Marigold Events – Indian Wedding Inspirations

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.

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 »

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

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 having a small Sikh-American wedding in California. My fiance and I are planning our wedding on a budget and want to keep things simple but beautiful. How can I get Indian outfits in the US without spending an exorbitant amount of money? How should I go about selecting a venue? How can I save money on decor? What do most people do with their centerpieces after their wedding? I have looked at different Indian Wedding Invitation websites – is there a catch to them?

A. Dear Bride-to-be: Congratulations on your engagement! Here are some recommendations on how you can have a simple, and elegant wedding within your budget:

Look for Indian Outfits and Jewelry Online

Making a special trip to India or Indian Clothing and Jewelry Stores in the US for wedding shopping does require a higher budget. There are many Indian clothing and jewelry websites which can assist you here.

Here are some reasonably priced websites to order lehengas, sarees and beautiful Indian costume jewelry from*:

Home India: Bridalwear
Your Designer Wear
Utsav Sarees: Lehenga Section
Utsav Sarees: Jewelry Section

*Please note that Marigold Events is not affiliated with any of these websites.

Venue Selection: Questions to ask

When doing your venue research, it is important to check the following with the venue:

1. Do they allow outside/Indian catering?
Tip: Sometimes venues, like hotels, have Indian catering packages. Ask for them.
2. Can you have an outside decorator? Any special permission needed to install a mandap or for lighting a fire?
3. Does the venue rental cost include event rentals, such as tables, chairs, linen, china, glassware, flatware etc.?
Tip: Event rentals’ costs add up very quickly and will definitely increase your per person cost.
4. Can you bring your own liquor? Will you need a liquor license?
Tip: If your venue does not have arrangements to serve alcohol, and they allow outside alcohol, you can save money on liquor because you pay for what you use. You can always return the unopened bottles and it is not a fixed per person cost. Make sure that your venue does not charge corkage or bottle opening fee.
5. Will you need event insurance?
6. Which vendors will need permits and insurance?
7. Check with the venue if they will provide complimentary cake, centerpieces, votives, champagne toast etc.
Tip: Ask your venue if they will charge a cake-cutting fee.
8. How many hours will you get your venue for? Will that be enough time to do set up and breakdown?
9. If it is an outdoor venue, you should ask about a rain location.

When doing your venue research, it is important to keep the above questions in mind. Do your budget and cost calculations based on the answers you get.

Decor and Centerpieces on a Budget

If you want to save money on decor and centerpieces, I would suggest that you go for a venue that provides complimentary centerpieces and votives. You can also look into DIY Decor projects. For DIY centerpieces, I would suggest buying flowers from the whole flower stores to save money. Every big city has a wholesale flower market.

You can reuse some of your wedding decor for your reception as well. At the end of your reception, you can ask your florist to wrap your flowers for your guests to take away. Usually the rentals are taken back by the decorator. For example, if they used a big vase in the centerpiece, they will take it back.

Here is a list of Indian Wedding decor items.

Invitations: Online and DIY

The catch to the online wedding invitations is the shipping cost, which ends up being as much as the invitations. Here are some tips to remember when selecting and ordering your wedding invitations.

If you want to save money on your invitations, you can design your own. Here is DIY tutorial for making your own wedding invitations.

When planning a wedding on a budget, it is very important to stay organized and be on top of your budget. Before I sign off, here are two references for you: Indian Wedding Planning Checklist and Indian Wedding Budget. Good Luck with the planning process!

Planning an Indian Wedding just got easier! When I was planning my wedding, I hunted and hunted for a wedding planning website for South Asians. I was looking for a resource, where the wedding planning tools and forums were customized for Indian brides. Well guess what – now that resource is here. It’s called Indian American Weddings, and has been launched by Neha, owner of Marigold Events & Launching Frog (that’s me!) and Payal, owner of Intell Marketing.

Indian American Weddings began as a vision aspiring to make an Indian Bride’s wedding planning experience easy and enjoyable. The inspiration and ideas have stemmed from Payal and my personal experiences, when we were planning our own weddings and discovered a lack of planning resources for Indian Weddings in the US. We envision brides benefiting from a social network that would enable them to share thoughts and ideas with each other and communicate interactively with vendors.

Indian American Weddings is a unique wedding planning community for engaged couples and their families. It is the first interactive site to enable brides to network with other brides and vendors all over the country. It is, in essence, a virtual wedding expo, where brides can virtually see vendors’ products and services, communicate with them, and network with other brides – all without shelling the expenses of travel or time to a wedding expo.

In addition to the social networking aspect, the website offers to brides and couples all the tools and resources needed to help design, organize and plan the perfect unique Indian Wedding. The word “Indian” is the key – not only do we help you customize your planning to include all the Indian glamor and nuances of an Indian wedding ceremony, but we can also help you customize any other Indian event you may want to include like Engagement Party, Mehendi, Sangeet, etc.

Website’s Highlights for brides:

• Your Personal Profile Page with Photogallery: Create a detailed personalized profile of yourself and your upcoming wedding. Upload photos, and write about yourself. The wedding planning tools are linked to your profile. Your wedding planning research can be accessed by you through your username and secure password from any computer.
• Planning Checklist: Manage your wedding planning tasks and track the important details so you don’t miss a single step.
• Create your Budget: Set up your wedding budget and track all your spending to keep your wedding expenses in line.
• Create your Guestlist: It’s a Guest Database! Manage Guests, input their addresses, track Guest info (invitations, RSVPs, gifts, seating, thank you’s) – all with our Guest List Manager.
• Appointment Book: A handy tool to record all your appointments and reminders so you are perfectly scheduled for each day of your wedding planning
• Create Events and Invitations: Send out your save the dates for each of your wedding events with a click of the button and manage the RSVP’s from here.
• Planning Calendar: Your wedding planning is a calendar view and organizes all your appointments, upcoming events and due checklist items in one place.
• Research Binder: Your Wedding Planning Notebook where you can save notes, links, images of products and services you are considering but haven’t yet finalized.
• Guestbook: Post on your buddies’ walls and keep them up to date with your wedding planning. Post on a vendors wall to make inquiries or contacts.
• Get advice from other brides on the forum: Network with other brides, share tips and ideas, post questions. It’s amazing how much you can learn and share with others just like you.
• Add buddies: Friend other members of the site and them to your buddylist. See where other brides are in their planning process. Look at the profiles of your bride and vendor friends, check out their photogallery and write on their guestbooks.

There is a plethora of Indian vendors offering products and services to meet the Indian wedding market needs, however, they have always competed with families traveling to India to fulfill these needs. To these vendors, we offer a revolutionary new channel to market their products and services to a targeted customer base and form affiliations with other vendors in the business.

Website’s Highlights for Vendors:

• Free Business Page and Listing: Design your personalized business page highlighting your products & services and offering exclusive promotions and sales.
• Guestbook: Post on your buddies’ walls and keep them up to date with your services.
• Photogallery: A picture is worth a thousand words. Showcase your products and services with a collection of photos and images.
• Appointment Book: A handy calendar with customer appointments and reminders so you are perfectly scheduled for each day.
• Planning Calendar: View all your appointments in a calendar view.
• Manage Clients: A client database that manages client names, profiles, addresses, interests.
• Interact with other brides on forum: An Online vendor expo – interact with brides interested in your products and services. Make customer contact online!

The website has been beta launched, and we would really appreciate your feedback!

Indian Weddings are known to be elaborate affairs, where families spend a lot of money to entertain their guests and celebrate. No matter how big of an amount you are spending on the wedding, there is always a budget. So how do you come up with a budget for your wedding? Start by compiling a list of finance sources, which could be you (the bride), the groom,both sets of parents, as well as other generous family members or friends.

In this article, we will go through all the steps to decide how to plan your wedding budget. So start with coming up with a realistic figure.

Enter total budget: ________________

Once you have a realistic figure for your budget, we will divide that amount into various categories.

Image Courtesy: Flickr (soo12)

Ceremony: 5%

• Cost of the venue
• All transportation like horse carriage for Baraat, limos etc. for guests, family and bridal party to and from the hotel/house of the bride and groom to the ceremony site.
• Enter Ceremony Budget: ______________

(Multiply total budget by 0.05)

Reception: 40%

Your Wedding Reception will take up the bulk of your wedding budget. The budget for your reception will include:

• Cost of the venue
• Event Rentals (Chairs, Tables, Flatware, Glassware, China)
• Catering and Servers (including taxes and tips)
• Bar and non-alcoholic beverages
• Wedding Cake
• Valet parking, if applicable
• All transportation like shuttle service, limos etc. for guests, family and bridal party to and from the ceremony site to the reception venue.
• Enter Reception Budget: ______________

(Multiply total budget by 0.4)

Music and Entertainment: 5%

This includes:

• Baraat and Ceremony Music – Dhol, DJ
• Cocktail hour – DJ, Live Performers
• Reception Entertainment and Music – DJ, Dancers, Live Performers
• Enter Music Budget: _______________

(Multiply total budget by 0.05)

Decor: 15%

In an Indian Wedding, decor takes up a good chunk of your budget, especially because there are so many elements that go into it. This includes:

• Mandap and Ceremony decoration
• Chair Covers/ Sashes
• Overlays/ Table Linen
• Bride and Bridesmaid’s bouquets (if applicable)
• Boutonnière’s for Groom, Groomsmen, Ring Bearer and both Fathers (if applicable)
• Flowers for both the Bride and Groom’s Mother (if applicable)
• Flowers to decorate the Flower Girl’s basket and petals to toss
• Reception centerpieces and decorations
• Flowers for the Wedding cake (if applicable)
• Sweet heart table/ head table
• Enter Flower Budget: _______________

(Multiply total budget by 0.15)

Wedding Attire and Jewelry: 15%

• This includes:
• Bridal Saris/ Lehengas for the Ceremony and Reception
• Bride’s lingerie
• Bride’s jewelry for Ceremony and Reception
• Wedding Bands
• Bride’s shoes
• Hair and makeup (including Mehendi)
• Groom’s Sherwani/ Tuxedo and Shoes for the Ceremony and Reception
• Enter Wedding Attire Budget: _______________

(Multiply total budget by 0.15)

Photography: 10%

This will include:

• Photography
• Videography
• CDs or other digital media with all the photos
• DVD of the Wedding Video
• Engagement portraits
• Ceremony and Reception – album package
• Additional albums / photographs for gifts

Enter Photography Budget: _____________

(Multiply total budget by 0.1)

Stationery: 4%

This includes:

• Invitations and enclosures (R.S.V.P. cards & envelopes, maps, etc.)
• Announcements
• Thank – you notes
• Postage
• Wedding Programs
• Enter Stationery Budget: _____________

(Multiply total budget by 0.04)

Miscellaneous: 6%

This is where all those random “little” items add up. Make sure you have an extra cushion for all those extra expenses.

• Gifts for the bridal party (if applicable)
• Wedding gifts for each other (if you choose to do so)
• Favors for the guests
• Welcome baskets for out-of-town guests
• Hotel room / “Honeymoon Suite” for the wedding night
• Marriage and other licenses
• Dakshina/ Fee for the Priest
• Enter Miscellaneous Budget: _____________

(Multiply total budget by 0.06)

I hope this worksheet gave you a good idea on how to plan your wedding budget and will be helpful.