Daddy’s Big Day
Jun 20, 2010 Marriage & Wedding Trends, Wedding People & Planners
The most successful Wedding Planners in India, are those who understand the mind of the Big Daddy. And who have ample experience in organising Big Business conferences and events. Parthip Thyagarajan of WeddingSutra.com wrote this article for Times of India Crest
Mumbai’s la-di-dah circles still talk about the dream wedding Parmeshwar Godrej organised for her eldest child Tanya Godrej Dubash, over a decade ago. Parmeshwar, for the circle was the superwoman- super stylish and talented, highly enterprising and ambitious, and a supermom who organised an affair that oozed style and elegance. Today, supermoms don’t receive credit for hosting the Great Indian Wedding. Quite often it’s an event management agency and the super successful Dads who bask in the glory. Not surprisingly, agencies who have experience in organising large business and trade conferences are leaders in the wedding management space. They may not understand the mind of the mom, but they sure know what the bride’s daddy wants. The teams work round-the-clock over several months, to organise for him a world conference scale event, so his VIP guests experience magic in a fairy tale setting.
How can any article on the Great Indian Wedding be complete, without a reference to UK based Lakshmi Mittal who showcased the Great Indian Wedding to everyone around the globe. For his daughter Vanisha’s marriage to Amit Bhatia over 1,000 guests from all over the world were invited with 20-page-thick silver-cased invitation cards. Events over five days were staged in some of France’s most famous settings.
Many celebrities including Raveena Tandon have got married at one of the Palace Hotels in Rajasthan, but the celebration hosted by US Hotelier Sant Chatwal for his son Vikram’s marriage to Delhi businesswoman Priya Sachdev was most talked about. Chatwal and Delhi-based Wedding Planner Vandana Mohan gave hundreds of guests, a never-before wedding experience spread across three cities.
South Mumbai businessman Vinod Nayar was suddenly in the limelight, when news of his son Arun Nayar’s marriage to Liz Hurley was finalised. After the much-hyped wedding in Jodhpur, Nayar was scheduled to host a post-wedding party for the who’s who in Mumbai, but word went around about the huge misunderstanding between Nayar senior and junior in Jodhpur because of which the much-awaited party in Mumbai was cancelled.
‘Bawa Villa’ a home in Khandala received national media coverage all because Shilpa Shetty got married there. The villa owner, Hotelier GS Bawa, was not distantly related to Shilpa Shetty, but Shilpa was like a ‘daughter’ to him. Bawa’s daughter Kiran Bawa was soon recognised as the ‘best wedding planner’ who in typical desi style didn’t manage a wedding as a profession, but as a gift for someone she and her family loves.
When Swatee Jayaswal’s wedding was fixed with Bangalore’s Lalit Tayal, Nagpur business magnate Manoj Jayaswal hired Ahmedabad-based Red Events which specialises in international destination weddings to organise for approximately 700 guests, a luxury wedding experience at the Grande Laguna and the Banyan Tree in Phuket. All the Jayaswal family members glittered in the most expensive, ornate and colourful lehengas and sherwanis—the picture perfect photographs showed that the Big Indian Family can afford to host a Big Fat Wedding anywhere in the world.
Tags: Arun Nayar, Bawa Villa, Big Fat Indian Wedding, GS Bawa, Kiran Bawa, Lakshmi Mittal, Manoj Jayaswal, Parmeshwar Godrej, Red Events, Sant Chatwal, Swatee Jayaswal, Tanya Godrej Dubash, Vandana Mohan
Who is The Wedding Planner to Bollywood Superstars?
Nov 22, 2009 Celebrity Wedding Pictures, Wedding People & Planners
Delhi’s top wedding planners Geeta Samuel, Meher Sarid, Vandana Mohan are more in the news vis-a-vis the prominent wedding planners of Mumbai– Aditya Motwane of Percept, Gurlein Manchanda Puri and Martin Da Costa of Seventy. The reason is obvious—while loads of money is spent in Mumbai, Delhiites truly enjoy themselves at the big, fat wedding and their city designers set the trend for bridal wear and wedding décor.
Talking of Mumbai, if we asked you to name one or a few Wedding Planners who cater to Bollywood— can you name even one planner? In all probability your answer is ‘don’t know’. Interesting na, considering that Bollywood weddings get talked about for long. So you’ll remember the designer who did the clothes, the bride’s makeup artist or the mehendiwallih but you won’t know the name of the Wedding Planner. Abhi-Ash, Sanjay-Manyata, Aamir-Kiran, Fardeen-Natasha, Hrithik-Suzanne, Kajol-Devgan, Twinkle-Akshay, Madhuri-Nene— perhaps, none of them even hired the services of a professional wedding planner. They took the help of their friends to put together everything and being networked with event management walas they had plenty of resources on hand.
We don’t know if Shilpa Shetty-Raj Kundra have hired a professional event management agency to manage the affair at Khandala and Grand Hyatt—but the woman who has emerged as Shilpa Shetty’s unofficial Wedding Planner is the hugely ambitious Kiran Bawa—almost unknown in the business and social circuit till a few years ago, the franchisee of VLCC in Mumbai and daughter of the owner of Hotel Bawa International, Kiran shot into the limelight when she teamed up with Shilpa to launch Iosis, the upmarket Spa. Kiran and Shilpa have plans to open many more spas and salons throughout India.
Not only is the wedding being held at Kiran Bawa’s home, Kiran has been Shilpa’s spokesperson too. So here’s the input from Kiran, on Shilpa’s picks and the Spa services for the wedding guests at the wedding venue.
Clothes
Shilpa and Raj both chose Delhi based designers. Shilpa’s clothes are all by Tarun Tahiliani. Raj has chosen Shantanu and Nikhil. At the mehendi Shilpa wore a very un-traditional hot pink Swarovski crystals kaftan. For the sangeet she chose a Anarkali churidar kurta. Her wedding saree is a traditional bunt saree, in burgundy and red. For the reception, she’s wearing a saree which looks more like a gown with as many as eight thousand crystals stitched to it. Raj is wearing a black short sherwani with pants.
Music
Shilpa and Raj danced to Teri Ore from Singh is King and the choreographer for the Sangeet was Ganesh Hegde. Daler Mehendi also performed at the function. A Hawaii-themed mehendi ceremony preceded the sangeet.
Wedding
The Wedding with 150 guests was a mix of Punjabi and Bunt traditions. The sehrabandi, chuda and kalire ceremony was held and Raj arrived in a chariot to the wedding venue. The wedding was solemnized in the traditional style of the Bunt community. Spa and beauty therapists from Kiran’s spas and salons were present to provide massage and styling services to the guests.
Food
The lavish buffet at the wedding comprised Hyderabadi and Awadhi dishes from Mumbai’s A-list caterer- Sanjay Vazirani who runs Foodlink.
Watch this space for more information on the Grand reception for 400 guests at the Grand Hyatt!
Tags: Aditya Motwane, Geeta Samuel, Gurlein Manchanda Puri, Kiran Bawa, Martin Da Costa, Meher Sarid, Raj Kundra, Shilpa Shetty, Vandana Mohan
