OFFBEAT OPTIONS
Making moolah out of marriages
Komal Vijay Singh

Inspired by Bollywood flicks and star-studded Page Three events, the Great Indian Wedding has become a designer affair. But often, behind the glitz and glamour is the sweat and toil of the wedding planner. The recent film Hum Tum may have glamourised the role of a wedding planner and serials like Hum Sab Baraati may give it a comic twist, but planning a wedding is serious business.

Marriages are made in heaven but weddings are planned in the real world. Weddings, especially Indian ones, are rarely free of a slew of worries, anxieties and some amount of chaos.

A wedding planner needs to have an eye for detail and the ability to innovate.

In our part of the world, marriages have always been family-centric. Right from the time the match is fixed, euphoric cries of shaadi hai, shaadi hai rent every nook and corner of the house. All wedding arrangements, right from the shaadi ke laddoo to the vidaai ki samagri, are entrusted to close relatives, who offer their expertise and time in good measure. For some time, before the wedding, all other activity save shaadi ki tayyari is suspended. In general, pandemonium reigns. And if it doesn't, well, something is amiss.

However, with families getting scattered across geographical boundaries the joint family system has become an aberration rather than the norm. Hectic lifestyles, globalisation and the desire to make an impact minus the bother has spawned the demand for a professional who can arrange a hassle-free wedding.

Sumit Sharma and fiance`E9 Samita, who realised the need for a helping hand rather late in the day, were in a quandary over how much to spend and which vendors to choose. These worries escalated with every passing day in tandem with the rising marriage costs. After the euphoria wore off and reality bit the dust, they were shocked to discover how much running around was involved in arranging a wedding.

Here steps in the professional, dubbed a wedding planner, wedding coordinator, wedding designer or wedding consultant. He/she takes up the onerous task of arranging your wedding with you never having to leave the confines of your home and office.

Not long ago, a wedding planner was considered to be a designer dude hired by those with ample moolah. Now, the same fellow has become the lynchpin of a well-planned wedding. He promises to turn your dreams into reality without you having to reckon with the hard labour that would put even a Hercules to shame.

Jai Raj Gupta, CEO of shaadionline.com, India's first web portal which offers a host of wedding services, says planning a marriage is quietly but surely coming into its own in India. Irrespective of one's status, but within one's budget, weddings have to be a grand, once-in-a-lifetime affair. This is a huge, largely unorganised market waiting to be tapped.

The need for planners arose because of couples' desire for smart spending and doing things in style. With the bride and the groom and everyone else around them leading equally busy lives, no one has the time to personally ensure that all details are in place. The planner takes the agony out of meticulous planning, coordinating and executing the function.

Wedding planner Vandana Bhardwaj, who works for Gupta, says, "As a career option, it can't get more exciting than this. A wedding planner enjoys the independence and flexibility of operating one's own business. You can take on as much work as you want, operate from home and plan your own schedules. Opportunities abound as weddings take place all the time. One can have a satisfying, thriving career full of thrills."

And what does it take to be a wedding planner? A whole host of qualities, you bet. Vandana, who has done a postgraduate diploma in advertising and PR, says it is all about being a good communicator, negotiator, mediator, money manager, sounding board and therapist. Currently pursuing an MBA degree, she says one has to work at all levels and become a part, a sensitive and sensible one at that, of the shaadi ka ghar.

Her colleague, Meghna Dewan, who quit her job as a copywriter to take up this unconventional career, talks of "having a creative mind and giving a personalised touch to everything to do with the wedding. With clients taking inspiration from movies, fiction and fantasies, all details and desires have to be brought to life."

Geeta Samuel, who was in the spotlight for arranging Virender Sehwag's wedding and that of Vandana Luthra's daughter's, avers, "It is a tough and demanding job with long and odd hours." Sample this: While Sehwag was merrily hitting centuries in Pakistan, Samuel's team was taking care of the nitty-gritty of his wedding back home.

A planner must be knowledgeable and innovative about menus and floral decorations and familiar with music trends. He must have an eye for colour and a good fashion sense. Also, he must be thoroughly conversant with the customs, rituals and traditions of various religions that form an intrinsic part of wedding ceremonies.

He has to primarily plan the wedding in keeping with the client's desires, help him in taking decisions, preparing budgets and ensuring hiccup-free proceedings from the time the wedding date is fixed till the event gets over.

Nikita Mehra, who boasts of a plethora of clients from the upper crust, says her job entails booking a banquet hall, arranging an orchestra or a band troupe, planning the guest list and sending out invites, shopping for the trousseau and packing it, negotiating deals with the caterer, florist and photographer, arranging the puja paraphernalia and getting hold of a pandit, arranging guests' transportation and tickets for the honeymoon.

Geeta sums it up, "My job is to create imaginative, unforgettable moments for families hard-pressed for time, but willing to fork out a neat sum for the sake of wonderful memories.

We can thank filmmaker Mira Nair for giving us Monsoon Wedding and making India the ultimate wedding destination. Whether it is the cash-rich NRI with a yen for the traditional wedding or the gung-ho foreigner, fascinated by the exotica on offer, they are all flocking here with friends and relatives to exchange wedding vows. The Taj Mahal, the ultimate symbol of love, becomes the backdrop for traditional Indian finery. The palaces and havelis of Rajasthan are the other hotspots. Not to be left behind, Indians are asking for Egyptian and Swiss locales or the Wild West to be recreated.

Geeta says she has conjured up a Mughal court, an underground waterworld, a thakur's haveli and a Sheesh Mahal for her clients.