Wedding Planning

Weddings in India have always been a life time celebration and people do their best to make it grand and a memorable event, and Today, with the help of technology and creativity, wedding celebrations have become a mega show and therefore organizing and planning this once in a life time festivity is a need of the hour, Hiring professionals as wedding planners have become a style statement for urban Indians, even the same is getting popular these days in small towns.

Since wedding planning as an industry is still in its initial phase in India, no legal formalities are required to become a wedding planner.

INDUSTRY STATUS

At present, the estimated worth of Indian Wedding industry is around Rs 1,25,000 crore and is growing by around 25-30% every year. On average an Indian investing on wedding could range anywhere between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 5 crore. Even foreigners, are quite interested to conduct their wedding celebrations in India, and contribute a decent chunk to the country’s wedding industry annually. The way India is growing and experiencing a consistent increase in disposable income, the wedding market is expected to double within the next decade or so.

SKILL-SETS REQUIRED

In order to become a Wedding Planner one must be trained considering the various aspects involved in the execution of a wedding event with a professional approach. However, anyone who wants to choose wedding planning as career in needs to be calm, creative and particular with an eye for detail. Fresher's entering this field must be innovative with an ability to think differently. One should also be ready to work hard and have the ability to organize things.

REMUNERATION

There is no set pattern for the remuneration. It’s all about the deal in terms of budget and scope of work. Wedding planner can either charge a professional fee for is services or can have a commission from the total expenses. Fresher can start earning on an average between Rs 10,000 and 15,000 per-months and sky is limit for the experienced one.

Who is a Wedding Planner?

• A consultant
• A friend/guide/family
• A trained professional
• Has knowledge and experience
• Understands your style and tastes
• Guides, coordinates and councils you all the way
• Someone stands firm with you till the last guest leaves

Someone who makes your dream celebrations in to reality….

Why does a Person Hire a Wedding Planner?

• To make his occasion hassle free, saves stress and leaves nothing to chance.
• All within his desired budgets.

How does a Wedding Planner ensure proper organizing of a wedding event?

• Must do meticulous planning
• Customized ritual specific checklists
• Must have wide variety of tested service providers
• Must have documented contracts with vendors and service providers.
• Must research on latest trends and fashion
• Must have credibility in the wedding market

What All Comes Under Wedding Planning

• Venue Selection
• Invitation Cards/Invites
• Catering
• Entertainment
• Decorations
• Hospitality
• Photography & Videography
• Trousseau
• Vendor Management

Venue Selection

Venue selection is a very important task of a wedding planner he must have several options suitable to the need and budget of the clients e.g. lush green farmhouses, five star hotels, resorts, royal forts & heritage palaces.

Venue selection services include:

• Recommending exclusive venues, best suited to the needs.
• Checking the feasibility of the venues in terms of availability, capacity and restrictions.
• Coordinating services and arrangements at the venue.

Invites

Your invites are the first display of your creativity and to make your guests visualize how remarkably the event will be executed, invites have to be tastefully designed to complement the theme of the event. Innovatively designed wedding card is a style statement in itself. An invite may reflect someone’s personality; hence designing of invites must be carried out with proper style and perfection.

Some Popular Styles are

• Engraved/Embossed Invites
• Gold foiled
• Printed Silk fabric or textured butter paper
• Book/Box shaped Invites
• Traditional art/motif inspired invites
• Handwritten/Calligraphic Invites
• Pop-up Invites
• Wax seal for Envelopes
• Off-set Printed Invites

An elaborate set of invites is comprised of:

Save-the-date Card

Main Invite (for all functions)

Inserts (with details for all the functions)

Detailed Itinerary

Venue Maps

RSVP Card (request for a response from the invited person)

Catering

Catering is one of the most important and integral part of organizing a wedding.

Stylish and thematic dinning concepts are the need of the hour and modern days caterer are doing their best to come up with unique and innovative ideas of setups, food preparations and presentations.

Catering services include:

• Providing variety of options of caterer from all over India.
• Providing tailor made menus to suit the requirements of specific functions.
• Customized menu options from various regional and international cuisines..
• Suggesting/Sourcing Maharajas/cooks for smaller home functions.

Bar

• Different concepts of bar setups as per the occasion like raised, round floral bar, truck bar, glass bar.
• Facilitating choice of trained and known bar tenders who are famous and holds a celebrity status.
• Customizing mocktail & cocktail menus
• Bar services like:-
• Special Ice carving
• Offering creative designer bars like Crystal clear Ice bar ( made of ice completely), " barat bar" which moves on with your barat.
• Special ice glasses (for shots and regular drinks)

Entertainment

• Providing various options for suitable entertainment to complement the theme of different functions.
• Offering celebrity artists/ Singers/ Dancer/Bollywood stars/ International performers to make your function special.
• Suggesting options for choreographers to prepare the family for solo/group dance performances.

Recommending artists as per the specific rituals associated with wedding ceremonies like devotional singers for Mata ki chouki, Sai Sandhya, Jago Boliyan Artists, Punjabi tappas etc

Décor

• Providing options and unique ideas for thematic decor to suitable for specific functions.
• Suggesting options for some famous decorators from India or abroad.).
• Providing suggestion for Home Décor keeping the budget in mind

Lighting Experts

• Light designers from Mumbai / Australia.
• Selection & supervision as per the themes chosen for venue/home.

Type of Functions

• Engagement/Ring Ceremony
• Mehndi
• Sangeet/Cocktails
• Wedding
• Reception
• Bhajan Sandhya
• Youngsters Night
• Sufi Nights
• Bhaat Ceremony
• Chuda Ceremony

Accompaniment Ideas

• Traditional Flavours from Calcutta
• Concept Chocolates from Chocola
• Lebanese Items etc,specially customized from Mumbai, Dubai,etc.
• Items such as white metal accessories, enameled Swarovski embedded framesets.
• Give aways at the function and at various ceremonies during the wedding.

Photography

• Photo shoots of family members, bride and groom
• Special album with candid shots
• Thematic instant photo corner
• Organizing newsletter / write –ups on a daily basis about activities at the wedding for circulation amongst the family members

Videography

Suggesting professional wedding videographers to shoot the wedding with a storyline like a movie.

• Providing a video magazine for circulation amongst the family

Trousseau Packing

• Trendy Packing styles
• Thematic Packing ideas

Vendor Management

• Fire Works
• Valet/ Security
• Housekeeping

Fire Works

• Fireworks Display for Baraat, Jaimala,Entry of Bride & Groom, Reception and Doli.
• Cold Pyros, Confetti, Rose Petal showers, Special effects
• From:

Mumbai

Jaipur

Delhi

Signature Weddings

Designer Weddings

• Destination Weddings
• Theme Weddings

There are many more new trends and ideas are coming up with every passing day in the field of wedding planning, and making it potentially a great option for generating employment and business opportunities, therefore organizing it with a proper business format may not only benefit individuals and organizations involved but also boost country’s economy, hence new favourable policies and reforms must be introduced to enhance the growth of the same.

The article is provided by Best hotel management institute in Delhi UEI Global Education.

The author is a practiced content developer and marketer, who have experience to develop contents for a range of business domains and currently he is composing promotional content for a India based agency Uei Global.