Marigold Events – Indian Wedding Inspirations

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 »

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 »

Looking for unique invitations? Don’t want to go to India to get your invitations? Looking for eco-friendly invitaitons? 3 Bees Paperie is your answer. Indian weddings consist of many events, and putting together multiple invitations can get expensive. I spoke with Reena Vadehra of 3 Bees Paperie – A stationary company with unique invitation collections, printed on high-quality lush paper and inspired by contemporary South Asian Designs – like peacocks, mosaics, paisleys and tribal designs.

3 Bees Paperie have two wedding collections:

1. Couture weddings: Ready-to-order wedding invitations. These are already designed invitations, which can be printed with your content very quickly. The ready-to-order collections are eco-friendly, printed on FSC-certifed paper with recycled envelopes.

2. Made for You: For custom wedding invitations. These are completely customized to your wedding theme, motifs and color pallet. These can use different types of printing like offset, letterpress, screen printing or digital.

In addition, they also sell Thank You card sets on their Etsy store.

Reena said that 3 Bees Paperie invitations use unique color combinations that you don’t commonly see in Indian Invitations: Orange and Plum, Turquoise and Green, Yellow and Plum etc.

Check out the entire collection on 3 Bees Paperie’s Website.

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!

Are you a creative bride? Do you want to add your personal touch to your invitations? Do you want your invitations to be unique? Look no more! We have the perfect DIY invitation ideas, which will set your wedding invitation apart.  I will show you some techniques and point you towards some resources, with which you can make your own invitations very easily. Most of the supplies and inspiration that I have used for the invitation created in this blog post are from Paper Source. You can order your supplies from their online store, or go to their many locations around the country.

Our end product will look like the following:

DIY Wedding Invitation with Decorative Handmade Paper and Ribbon

Supplies:

1. Half Moon Enclosure
   • 5″ x 7″
   • Special Feature = The half circle cut out allows a portion of your invitation to peek through the top – a great place to include a small graphic element.
2. Flat Paper (white, ivory, cream)
   • 8.5″ x 11″
3. Flat Card in color of your choice
   • A7 (5″ x 7″)
4. Outer Envelope
   • A7 (5 1/4″ x 7 1/4″)
5. Decorative Paper (or Handmade Paper)
6. satin ribbon in color of your choice
7. Paper Cutter
8. Pair of Scissors
9. Double Stick Tape
10. Pencil
11. Ruler

Steps to create the invitation:

1. Open a Word Document in Microsoft Word on your computer. Change the orientation of the document to landscape.
2. Make a table with one row and two columns on the document, such that one cell is 4 3/4″ x 6 7/8″ in dimensions.
3. Type out your invitation text in each of the cells using your favorite font. You can use Da Font to find some beautiful fonts that are not available out of box.
4. Print out the document on Flat Paper (8.5″ x 11″).
5. Using the paper cutter, cut out the paper along the edges of the document you had created.
6. Mount the Flat Paper on the A7 Flat Card using double stick tape. This creates a contrast and a layering effect.
7. Now take the decorative paper and cut out a strip of paper that is 3-4 inches wide and long enough, such that it wraps around the half moon enclosure completely.
8. Using double stick tape, adhere the decorative strip around the half moon enclosure. This adds a beautiful accent to your envelope.
9. Now take the wide satin ribbon which is 2.5 times the length of the half moon enclosure (approx. 12.5″). Make sure you cut the ribbon into a “V” shape, so that the edges don’t fray. It also makes it look more professional.
10. Wrap the ribbon length wise along the invitation card, right in the middle, and insert it in the half moon envelope. The invitation can be pulled out using this ribbon and adds a nice touch to the invitation.
11. Now put the invitation in the outer A7 envelope.
12. Note: You can create your other enclosures for RSVP, directions in a similar fashion.

Your invitation is now ready to wow your guests! Let us know what you thought of this DIY tutorial.

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.

If you are planning your wedding this year and are thinking of wedding colors, look no more! The verdict for the hottest colors this year is Mango and Turquoise. Different shades of tangerine, coral, mango, warm orange, golden yellow, peach, turquoise, blue are here to rule this wedding season. This complementary color scheme is very unique and very refreshing, especially for a summer wedding.

You can go crazy with these colors! Use them on your invitations, favors, centerpieces, specialty drinks (mango lassi!!!), accents, vases, cake, flowers, napkins, linen, and even your candy buffet! Don’t be afraid to add a splash of oranges and turquoise.

Suggested flowers: Mokara Orchid Stems, Asiastic Lilies, Gerberas, Birds of Paradise, and of course Marigold!

Here are some mango and turq inspiration boards for you:

Congratulations on your engagement! Wondering where to start from? Here is a checklist of items which will walk you through your wedding planning process. According to 2008 Wedding Industry Facts, the average length of engagement is 16 months (Courtesy: Hudson Valley Weddings). For this checklist I am going to assume an eight month engagement and wedding planning period, since Indian engagements are usually shorter. Your first month planning will definitely be the busiest. Even though the list is top heavy, don’t be afraid as the more work you do in the beginning, the less you will have to worry later.

Week 1

1. Pick a Date/Weekend: Give yourself enough time for preparation when picking a date. Also, think about the season you would prefer to get married in.
2. Estimate your Wedding Budget: Are you planning on using your own savings for the wedding? Are the parents chipping in? Now is a good time to get to talk to your fiance and both families to get the finances together for the wedding.
3. Finalize all the events: There are many events associated with an Indian Wedding Celebration. Do you want to have an engagement party, haldi, mehendi, sangeet in addition to the wedding and reception? Now is a good time to decide.
   • Tip: Take your budget into consideration when deciding the number of events and how they will be scheduled on the weekend to accommodate your out of town guests.
4. Estimate the number of guests and start a guestlist: Once you have a set budget in mind, you should estimate how big of a wedding you want. This will help you decide the other planning aspects of your wedding.
   • Tip: Make a spreadsheet of all the guests. I would suggest using Google Docs and use the following heading items for your spreadsheet, which accounts for all the details related to your guests: Guest Family, Number of people invited, Address, Email Address, Phone Number, Events invited for, Out of Town?, Save-the-Date sent?, Invitation Sent?, Gift received, Thank You Card Sent?
5. Hire a Wedding Planner (optional): If you want a planner to assist you find you your venue and other vendors, go ahead and book your wedding planner in the first week itself. This will ensure that you get maximum benefit out of hiring a planner. Make sure you get referrals from family and friends. Yelp and Wedding Wire are great places to start looking as well. A lot of planners have negotiated (discounted) rates with vendors, which can work in your favor. On the flip side, they may steer you towards the vendors with whom they have a relationship.
   • Tip: Most planners and even other vendors offer a discount if you pay them the full amount when you sign the contract. Consider doing so only if you are sure about your planner/vendor selection.
6. Start researching Venues: Finding venues for all your wedding events, which are open for the dates you picked can be very trying. Get a head start so that you can book the wedding venue of your dreams!  Schedule appointments to go visit the selected venues and start shortlisting.
   • Tip: Find out the venue requirements and policies for lighting candles, havan rituals/ fire, alcohol, parking, vendor and event insurance, cancellation or postponing the event.

Week 2

1. Choose your bridesmaids and groomsmen (optional): If you choose to do so, select your bridesmaids and groomsmen and invite them to be in your wedding party. It is always nice to send a hand written note to invite your friend/relative to your wedding party, followed by a phone call. Once they confirm, it’s a good idea to get their measurements for their outfits.
2. Pick a theme/colors and start collecting ideas: If you choose to do so, pick your colors/theme for your wedding. Regardless of whether you are having a theme of not, start gathering ideas for your wedding. Look through magazines, wedding planning blogs, even talking to your friends and cousins who recently planned their wedding.
3. Send out Save-the-Dates: Once the guestlist is finalized, send out your Save-the-Dates. You could go with something which you Do-it-Yourself, or even go to a local paperie/paper store and get them ready to be sent out. Often times, brides go with magnets with a picture of them and their fiance, or even very creative DIY Save-the-Dates according to their theme.
4. Plan your Engagement Party (optional): If you decide to do so, start planning your engagement party. You may want to have it at your parent’s house or backyard if the weather is nice, after taking the guestlist into consideration. Think about what kind of party you want: Brunch/ Hors d’oeuvres/Dinner.

Week 3

1. Finalize the Venue: By this time you should have selected your venue. Sign the contract and make the deposits.
2. Start your Wedding Registry: Decide the stores or online website where you would like to set up your wedding registry.
   • Tip: Most people go with Macy’s, Crate and Barrell, Bed Bath, Target,  Beyond and other big department stores. Personally, I recommend online websites like myregistry.com for setting up your wedding registry, as it gives you a lot more flexibility. You can add any product online and place it on your registry. Moreover, if you are a smart shopper, you can shop for the best deal to save your guests money!
3. Wedding Website (optional): Set up your wedding website with all the details of your wedding. You can purchase a domain and server space from website hosting companies like bluehost.com, godaddy.com, 1and1.com with your and your fiance’s name, for example: nehaandkart.com. Once you have the domain, you can have a friend/cousin/web developer or even yourself create a wedding website with details such as how you met, proposal, photo gallery, wedding venue and details, link to registry, RSVP, guestbook etc. Alternatively, there are many wedding planning websites, like weddingwire.com, which already have templates for wedding websites, and all you have to do is enter the content and the website is automatically created for you. You can choose to forward it to your own domain rather than the one generated by the website company. Email the website link to your friends and relatives.

Week 4

1. Start Researching Caterers: Put a little thought into your wedding menu. Are you thinking live stations, ice sculptures, chocolate fountain, fondue, specialty appetizers and drinks or simple buffet? Browse through directories of local restaurants, which fit your requirements and schedule tastings. Get per person estimates when you go for the tasting. You might also want to talk to your caterer about drink packages. Make sure that the caterer is licensed by your venue.
2. Start Researching Event Decorator/ Florists/ Mandap: Based on your theme, ideas and colors, start thinking of decor ideas. Make a list of things you need from a decorator/florist. Are you going to have special lighting for your events? Talk to various florists for centerpieces and flowers for the ceremony and reception. Also start looking for overlays, Indian event decorations, Mandap, stage for Sangeet and Sweetheart table set up etc. Get estimates for everything.
3. Start Researching Photographers: Good photographers are often booked months in advance. Get on your game and schedule meetings to book your photographer. You should definitely look at the samples of the different photographers so that you know their style (posed, photojournalistic etc.). You should also try to negotiate a photo package for all your wedding events as you don’t want to miss the special moments. Important occasions for photos include Engagement Portraits, Engagement Party, Mehendi, Sangeet, Getting Ready Pictures, Pictures of just Bride and Groom on the Wedding Day, Pictures with the Bridal Party, Ceremony, and Reception. You might want to ask the photographer for the rates of an assistant, should you need one.
4. Start Researching Videographers: Go for a videographer who has shot Indian Weddings before because they will have a good idea about the lineup of events on your wedding day and would not miss shooting your important moments. Also you would want to discuss how the media of the video: HD/ Blue Ray DVD/ Video Tape etc, whether you want raw footage or the edited video or both etc. Decide which events you need the videographer for and whether they need to have assistants or not.
5. Start Researching DJs: Do your homework to find a good DJ. Talk to different DJs to get a vibe of what kind of music they play and how often they switch it up. If you need a projector for slideshow, cables to hook up your computer to the projector, special sound system, other tech equipment, you might want to talk to the DJ and negotiate a package for that and all your other events. Also, ask the DJ if he can provide dhol/ entertainment/ music for the Baraat. It is best to select a DJ based on a performance that you have seen.
6. Start Researching Event Rentals (depends on the venue): If you are having your wedding at a museum, hall or a special location, most probably you would need to rent out everything needed for your event, from china, glassware, tableware, tablecloths to tables and chairs. This can get pricey depending on your guestlist and you definitely need the correct estimates for the number of each item to be rented with extras to spare. Do your utmost to research the most reasonable event rental company in terms of finding the best choice of rentals, as well as a company which has relaxed policies. Sometimes your caterer can provide some good referrals for the event rental companies.
7. Pick out your invitations: Start looking at different Indian Invitations Websites to look for the perfect invitation. Also, read our article on how to select a wedding invitation for some useful tips. Once you have a winner, finalize the invitation text (include your website and registry information on the invitation), and order the invitations as it takes a couple weeks for the order to be processed and shipped. You want the invitations at least 4-5 months before the wedding, so that you have enough time to address them.

Month 2

1. Finalize your Caterer, Event Decorator/ Florist/ Mandap, Photographer, Videographer, DJ, Event Rentals: You should have these vendors finalized and locked in so that you can start planning the wedding details with them. Review the contracts thoroughly before signing. Make sure they provide a reasonable alternative person/company to fill in case they are sick or under circumstances beyond their control.
2. Book your Priest/ Pundit: Based on the kind of ceremony you want, book your priest. Its always good if the priest can speak in English and translate the ceremony for the guests. Confirm their dakshina or honorarium and also the date of the wedding.
3. Select you Cake Vendor and Cake Design: If your venue or caterer does not provide one, then start looking for a cake vendor. Regardless, you will need to pick a design for your cake.
4. Make the Arrangements for Baraat and other transportation: Reserve the horse carriage, get permits if need be for the Baraat and make arrangements for limo/transportation for the day of your wedding. You may also want to book a shuttle to transport your guests to the wedding venue if different from the accommodation.
5. Book your trip to India (optional): If you are doing your wedding trousseau shopping in India, then book your plane tickets and make appropriate arrangements to take time off of work etc.

Month 3

1. Select a vendor for your Mehendi, Hair, Make up and Arranging your Dupatta or Sari: Make sure you have make up and hair trials, before you select the vendor. Interview them to make sure that they can arrange transportation to come to where you are. Also, you might want to bring pictures and discuss with them the way you want your mehendi, make up, hair, and dupatta arranged.
2. Select Wedding Outfits for the entire bridal party and Jewelry Sets for yourself: If not going to India, find a local store or travel to a city with huge Indian diaspora in the US to purchase jewelry sets for yourself and traditional outfits for yourself, your fiance and your entire bridal party. Also start looking into suits and tuxedos for the groom and groomsmen.
3. Travel to India to purchase your Wedding Trousseau (optional): Read our article on how to shop for your wedding in India for special tips.
4. Block Hotel Rooms for out of town guests: Get a block of rooms for a discounted rate for all of your out of town guests. Update your website to include the hotel information and the code to get the discount.
5. Honeymoon Suite: Book accommodations for your wedding night.

Month 4

1. Purchase your Accessories: If not going to India, then start looking for matching purse, bindis, bangles, and footwear.
2. Start planning and book your honeymoon: Decide on a destination, and book your travel, and hotel for the honeymoon. If you are traveling internationally, make sure you have valid passports and appropriate visas/ other travel papers, vaccinations etc.
3. Finalize your Menu and Service details with your caterer
4. Finalize your Decor Arrangements

Month 5

1. Get your invitations ready and Mail them: Address all your invitations and put stamps. This process can take a good week, especially if you are still in process of compiling addresses and have a huge guestlist. Use vellum or metallic labels to print addresses. You might also want to consider calligraphy.
2. Order your wedding rings/bands
3. Start looking for favors: Read our article on suggestions for special wedding favors.
4. Childcare for your Ceremony and Reception (optional): If you have many guests with babies and small  children, you might consider making arrangements for them.

Month 6

1. Alcohol and Bar Arrangements: Order liquor/alcohol for your event if you are not getting it from the caterer or venue. You might have to get a permit to serve your own alcohol at your venue and hire bartender as well.
2. Prepare Ceremony Programs and Other Stationary: Design the proof of concept for your ceremony programs. If you are designing any other stationary, scrapbooks for display etc., you should consider doing it now.
3. Research Marriage License Requiremnts: Also schedule a blood test appointment, if required by your state.
4. Song for First Dance: Select the song for your First Dance. Consider taking dance lessons or choreographing it yourself.

Month 7

1. Purchase your Guestbook, Pen and Pen Holder
2. Purchase gifts for your bridal party and close family members
3. Contact close family and friends for Sangeet Performances (optional)
4. Get all the sari and lehenga blouses stitched: You should do this for yourself and your bridesmaids.
5. Make sure that all your outfits fit properly: You still have some time to get the outfits tailored to fit you in case there have been a size change.

Month of the Wedding!

4 Weeks Before

1. Have Sangeet Performers submit their music to you
2. Send a Song List to the DJ: Make a list of your must-play songs and do-not-play song list and send it to your DJ. You should also send all the sangeet songs and the song for your First Dance to make sure the DJ has all of your music.

3 Weeks Before

1. Call guests who have not yet RSVP’d and get the final head count
2. Determine the order of your receiving line, if you are having one
3. Prepare a timeline for all your wedding events
4. Prepare a list of assignments for your bridal party and family members

2 Weeks Before

1. Give the final head count to all your vendors
2. Give the timeline of wedding events to all the vendors, members of your bridal party and family members helping
3. Create your seating chart and make the place cards: Give your seating chart to the vendors in charge of directing guests to their tables, arranging the chairs, tables, table numbers and place cards.
4. Prepare your toasts and thanks to family and friends
5. Confirm all your final payments and have them ready to be mailed out or handed over to the vendor

Week of the Wedding!

1. Hand over all the favors, guestbook, placecards, programs etc. to the event planner or the person in charge of arranging them
2. Put together an emergency kit: This should contain Aspirin, Hairspray, Make up, Safety Pins, Mints etc.
3. Pack your suitcase for the honeymoon
4. Get pampered at a Spa
5. Enjoy your Wedding Celebrations!

After you come back from your honeymoon

1. Ensure all your vendors have been fully paid: As a courtesy you may review them on wedding planning websites.
2. Arrange for your outfits to be cleaned and preserved
3. Write all your Thank You Notes: Traditional etiquette gives you an 8 week grace period.
4. If you choose to do so: Do all the paperwork to change your name, and arranging to combine finances, insurance policies etc.

I hope this checklist is comprehensive enough and will be useful for you in planning your wedding. As usual, please comment on this entry with your suggestions or email me  at neha@marigoldevents.com.

One of the big decisions that brides struggle with is whether they should go to India to shop for the wedding or not. Brides like to go to India because they get much more variety and also get it for a better price. However, the plane tickets can get expensive, especially if going with other friends or members of family, and it can be hard to take off from work. So how do you make the trip worth your while and rationalize your decision to go for shopping in India? I think a trip to India, if planned well, can not only save you a lot of money, but can also help you find the exact things you are looking for. Here are a few tips on how you can take full advantage of your shopping trip to India:

1. Research and Prepare: Research and preparing for your trip can’t be stressed enough. It is very important to prepare an itinerary for your trip before you go. Get as much information as you can before you leave. If you have relatives, call them to make trip arrangements, like accommodations, transportation, and may be even ask them if they can accompany you on your shopping trips. If you don’t have relatives, then you have to be on top of all the arrangements for your trip. Research shopping areas in the city you are planning on going to, talk to other brides, read about latest Indian styles, and bring color swatches and samples on your trip. You want to make sure that you don’t fall sick on the trip, so make sure you take all your shots before you go, and also drink bottled water. Carry an emergency medicine kit and also dress modestly when going to shop.

2. Pick up your Wedding Invitations: It might be a good idea to bring back your wedding invitations from India yourself, so that you can save on the shipping/courier costs.

Shopping for Wedding Trousseau

3. Wedding Trousseau: Get outfits for yourself and your fiance to wear at all of the wedding functions. If your fiance is not coming with you, then make sure that you take all of his measurements required to order his sherwani/suit. You might want to pick up a couple extra sarees and salwar kameez while you are in India as a part of your trousseau. You should also take care of all your tailoring such as blouse stitching, saree falls etc. while you are in India, so that you don’t have to worry about in when you get back. You might consider buying saree pins as well.

4. Jewelry: Read about the latest jewelry styles in Indian Fashion Magazines and Websites. Although, gold is traditionally bought during weddings, but you might also want to consider Polki, Diamond, Jadau or even Semi Precious Costume Jewelry. Necklace and earrings are a must! You can also add special touches to your look by getting a maatha patti/teeka, amulets (baaju bandh) and anklets (payal).

Anklets and Amulet

5. Accessories – Bindis, Bangles, Shoes and Purses: You can gorgeous matching accessories in India for reasonable prices. You can’t get better bindis and bangles anywhere else, but India. There is a huge selection to choose from and you can mix and match very easily. Embellished shoes and clutch bags are also available in great varieties and good prices.

Image Courtesy - Flickr:jk10976

6. Bridal Party’s Outfits: You should definitely purchase bridemsaids’ sarees and groomsmens’ sherwanis in India. Not only will this save you a lot of money, but also hassle. This is the first thing you should shop for when going to India, because finding identical outfits can be a pain and you might have to get them custom made. Hence, it is also important to carry your bridal party’s measurements. For women, also get the blouses stitched in India.You could also get your immediate family’s outfits from India as well.

7. Mandap drapes: If your wedding colors are unique, you might consider getting your mandap drapery stiched in India. You can beautiful embellishments and trimmings on your mandap, which will look exclusive. All you would need to do is talk to your decorator and get the measurements.

8. Money Envelopes, Gifts and Welcome Bags: You can purchase beautiful stationary while in India for your wedding. You have a huge choice when it comes to Money Envelopes and Bags – You can get them in organza, gorgeous hand made paper, and they come embellished with stones and trimmings. You might consider purchasing gifts for members of family, bridesmaids and groomsmen. Danglers/Earrings for women and ties/cufflinks for men make great gifts and take up less luggage room as well.

9. Overlays/ Table cloths: You might consider getting table cloths or overlays to accent your decor. You can get premium table cloths (organza, brocade etc.) stitched in India for less than the rental price of simple white table linen in the US. Overlays are even cheaper! So if you know your wedding colors, carry some swatches and look up table meaurements in order to get your overlays and table cloths custom tailored in India.

10. Favors: Another way to cut on costs by shopping in India could be purchasing favors. You can get beautiful favors ranging from $1 – $5 per piece. If you buy in bulk quantity, you can negotiate the price with the vendor. Jewelry and Trinket boxes, Incense stick holders, Diffusers etc. all make great favors!

If you are thinking of throwing an engagement party in India, it might be a good idea to combine your shopping trip with that. While you are in India, you might also want to take advantage of the reasonable beauty and spa treatments. Please share your India shopping experiences with us here!

Continuing with our Inspiration from henna, we will design a Reception Program. For Mehendi inspired program, you will want to have a palette of rich colors. Rusts, Golds, Silvers, Magenta, Reds are all good to start with. Once you know which color you will use, based on the number of guests that are attending, buy enough paper. Paper-Source is one of my favorite stores to buy stationary from. They have great products for DIY projects. Following is the final product of this tutorial:

Follow along this tutorial to create your custom henna inspired reception programs. Remember to save your document at regular intervals:

1. Open a standard 8.5″ X 11″ document in Microsoft Word.
2. Select Page Setup from File Menu to change the orientation of the paper from portrait to landscape.
3. Insert a Table in the document with 1 row and 3 columns.
4. Now position the table in the top left corner and stretch the table all the way to the bottom right corner, such that the page is divided into three equal sections.
5. If you want to remove the bounding lines of the table, then right click on the table. Select Borders and Shading. Now select the custom setting, and get rid of the side borders, and just keep the border that divides the page into three equal sections.
6. Use the Insert Menu > Picture > From File to insert your motif/pattern in the document. Following are the images you need to make your henna inspired program.  
7. Right click on the image and select Format Picture to change its size, alignment, layout etc.
8. After formatting the images, you have your template ready. Following is what the final template looks like.
9. You can now add text using your favorite font. One of my favorite fonts for Wedding Stationary is Edwardian Script ITC. An excellent website to download any font you can imagine is: DaFont.
10. Your programs are now ready to be printed on your favorite colored paper. Always test print on one sheet of paper before sending a large number of copies to be printed.
11. Cut your programs with a paper cutter. Alternatively, take them to Kinkos or Staples, and have them cut the stack for you. Since one sheet has two lines, the whole stack would just need two cuts and should be around $1.00 per cut.

Hope you had fun following along this DIY tutorial. Let us know what you think and if you have any questions.

Henna or Mehendi is an indispensable South Asian wedding tradition and celebration. The tradition of Mehendi, where hands and feet of the bride are adorned with beautiful designs, is celebrated with the beats of dholak and festive dancing. Henna Designs look gorgeous on every bride, because of it’s beautiful color and also the intricacy of the patterns used. Paisleys, peacock, shehnai, palki, often feature as bridal henna patterns. These lovely details can be used as inspiration and applied to other elements of your wedding.

There are a number ways to incorporate the art of henna in your wedding, such as your wedding cake, stationary, and even your overlays/linen for the reception tables. You can start with selecting a henna pattern for your feet and hands and applying it to the other elements of your wedding. There are different styles of henna patterns that you can choose from:

The Middle Eastern or Arabic style: This style of Mehendi is inspired by Arabic textiles, paintings and carvings, where floral patterns are used. It is less detailed and intricate, but at the same time open and flowing. Instead of having fill-in designs, the patterns are boldy colored. Many popular Arabic designs are vines and leaves with beautiful flowers. The latest fashion is to incorporate colored glitter with Arabic Mehendi, which looks absolutely stunning.

The North African style: This style is very bold, where the design normally follows the shape of the hands and feet with geometric floral patterns composed of dots and lines. No fine lines or fill-in are used but it’s still very different from Arabic Mehendi. It is very simple, but very pretty.

The Indian and Pakistani style: This style extends beyond the hands and feet and the patterns are usually made up of paisley patterns, peacocks and teardrops. It is the most detailed and intricate, as well as, the most time consuming and exhausting design to produce for the artist. This is the most traditional style of Mehendi that is applied on brides’ hands and feet.

Once you select the style of Mehendi you want, you should browse some Mehendi catalogs and the web to select the appropriate design. To apply Mehendi inspiration to your cake, consult with your cake vendor. An ivory background with dark brown icing on fondant looks absolutely stunning. Alternately you could add sparkles to your cake with a hint of color.

To add a touch of henna to your stationary, scan your design using a scanner and a computer, and use it for your programs and other stationary. Alternately, find a stock photo online, for example, you can use iStockPhoto, to find Mehendi patterns. Look out for my next blog post which will go over an example of creating a Reception Program using a henna pattern.

For henna inspired overlays/linen, you can use table cloths that are rust in color. You can also top it off with gold organza overlays with paisley designs with beautiful trimmings. These overlays can be found at Event Rentals. Alternately, if you go for your wedding shopping to India, you can easily get these made over there. If you want to go overboard, you can get your table cloths made in India. One idea could be to use brocade for your table cloths and get them custom made according to your table measurements. To find the perfect measurements for your tables, look here.

Mehendi is beautiful, no matter which style you choose. The colors and patterns are very intriguing and stunning. Using henna as inspiration can add a touch of tradition, elegancy and beauty to your wedding. If you have more questions, please comment on this post or email me at neha@marigoldevents.com. To end this post, for your entertainment, here is one of the many Bollywood songs about Mehendi, Mehendi Racha Ke Rakhna from Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge.