The Ultimate Guide to Planning an Indian Wedding
Need help planning the perfect Indian wedding? We’ve got you. At The Mere, we’re uniquely placed to offer time-honed advice on Indian wedding ceremonies, calling on our vast experience of hosting multicultural and multi-faith marriages for hundreds of happy couples over the years.
Whether you’re looking to give your Indian wedding a unique touch or are happy to stick with all the customary traditions, planning your ceremony needn’t be stressful. Our guide offers practical tips and inspiration, with advice for couples of Indian heritage planning a wedding that reflects themselves as well as their faith.
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· Creating Your Wedding Guestlist
Choosing a Wedding Date
Naming a date for your wedding is something you’ll want to finalise early in your preparations. That way, you’ll have a date to aim towards and a point around which to organise other aspects of your day. Not only that, but it’ll help appease those eager relatives, too.
Remember, also, that a proportion of your guestlist may be travelling from overseas, so the more time they have to make arrangements, the happier they’ll be. Settling on a date well in advance has other benefits, too, like a wider choice of prospective venues and cheaper rates on some services.
Of course, there are a couple of faith-related factors you may wish to consider when choosing your wedding date. For example, for Hindu weddings, you may wish to consult with a pandit or priest, who will recommend an auspicious wedding date based on your date and time of birth. Typically, such dates fall between April-June and November-December; worth bearing in mind in the early stages of planning your day.
Creating Your Wedding Guestlist
Any married couple of Indian origin will be able to attest to how tricky creating a wedding guestlist can be. Your parents and close relatives may have different expectations about who should be at the wedding than you do, so diplomacy and care are often needed to make sure everyone is happy – without compromising your own wishes.
A good place to start is to sit down and draw up a list of family members and close friends that you (as a couple) would like at your ceremony. Then, ask both sets of parents to do the same.
When you have three separate lists, it’s time for the difficult task of prioritising – and perhaps omitting – some guests from the list. Before you do this, it pays to have a rough ballpark in mind of how many people you can reasonably accommodate. This will ultimately streamline the process, and help you stay in complete control of your guestlist from the earliest stages.
Choosing a Venue for Your Indian Wedding
The next thing you’ll be eager to pin down is your wedding venue. Not only should your choice of venue accommodate your requirements and guestlist, but it also needs to be convenient enough for guests to access – particularly those who may be travelling from overseas.
To help you land on the perfect venue for your Indian wedding ceremony, here are a few key things to consider:
· Space requirements – from the ceremony to the sangeet, the scale of a traditional Indian wedding means you’ll require plenty of space and, potentially, individual venues for certain parts of the event.
· Specialist services – as well as space, certain features of Indian weddings, including ceremonial fires and baraats, need specialist services, so be sure to factor these requirements into your search.
· Lighting, equipment, and decorations – given the key differences between Indian and Western wedding ceremonies, be sure to ask the venue coordinator about the types of lighting and equipment available within the space, as well as the types of decorations that can be accommodated. It’s also worth asking about their experience of managing Indian weddings, so you can ascertain whether they’re the right fit for you.
· Packages – does the venue offer packages specifically designed for multicultural weddings? And what level of inclusions can you expect for the total reservation cost?
· Timings – remember: Indian wedding ceremonies can last significantly longer than their Western counterparts, so make this known to your venue, as it may affect the price or the availability of certain facilities on site throughout the day.
Planning Your Budget
Budgeting for your Indian wedding can be difficult since there’s so much to consider and factor into your overall spending plan. And even with the support of parents and close relatives, it’s still important to budget and plan for all those essentials – otherwise, costs can quickly spiral.
Coming up with a ‘comfortable’ budget range is the best way to budget for your wedding without putting an easy-to-breach exact figure on things. For instance, if you could comfortably afford to spend £100,000 on your wedding, a good budget range might be £80,000-£120,000, which accounts for any savings you make or any big purchases that you end up splurging on.
To stay on top of your budget, we’d recommend using a wedding budget calculator. There are lots of apps and sites that can help you track your wedding finances, as well as good old Microsoft Excel.
Indian Wedding Checklist
Wedding nearing and convinced you’ve forgotten something? Here’s a checklist that can help you make sure everything is present and accounted for:
· Key ceremony events – sangeet, grah shanti, mehndi? Which ceremonies do you hope to include as part of your big day?
· Catering – have you accounted for all meals and all guest requirements? Finalise catering as early as possible to minimise stress here
· Drinks and specialist beverages
· Invites and save the dates
· Wedding and bridal party attire
· Hair and makeup
· Mehndi or Henna artist
· Photographer and videographer
· Décor, floristry, and colour theming
· DJ and entertainment
· Transportation for the wedding party and guests
· Hotel rooms and accommodation for travelling and overseas guests
· Table arrangements and seating plans
Plan Your Indian Wedding at The Mere
At The Mere, we provide luxury wedding spaces and event packages that cater to all faiths, and regularly host ceremonies of the primary Indian religions. With venue options to suit ceremonies big and small, we’re confident we can provide the ideal place for your Indian wedding in the heart of the beautiful Cheshire countryside.
Booking a wedding package at The Mere means benefiting from our exceptional service and attention to detail. All our couples have access to our events management team, as well as a variety of catering and entertainment options to help make your day your own.
Working alongside some of the best caterers and suppliers in the North West, we’re experienced in hosting weddings and events for people from all backgrounds and walks of life. That means from the moment you book your wedding with us, you’ll enjoy your attentive care and service, as we help you plan a wedding celebration to remember.
We hope this guide has provided some guidance, advice, and inspiration for your forthcoming Indian wedding. If you’re interested in hearing more about planning your wedding at The Mere, why not visit our dedicated Indian and Asian weddings page for further details? You can also talk directly with our team by calling 01565 830155.