed wedding planner to transform the same ingredients and produce something truly magical. What is valuable and desirable is subjective to each individual at the end of the day. Being marooned on a beach might be one's conception of an ideal holiday, whilst being perfectly abhorrent to someone who likes skiing. In the same way, it is difficult to imagine that everyone values grandeur, or that everyone values simplicity. At the end of the day as the bride or groom to-be it is your choice as to what sort of a wedding you want - after all, it is your special day, isn't it?
