Marigold Events – Indian Wedding Inspirations

For today’s post, Marigold Events (ME) interviewed Graphic Designer, Carina Herman (CH), of the design studio Little Bird Creative. Little Bird Creative is a design studio dedicated to fashioning wistful stationary for weddings and events. Carina believes that stationary should emote personality and bring each occasion to life.

ME: I understand that you have an art, and graphic design background. Now, how did you get started designing your line of wedding invitations?

CH: Before I started to design wedding invitations, I worked as a graphic designer in the financial industry. The very nature of the industry I was in, limited the colors and designs to be very business like.

Following that I worked for Paper Source, where I worked with the clients’ unique ideas, problem solve and come up with custom design elements for wedding invitations. When Paper Source discontinued its custom line of wedding invitations, I launched my own business focusing on wedding invitations, by the name of Little Bird Creative.

Different colors, themes, and ideas that go beyond the traditional, are very exciting. Moreover, I love the wedding industry, where couples are always happy and positive.

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Jewelry is a big part of South Asian Weddings. A huge sum of the wedding budget is spent on this, as it stays with the bride for her lifetime. The terminology for Indian Wedding Jewelry can get complex. We have put together a crash course or you may consider it a glossary for Indian Wedding Jewelry.

Polki: Uncut diamond, studded in gold along with precious or semi precious stones. Polki if often times enhanced by pearls and stone drops. The reverse side of Polki Jewelry is also decorated with meenakari work.

Kundan: Similar style to polki, but semi precious, as instead of uncut diamond, glass stone is used.

Meenakari: Is a traditional Rajasthani Art, where enameling is done over gold, polki, or kundan jewelry with vivid colors and designs.

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A wedding planner once told me, “Your wedding invitation is the first impression of your wedding.” That thought has stuck with me, and I truly believe, that your wedding invitation should be put together with great thought, and be a reflect what your wedding will be like. The trends in wedding invitations change every year, and it can be hard to keep up with them. One of the hottest wedding trends these days are luxury boxed invitations. Marigold Events (ME) had the opportunity to talk to Puneet Gupta (PG), who designs these kind of boxed couture wedding invitations.

ME: What is your background? How did you get started with designing wedding invitations?

PG: I am a NIFT graduate and have had a love for design since my childhood. After having worked as a design consultant for various Indian & International brands in the lifestyle and fashion industries, I finally decided to use my design capabilities, technical expertise and love for beauty to launch a luxury line of bespoke wedding invitations and favors. Since then, there has been no looking back and with every wedding invitation we produce, this passion for designing has grown stronger and my love for print novelties is getting deeper. Read more »

When shopping for your wedding outfit, knowing your style, colors and budget is very helpful in making the right choices. That, along with the understanding of different fabrics and embroidery can help you make the best decision.

Shopping for your bridal outfit can often be the most frustrating, nerve wracking and emotional part of the wedding planning process. To help manage your sanity and budget, we are here to give some tips on what to do before you start shopping for your wedding outfits.

Read more about choosing your perfect wedding outfit on Couture Rani’s Blog.

A Hindu Wedding Ceremony has slight variations based on which community or region in India your family belongs to. This week we will focus on the Agarwal Wedding Traditions. Yesterday we talked about the Pre-Wedding Agarwal Ceremonies. Today’s post is on the Wedding Day Ceremonies.

Baraat

This ceremonial procession begins with the groom’s family blessing the groom and putting the turban on his head. This is known as Sehra Bandhi, and after this the groom mounts a decorated white mare. Along with his rejoicing friends and family, the entire Baraat proceeds to the wedding venue. The entire procession is very lively celebration full of music and dance.

Baraat Swaagat

The Baraat is welcomed by the bride’s family at the venue entrance. Typically the male members on bride’s side greet their counterparts in the groom’s family by welcoming them with garlands and embracing them. This is also known as Milni.

Toran

Meanwhile, the groom is escorted by members of the bride’s family. The entrance of the wedding venue is decorated with a toran or flower decorations. The groom hits the toran with a stick before he steps inside the venue.

Bateri Puja

Following the Toran, a welcome prayer or Bateri Puja is conducted, where the groom is showered with blessings and gifts by the father of the bride. The groom gives his word to the father of the bride that he will perform all the sacred rites of marriage according to his prescribed religious duty.

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As part of our #WeddingWednesday Series, Marigold Events (ME) interviewed Nathan Delack of Delack Media Group (DMG) about the Indian Wedding Cinematography. We asked Nathan about how Indian Wedding Videos have evolved over the years, and what the latest trends are. Delack Media Group is a boutique cinematography studio providing the latest in modern wedding films.

ME: How do you feel videography/ cinematography has evolved for Indian Weddings in the past few years?

DMG: In the past, couples were looking for their wedding day to be captured on video from start to finish. That usually meant an extremely long, and often times, boring wedding video.

Nowadays, more and more couples are looking for a studio that can film their wedding day and turn it into a movie. It makes the film more exciting, fun, and emotional for everyone to watch.

ME: How is filming an Indian Wedding different than other weddings?

DMG: Indian weddings have so many different cultural aspects than other weddings we’ve filmed. The multi-day events offer so much color, music and tradition that make the wedding film so interesting and beautiful.

The emotional aspect of the vidai is something you don’t see in any other but Indian weddings. We’ve had fans of our work tell us that they cry when watching that part of the video, and they don’t even know the bride!

The Baraat is also something that is the perfect backdrop for a great wedding film. The music and anticipation of the groom entering the venue makes for extremely captivating video.

ME: How can Indian brides keep themselves updated about the latest video technology?

DMG: Brides who are interested in the technical aspects of video should just give their cinematography studio a call.

We use DSLR cameras, like the Canon 5d Mark ii, which give us a High Definition image.  We can also use cinematic tools like the Steadicam, camera crane, and aerial footage to simulate camera movements you might see in big budget movies.

Every studio uses different cameras, and most of us use varying editing equipment. It’s really not about what the cinematographer is using to capture your wedding with, it’s how he or she uses it. Expertise, creativity and experience are more important than what camera is used.

ME: What are some of the new video editing styles that are emerging?

DMG: You’re going to be seeing a lot more short form wedding films.  Gone are the days of the 2-4 hour wedding video.  That’s the old style of videotaping weddings.  Now, wedding videos are wedding films.  The duration of your wedding film can vary (usually anywhere from 5-30 minutes in length-depending on how much material your cinematographer has to work with).  Also, a lot of studios are now offering movie-style trailers.  They’re usually a 2-4 minute recap of your wedding events (similar to a movie trailer) posted online or uploaded to your mobile device.

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A South Asian Bride spends anywhere from 6 months to a year planning her wedding, where she has all the tasks lined up for the big day. However, when it comes to packing the things for the day of her wedding, she may be spending just a couple hours. Marigold Events has put together a list of things that every bride must have in her wedding day luggage.

Check out my guest post on Couture Rani to read more about the list of things every bride should have on her wedding day.

Image credit: Ben Rassmussen

The following article is a guest post by Shaily. Shaily and her husband planned their wedding in six months. In this article she gives some very useful tips on how she and her husband went about their wedding planning process and have a wedding of their dreams. Hope you enjoy! Photo Courtesy: Sandeep Ingale of Bestphotog

Planning your wedding is both an exciting and stressful time.  It doesn’t matter whether you have six months or two years, there are still the same amount of tasks that need to be planned and executed.  My husband and I planned our wedding in just six months and it was most certainly a labor of love.  How did we do it?  We did it just like any other couple does by focusing on what matters the most to us and recognizing our limits and our budget.

First we started with the basics that every wedding needs: a priest, a venue and a caterer.  Once those were in  place, we focused on what meant the most to us: photography, entertainment and decor.  While we planned our wedding in six months, we did take some time prior to do our research to know that it was possible to take the plunge in such a short amount of time.  We made sure we vetted all of our vendors as thoroughly as we could via email prior to meeting them in person, thus reducing the amount of time spend traveling from meeting to meeting.  Meeting with our top 2 or 3 choices whether it was a photographer or venue really helped to maximize our turn around time on each vendor decision.

Second, it was really important to us that our wedding be a reflection of our personalities and be as personal as possible.  We decided to DIY our invitations and chose a theme that reflected both my Indian culture and my husband’s late father: paisleys.  We found a graphic we liked from iStockPhoto and leveraged both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create our invitation suite.  We created all of our paper products from the invitations, programs, seating cards, menus and candy buffet bags.  We leveraged the theme through most of these items and stayed with the same color scheme to ensure that they all tied together. Read more »

The following post is by our guest blogger, Sneha Subrahmanian of My Shaadi Obsession. Check out her DIY tutorial to create your own Save-the-Dates!

Making our Save The Date’s was a lot of fun. We wanted to do something different so we created these minicard magnets!

Since our wedding date was on a popular long weekend, we wanted to send them out ~10 months in advance. We had just done an engagement session, so to create the save the date minicards, we picked 3 photos, including one from our formal engagement party to have a few different looks.
Here are the rest of the details: Read more »

Marigold Events had the pleasure of talking to Sunny and Neeva of Photographick Studios about how couples can get more comfortable working with their wedding photographer. Photographick is a couture studio based out of Washington DC focusing on couples who value one of a kind individualized art. The studio focuses on turning timeless memories into immortalized art by encompassing all forms of photography and graphic design.

Q. What is one of the biggest challenges faced by a wedding photographer?

A. Education, a lot of potential clients think that our job is merely to click a camera button. But our job is to capture their love through the medium of the camera, thus we need to position our couples in a way where their love and personality shoots off the frame. Set up lighting, making
sure the background is perfect and they are posed correctly. Since we always do an engagement session they see us work and more importantly they see the results of our work so they know what to expect the day of the wedding. They quickly realize that the artwork they want takes time and make adjustments on their wedding day to ensure they get those priceless, once in a lifetime images. Once the education of what it really takes for an image to be spectacular is understood everything else is a breeze.

Q. How do couples feel about opening up to their photographer?

A. Most people are a little reserved whenever they meet and interact with someone new. This is no different when it comes to your wedding photographer. That being said, opening up to your wedding photographer is vitally important to ensure their day is captured correctly and accurately. Because of the possible hesitation we require an engagement session with each one of our couples, and we encourage every engaged couple to get one done with your wedding photographer. It takes plenty of communication and jokes to ease any tension or discomfort there may be. The goal is to be friends on the wedding days and not vendors. After all you will spend more time with your wedding photographer than your own family, don’t you want someone who you trust and whose company you enjoy being next to you for that long on your wedding day?

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Hello Lovely Ladies! Wedding Wednesdays just got more interesting on Marigold Events. We get many questions from brides asking for wedding advice. We will be selecting and answering “Question of the week” every Wednesday on Marigold Events. Ask your question by filling out our contact form on the right.

Q. I am going to India (Delhi and Mumbai) in Feb for my wedding shopping. Can you suggest where I should shop for my bridal outfit?

A. Dear Bride-to-be: The amazing choices, affordable prices, and VIP treatment are a few benefits of shopping in India. Shopping for the bridal outfit in India gives a bride many options, which can sometimes get overwhelming. Here are some recommendations on the places to get your bridal outfit in India from:

Ogaan:
Bringing together the biggest names in Indian fashion, Ogaan makes for a wonderful shopping experience. They have stores in Delhi and Mumbai. The displays are set up very artistically, and are a feast for eyes. If you are looking for very exclusive bridal outfit, this is your go to place.

Roshan's Stone Work Lehenga

Roshan’s:
Conveniently located in South Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar, Roshan’s has a great variety in bridal wear. They not only specialize in Lehengas, but have a great collection of Sarees, Salwar Kameezes, Churidars and Anarkalis. Roshan’s offers bridal wear in every budget range.
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We had the pleasure of talking to Peggy Post, one of the definitive experts on etiquette in the world. Peggy Post, Emily Post’s great-granddaughter-in-law, is a director of The Emily Post Institute and the author of more than twelve books. Her publications include the 17th edition of Emily Post’s Etiquette, Emily Post’s Wedding Etiquette, Emily Post’s Wedding Planner and A Wedding Like No Other. Peggy has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, NBC’s The Today Show, Live with Regis & Kelly, Dr. Phil among other nationally broadcast shows.

Here is Peggy on some of the common bridal dilemmas faced by Indian brides:

Evolution of Wedding Etiquette

Q. How has wedding etiquette evolved with time? What things are timeless and have stayed the same over the years?

A. Wedding Etiquette has been same forever. Wedding Traditions have changed. The code of behavior – being considerate, respectful – has not changed. Wedding Etiquette is all about making families and guests comfortable. While basic principles are important and constant, wedding manners and customs have evolved a lot. For example, traditionally, the cost of the wedding was borne by the bride’s family. Today, more and more brides and grooms are sharing costs, and it’s not unusual for the groom’s parents to pitch in as well. Grooms are more involved with wedding planning and technology plays a major role.

How to announce your engagement in today’s technology savvy world

Q. How should a couple inform their families, extended families and friends about their engagement?

A. Announcing your engagement should be based on your particular situation. Etiquette is more flexible than people realize. Ideally you would tell your parents first. Next come those whom you ask to be your wedding attendants, as well as other close friends and relatives. While telling face-to-face or on the phone are always great, it might not always be feasible. Email or text message may be fine, depending on who you are telling, and your situation. Read more »

Hello Lovely Ladies! Wedding Wednesdays just got more interesting on Marigold Events. We get many questions from brides asking for wedding advice. We will be selecting and answering “Question of the week” every Wednesday on Marigold Events. Ask your question by filling out our contact form on the right.

Q. I really want to DIY my wedding invitations. Can you give me some advice on how to go about making my own invitations?

A. Dear Bride-to-be: It is wonderful that you want to DIY your wedding invitations – they are a lot of fun. Here is some advice on how you can go about making your own invitations.

Make Samples

Start out by test driving the whole DIY invitations project. Get ideas and inspiration from your local Arts and Crafts stores and Paper stores. Do not buy paper in bulk until you are a 100% sure that you want to go the DIY route. A lot of stores would not let you return the paper because of restocking issues. You should try to produce at least a couple of different samples before you pick the final invitation. You can have your fiance and family vote on the different samples. Read more »

Hello Lovely Ladies! Wedding Wednesdays just got more interesting on Marigold Events. We get many questions from brides asking for wedding advice. We will be selecting and answering “Question of the week” every Wednesday on Marigold Events. Ask your question by filling out our contact form on the right.

Q. I am planning my wedding this coming summer and wanted to know the various options for serving food besides a traditional buffet dinner.

A. Dear Bride-to-be: Choose your wedding set-up based on your style and budget. Whether you want something formal or fun, elegant or extravagant, chic or classic, or a combination of everything, here are a few options you may want to consider:

Plated Sit-down Dinner: Not only is this style one of the very formal ones, but also very elegant. Each course is served in individual plates for each guest with the right amount of sauce, spicing, and accompaniments. Also known as “American Style” dinner, plated sit-down dinner requires assigned seating for your guests, which means that you will need escort cards in addition to place cards. The meal is timed, where appropriate courses are brought out at the same time for all the guests. This means that the guests don’t have to wait in line for their food, like in a buffet, and also gives you more control on the timeline for your reception. At the same time it also means that you need a lot of wait staff, which increases your costs. While with the buffet you can have a huge variety, with a plated sit-down menu you are limited to two or three.

Image Courtesy: Good Food Catering

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Hello Lovely Ladies! Wedding Wednesdays just got more interesting on Marigold Events. We get many questions from brides asking for wedding advice. We will be selecting and answering “Question of the week” every Wednesday on Marigold Events. Ask your question by filling out our contact form on the right.

Q. I am trying to figure out the entertainment for my wedding functions. We will have a typical North Indian Wedding with Sangeet, Mehendi and Baraat. Should I get DJ for of those events? What are some other options besides hiring a DJ?

A. Dear Bride-to-be: Indian weddings tend to be week long festivities. As Indians, we are big on music, dance, and entertainment. While you would want to hire a DJ or band for your wedding reception, you do have other options for your pre-wedding functions:

1. Do you know anyone in your family who can play a dholak? For your Mehendi, you can get a group of your aunts together to sing traditional North Indian songs to the beats of dholak. It would make the occasion more festive and lively.

2. Consider hiring live singers for your Sangeet. A little bit of “Bari Barsi” and  “Kala Shah“  can definitely get your guests in the mood to dance.

3. Thank God for iPod Playlists! You can very well create your own Mehendi and Sangeet Bollywood songs’ playlists. Here is a reference for you: Indian Wedding Music.

4. For your Baraat, you can have a combination of iPod playlists, live dhol player and bhangra dancers. The Bhangra dancers and dhol player will definitely infuse “masti” and get people dancing.