Marigold Events – Indian Wedding Inspirations

High school sweethearts, Jasmine and Gautam, met (and were eventually engaged!) on a tennis court. Their beautiful wedding took place at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington DC.

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Rangoli is a traditional Indian folk art of making colorful and decorative patterns. Today we are featuring numerous Rangoli designs from various Hindu Wedding Ceremonies photographed by Alex Moi.

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In the last post we featured Sabrina and Ranvijay’s  Moghul Mujra themed Sangeet. In this post we will talk about the details of their decor and entertainment.

The venue was converted into a luxurious lounge with low, pillow-style Moghul seating.

The decor was lush floral and the ambience, very romantic. Beautiful candelabras and candle walls added dramatic light to the opulent Ballroom.

For the Sangeet, the State and Grand Ballroom at the Palmer House had a very palatial, antique, and Moghul feel to it.

The live entertainment lineup at Sabrina and Ranvijay’s Sangeet was phenomenal! They had the Bellytwins come  in from California to perform mujras to Bollywood classics dressed in eleborate and colorful costumes.

Ambika Raazdan’s dance group were performing mujras on the balcony as guests were entering into the ballroom. Munni Begam, an acclaimed qawwali artist, performed with her group to international hits such as “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom“.

The event was planned by Sabrina Hans herself, and Nisar Naimi of Sabrina Hans Events.

Image Credit: Jai Girard Photography

The Sangeet Night is one of the very vibrant and enjoyable evenings, where both the families come together to celebrate the couple.

Today we are featuring the Sangeet celebration of Sabrina and Ranvijay. Thanks to the lovely Jai Girard for sharing the pictures!

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While Somya and Sanam’s wedding has all the elements of being royal, I can tell that the couple is really in love. In this post we are featuring their Reception which had a Pakeeza Theme.

Somya and Sanam’s Reception would take you back to the Mughal era. Imagine Kathak Dance Performances, Live Ghazal and Qawali singers, and lounge style seating.

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A few months back we had featured the Cherry Blossom engagement session of Aman and Gurdeep. We are so excited to feature their wedding and reception pictures. Thank You Photographick Studios for sharing beautiful photos of the couple with us!

Aman and Gurdeep’s wedding was an intimate affair with close family and friends.

Getting Ready

I absolutely love Aman’s outfit and jewelry. Her kaleeras are my favorite – they perfectly match her outfit.

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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 getting married in six months and am very confused on how to plan my wedding. How should I go about my shopping. I want to have a royal wedding with traditional Punjabi touches and want to make it a memorable event. I would prefer pinks, reds and lots of gold.

A. Dear Bride-to-be: Congratulations! Planning a wedding can seem to be a daunting task, and you should break it down to smaller tasks and have a plan of action. Following is a list of things you will need to shop for:

1. Wedding Invitations
2. Wedding Outfits
3. Wedding Jewelry
4. Accessories: Bindis, Bangles, Shoes, and Purses
5. Trousseau
6. Favors and gifts for family and friends
7. Money Envelopes and other gift wrapping/packing supplies

Now that you know what you need to shop for, I would suggest picking colors for your wedding. Pink clashes with red, so I would suggest that you pick shades of red, orange and gold. These would be great colors for a traditional and royal look. You can tie in your colors in all the things you get for your wedding – from invitations, to decor, to your outfits. You can find beautiful invitations in many colors and themes on invitation websites. Here is an example of a unique invitation that I think will go along well with your colors:

For a traditional and at the same time royal look, I would suggest that you include marigolds in your decor. You can also incorporate orange gerbera daisies, red roses and chrysanthemums for accents. You could ask your decorator if he can incorporate different styles of rangoli (on floor and water) and fabrics like organza and chiffon in your wedding decoration. For shimmery look in your decor, you can ask the decorator to use strings of crystals. You could also have antique chandeliers at your venue for a royal look.

Since you are Punjabi, consider using kaleeras in your wedding decor. When you walk to the stage/mandap for jai mala, your cousins/brothers/sisters/bridesmaids will be walking along you – At that time you can have your entourage carry a “Phoolon ki Chaadar” or a sheet made of flowers over your you. You can have your decorator/florist decorate this with many different kinds of flowers, fabric and even kaleeras.

Hope I was able to provide some helpful wedding planning pointers to make your wedding memorable. Good Luck and don’t forget to have fun while planning your wedding!

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!

Decor is the one of the most important elements of your wedding. The look of your wedding leaves a lasting impression on the guest’s mind. There are so many extensions to decor that are not just limited to look and feel. You also need a number of things for the ceremony, which a decorator provides. Here is a checklist of decor items you must discuss with your decorator.

1. Flowers for the hair: A lot of the brides like to adorn their hair with fresh flowers. Be it gajra made of tuberoses, roses or even orchids – these can really add a great accent to your hairdo.
2. Bouquet for the bride: Bridal bouquets can be as simple or elaborate as you want. Recently I saw a bouquet of roses with rhinestone accents, which looked absolutely gorgeous!
3. Bouquet for the bridesmaids: The bridesmaids bouquets would be simpler that the bridal bouquet, but at the same time should match in terms of the colors and flowers with the bride’s bouquet.
4. Milni Garlands: A lot of the families have the tradition of “milni” right after baraat, where the male members of the bride’s family greet the male members of the groom’s side. Its a real fun and joyous tradition, where they garland each other.
5. Flower petals for Puja Thalis and Aashirwaad: Flower petals are needed for Aarti thaali, when the mother does aarti to the groom, for various offerings during the ceremony as well as for Aashirwaad, when the bride and groom are showered with flower petals by family and guests. This element can be overlooked sometimes, and it’s always nice to remind your decorator to bring extra flower petals.
6. Trays for Jai Mala, Milni Garlands and Puja Supplies: Its always nice if your decorator can provide nice trays for this stuff.
7. Ganesha statue(s): This can be used to decorate the entrance of your ceremony or reception area, as well as many of these can be used in Aisle Decor.
8. Diyas or Lamps: You might want to incorporate diyas or oil lamps in your decor.
9. Jaimala: These are the garlands used during the wedding ceremony by the bride and groom.
10. Aisle Decor: This includes pillars, fabric swags, floral arrangements and flower petals.
11. Ribbon to block the Aisle: This is crucial to prevent your guests from walking along the aisle.
12. Mandap: This includes the mandap structure/pillars/draperie, mandap florals, mandap chairs, cushions and the fire pit or the havan kund (Very important!).
13. Doli/Palanquin: This is totally optional, but definitely adds a nice touch to the ceremony.
14. Decor for the ceremony and reception chairs: This could be pomanders, sashes, bows or chair covers.
15. Boutonnieres and Corsages: These are again optional. But often times, the groom and groomsmen would wear boutonnieres for the reception.
16. Gift box/ Birdcage: You might ask the decorator to provide and/ or decorate these.
17. Centerpieces: You will need these for guest tables, sweetheart table/ head table, cocktail tables, place card table and guestbook/pictures table.
18. Tealights/ Votives: You will need these to accent all your centerpieces.
19. Sweet heart table Set up: These days more and more couples are going for sweet heart tables with very creative set ups. Discuss the different options with your decorator.
20. Flowers for the cake: Fresh flowers look gorgeous on the cake.
21. Special Linen or overlays: You can order specialty linen or overlays for the guest tables, buffet tables etc.
22. Rose bud or a flower for each place setting: Again a beautiful touch!

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!

Summer is one of the most popular seasons to get married in. Summer weddings look gorgeous as there is an abundance of flowers to choose from. Since most blooms are in season, you don’t have to fly them in from other countries and it is cheaper to get your flowers during this time. In this post we will look at some popular summer flowers.

Asiatic Lilies

• Asiatic Lily: These lilies stand for pride, purity, innocence and beauty. Asiatic Lilies look very welcoming and will definitely warm up the room. They come in white, pink, yellow and orange.

Chrysanthemums

• Chrysanthemum: These flowers represent what every marriage should be filled with: cheerfulness, optimism, truth, long life, joy. Chrysanthemums are very symbolic and definitely a great choice. They come in white, yellow, orange, pink and other colors.

Delphinium

• Delphinium: This flower represents an open heart and are very welcoming. They come in in white and blue.

Lavender Centerpiece with Roses and Chrysanthemum

• English Lavender: This flower denotes purity, and devotion. They are known for their lovely fragrance and therapeutic uses. English Lavender will definitely relax your guests. They come in purple.
• Forget-me-not: This flower symbolizes true love, hope, remembrance, and memories. They Come in the color blue.

Freesia

• Freesia: Freesias mean innocence and thoughtfullness. They come in white, yellow, pink, blue and purple

Gerbera Daisies

• Gerbera daisy: Representing innocence and loyal love, they come in pink, yellow, orange, red and white

Hydrangea

• Hydrangea: This flower stands for understanding and comes in white, blue, purple and pink. They look absolutely stunning because the flower is big and full.

Rose Pomanders

• Rose: Love. One of the most common, but romantic flowers, roses do not need much description.Come in a whole variety of color.

Sunflower Inspiration Board

• Sunflower: Sunflowers are bright and bring warmth and cheer. It gets its positive qualities of friendliness, happy thoughts and fuzziness from its resemblance to the sun. The bright yellow colored flower is exuberant.

Tuberose

• Tuberose: These flowers are very fragrant and represent pleasure. They come in white.

Violet Inspiration Board

• Violet: Modesty, faithfulness, innocence, beauty – these are the qualities associated with Violets.

Zinnia

• Zinnia: Lasting Affection, Goodness, Thoughts of Absent Friends, Remembrance are what Zinnias are associated with. Comes in red, orange and pink.

Cymbidium Orchids

• Orchids: Orchids don’t do too well in extreme temperatures. During summer, you may be worried that the orchids will dry out. However, cymbidium orchids are one of the most wilt-resistant flowers that can be used during the summer season.

Candy buffets are the hottest trend in weddings these days. Not only do they satisfy the cravings of that sweet tooth, but also make for great eye candy at your wedding reception. They make a unique alternative to favors and also serve as late night snacks. So how do you go about creating these lovely candy buffets? The key points to remember when creating a candy buffet are: colors, presentation and quantity of candy. Let’s go in more detail.

Image Credit: Things Festive

Colors: Try to pick candy using your wedding color palette. If your colors are pink and white, go with the fairy tale theme for your table, where you go with bubble gum flavored candy, pink and white jelly beans, pink and white chocolate eggs etc. It might require some research, but you can find candy in shades that complements your wedding colors!

Presentation: The display of your candy buffet is equally important as your colors. The whole purpose of having a candy buffet is to add color and another element of decor to your wedding. The options are endless! However, some easy options might be to use similar vases as your centerpieces. Add some unique touches by using huge martini glasses or other shapes of floral vases. Vary the shapes and heights to make it look more dramatic. You could also add some bags of candy, for guests to take away with them. Often times, brides would accessorize the candy buffet with a separate centerpiece, fabric and ribbon.

Quantity: In order to have a perfect display, you need to have the right quantity of candy. One would think to start with the guest count in order to determine the quantity. I would say no! If you have 100 guests at your wedding and you decide to serve 3 ounces of candy to each guest, that is just going to be 18.5 pounds. This is not enough to have a good display! For a presentation of your buffet that will wow your guests, choose from 5 to 10 types of candy and buy around 15 pounds each – even if you don’t need that much. When it comes to candy, the more the merrier!

Candles adds to the romantic ambience of your wedding. There are a number of ways to incorporate candles in your wedding:

1. Decorating along the aisle with candles secured in hurricane glass or lanterns
2. Adding taper or votive candelabras on the guest dinner tables
3. Creating or Dressing up the Reception centerpieces
4. Accenting the cake or guest book table
5. Using candles as unique wedding favors

Following are the different kinds of candles you can use in your wedding decor:

• Pillar Candles: You can add a dramatic flair to a centerpiece by using pillar candles of varying heights. These are free-standing, thick, round, square or hexagonal columns, which can be plain or decorated. A great idea of using pillar candles could be to tie thick ribbon around the candle and use a bunch of these candles in varied heights, or use them in a secured hurricane glass, surrounded by flower petals. These make excellent centerpieces for guest tables or even sweet heart tables.

Pillar Candles used in varying heights

Hurrican Candles

• Votives: Votives are short round candles displayed in a cup or a votive holder that holds liquified wax residue. They come in many colors. Votive holders come in colored glass, crystal, wood, bamboo, stone and plastic. Hanging votives make a gorgeous centerpiece. Votives are usually hung on natural trees or metal trees, which is an adequate size for the tables. Votives can also be used to accent centerpieces or even as favors.

Hanging Votives

Stemmed Votive

• Tealights: Tealights are very small, short candles, customarily contained in a metal or plastic base. These, again, can be used to accent centerpieces or even on the placesettings as a decorative piece.

Tealights used as centerpieces

Hanging Tealights

• Lanterns: Moroccon style lanterns are very colorful and can add glamor to an Indian wedding. Candles, when placed inside the lantern, creates a great ambience. These can be hung on sheperd hooks along the aisle, or just placed on your reception guest tables to create a romantic atmosphere.

Lanterns

• Floating Candles: Think about using tall cylindrical or square glass vases of varying heights and placing floating candles in them. These look gorgeous and are perfect centerpiece for a sweetheart table. Consider tinting the water with food coloring or adding glass pebbles, leaves, orchids, rocks, sparkeles or marbles to the water.

Floating Candles

• Tapers: Tall and thin, also known as dinner candles, can be placed on candelabras and placed on guest dinner tables.

Tapered Candles used in centerpieces

• Gels:  Gel candles are soft and transparent candles which hold decorative wax items inside. These can make for unique favors or centerpiece accents.

Gel Candle used as favor

Next week we will have another interesting post along with a really cool giveaway. Keep an eye out!

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.

There are variety of themes that can be used for Indian Wedding. You should choose one that best suits your personality and style. Also consider your audience and what is most likely to click. Discuss the various options with your fiance and decide jointly.

We will go through traditional, typical Indian and romantic themes to add a flair to your wedding. These themes can be applied to your decor, stationary, cake, mehendi…the possibilities are endless!

1. Peacock Theme: This would be a traditional theme and would typically apply to your decor, stationary, outfits, mehendi, cake, place settings and even overlays! Turquoises, Purples/Fuschias, Browns with splashes of green would go best with this theme. Peacock feathers, orchids, and crystal strings are what you definitely need.
   

   Image Courtesy: hellobellaevents.blogspot.com, and iStockPhoto.com

2. Bollywood Theme: For bollywood theme, think of your favorite romantic Hindi movies. You can choose from many a Yash Chopra and Karan Johar movies. For decor, you could get posters of romantic Bollywood movies and put them on the walls of your reception venue (make sure you use good scotch tape, which won’t leave marks on the walls!). You could also name the tables after those movies and the table name/number that is placed on the table could be a postcard with an image from that movie. The place cards could be tickets to those movies with the name of the guest and the movie name on it. You could even incorporate bollywood in your outfits, where you could dress up as a famous Bollywood couple. Your first dance could be to your favorite romantic bollywood tune. The possibilities are endless! Colorful hues, like reds, oranges, fuschias, sequins, and brocade borders would go best with this theme.
3. “Our first Dates” Theme: This would be a very romantic and personal theme and perfect for couples who have dated. You would start with compiling a list of your first dates: It could be restaurants, coffee shops, sporting events, movies etc. You could name the tables after your dating spots and the place cards could be designed as receipts from the restuarants/ coffee shops, tickets to sporting events/movies etc. Table number that is placed on the table could be a picture of you both with the name of the date spot. I think black and white pics with sepia tones look just fantastic! You could incorporate the sepia tones in your decor, and linen as well. This is something very personal for some people, and the theme should be used only if you are comfortable sharing it with your guests.

So which one is your favorite theme? What other themes can you guys think of?