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| Saturday, February 1, 2003 |
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GONE
are the days when marriages used to be made in heaven. Nowadays, for
the glitzy rich, they are made at the offices of entertainment
companies or at the studios of graphic design firms. India’s rich
and famous along with the wedding planners are going the whole hog,
planning the bizarre or the super ostentatious in an attempt to make
their weddings truly different. So wedding planners are stepping in as
temporary household members to take on the responsibility of designing
and managing the most-awaited family occasion. You have weddings with
grand sets on football fields, or up in the air on an aeroplane or
under water in submarines. The wedding mandaps and sets could
mean creating the streets of Paris in Calcutta or setting up a
Rajasthani haveli in Mumbai or the White House in Bangalore or
the Mysore Palace in Delhi. |
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So who are these usually low-profile people who work behind the scenes to lend a touch of designer elegance to dream weddings? Burmese, Sri Lankan
and western style pandals
Arunaben creates unusual designs, using the world’s best and most exotic flowers, basketry, textiles, earthenware, metalware and even used sculptures and paintings as part of the wedding décor. Her accounts and experiences make more than interesting hearing. She recalls: "In one wedding in Calcutta, I was asked to develop a whole 10-acre forest as the venue for a marriage. Six months before the event, we planted flowerbeds, bushes, hedges, trees and shrubs and created landscapes of exquisite beauty with fountains and rivulets. The garden continues to exist there even years after the wedding and is today a park for visitors." Arunaben’s work comes at a major price. The bracket extends from Rs 7 lakh for the simplest to over a crore, and this is just for the concept, not the actuals. Space age to war
themes
A personal touch For those who do not want the executed feel, there is Mansa which works on arranging a special wedding with the personal touch. Mansa is run by Gurlein Manchanda and Ivan Rodrigues and they have organised weddings for prominent business families like the Daburs, Popleys, Mittals, Hindujas, Singhanias and Poddars. The stylish Gurlein Manchanda, thanks to her varied experience in interiors and pottery, lends her special creative streak, while Ivan Rodrigues with his background in rural marketing and hospitality takes care of the managerial functions. Be it a traditional Marwari meal with local delicacies or a dinner party based on the theme of "the Phantom of the Opera" or "Magic of Morocco’, Mansa does it all. They have even catered to requests for Charkola dancers from Mathura and sword fighters from Kerala. The duo conceptualise the entire theme, plan the layout in minute detail and carry out each part of the project with clockwork precision. Nothing is too small for their planning. The crockery, the cutlery, the napkins, the chairs and tables, the drapes, the stage and the decorations along the aisles are all covered in their plan apart from the main constructions of the venue and the styling. Fantasy weddings Meher Sarid’s entertainment company Sound of Music has been in the business of fashioning fantasy weddings and they organise over 40 marriage extravaganzas during peak wedding season. The USP of Sound of Music is lavish themes and concepts. Some of the themes executed by Sound of Music include the ‘restaurant’ theme with three different cuisine restaurants set up with befitting decor, props and entertainment. Sound of Music charges 15 per cent of the total expenditure of the evening and the one-stop shop offers every conceivable wedding product and service: flying in Russian ballet and Egyptian belly dancers, chefs from Tokyo or even arranging a honeymoon cruise in the Caribbean. Arabian Nights and
ancient Roman themes Amrish Pershad of the Monsoon Wedding fame dreams up some of the most exotic fantasies. Pershad has a team of 15 working under him and they include skilled kaarigars from Bengal who create anything from a replica of the White House to the Umaid Bhavan Palace. The most extraordinary request that his team had to handle recently was an ancient Rome theme wedding. Amongst other things, they had to create Roman pillars in plaster of Paris that were draped with flowers. Bollywood-inspired
weddings Vikas Gutgutia’s company Ferns ’n’ Petals offers a variety of options and themes which range from being the low-budgeted purely floral to havelis, Mughal palaces that are draped with ethnic fabrics like zardosi, brocade or jamawar for relaxed budgets. It not only handles the décor but also invitations, menu cards, gift packing, trousseau packing and even co-ordinated clothing for the stewards and music and entertainment personnel to match with the theme. The fact that Indian weddings have become ‘Bollywoodised’ is proved by the increasing film examples suggested by Gutgutia’s clients. Explains Gutgutia: "Many clients want the strewn petal look, as often seen in films, while some want to create the Kuch Kuch Hota Hai look. Others want marigolds hanging just like they did in Hum Aapke Hain Kaun." — India News Feature
Service
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"I’ve been doing shaadis
for over 25 years, and till date I have never repeated a theme as the
social circle is similar", says 75-year-old Aruna Purohit who has
designed Indian, Burmese, Sri Lankan and western style pandals for
weddings. Every time a high society family in Mumbai plans a wedding,
one of the first names that comes to their mind for the design of the
venue is that of Aruna Purohit. Says the veteran who began life as a
sculptor and painter and whose clients include the Birlas, the Bajajs
and Barjatayas, "I was trained in art and was given some studio
space in the Mukand iron factory by Viren Shah — now the Governor of
West Bengal. At Mukand, I used scrap iron to make sculptures and
designed the garden of the factory. In time, Viren’s son Suketu was to
be married and Viren asked me to design the pandal and the mandap.
I did my best. Overnight, I had a new career — that of designing
wedding venues."
Wizcraft is well known for
its theme events which are much sought after by leading diamond
merchants and prominent industrialists. Wizcraft has a special unit
dedicated to weddings, and it specialises in pre-wedding parties,
especially theme-based ones. Space Age, Wild West evening, Red Indians,
Arabian Nights complete with belly dancers have been executed by it.
Besides this, it offers a range of services — from administrative
tasks like airport pick-ups and dishing super efficient hospitality for
the groom’s party to managing creative tasks like the décor and
entertainment for the evenings. And when there’s word about a wedding
at a super-rich home, the Wizcraft team approaches the family with a
slick computer presentation. Wizcraft has implemented a multitude of
themes. Hold your breath, it has even staged a war theme at one wedding
function: a pre-wedding party at the Mumbai Turf Club with bunkers and
tents all over. The guests were dressed thematically and the stunt men
were all over. Firebombs and smoke bombs added to the excitement.
IF
being surrounded by the sea gives you a complete high then this is
it. You could have an afternoon wedding on the dhow which could
accommodate less than 80 guests in a cool, pollution-free
ambience. The select guests could arrive at the wedding venue in
the comfort of a boat. The bride and the groom could have the
privilege of arriving in separate speed boats (horses and palkhis
are completely out!). You could have the dhow anchored or keep
it moving at a very slow pace while the ceremony goes on. The
80-odd guests would also serve the purpose of protecting the
sacred fires from the chilly winds. Serve them salads and starters
like assorted canapés, fondues and open sandwiches. If you’d
like to invite more guests, you have the option of hiring a
catamaran (could accommodate around 200 guests) or a barge which
is large enough for around 500 guests.