How about getting married on the beach  with the waves playing the music? So what if it is scorching summer and the sands are as hot as burning coal?
For the rich and mighty,  these days, normal weddings are boring! Beaches in Goa are the best places to get married. With a number of five star hotels dotting the coastline, every need is taken care of and for the bride and bridegroom, as well as for the guests, it becomes an event to cherish forever.
Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan may have tied the knot in a low key wedding ceremony away from the preying eyes of the media but it was one celebrity wedding that remained on the front pages of almost all leading newspapers and hogged much of the limelight on television channels. But there are the not-so-famous but rich whose weddings may go unnoticed but are lavish nevertheless.
Chalo Goa!
One of their most favoured destinations is Goa, the most popular holiday destination in India. Yes, this is the wedding season in Goa and despite the sweltering heat, the sands of the Goan beaches are the favourite place on earth for the chosen couples to take saat pheras. 
The five star hotels are fully geared to meet the demands of these families who either book the entire hotel or most of the rooms for three to four days. The Taj Holiday Village, which has more than 100 villas is a favourite destination as its villas are on the beach and the whole village has plenty of space for the guests to spend their time, literally holidaying around.  According to Mr Santosh Kutty, general manager of the hotel, “There have been Indian weddings, cross-cultural weddings and international weddings.   Some of them are quite crazy, they will have the mehendi ceremony in one hotel,  wedding in another and reception in a third hotel.”
A recent wedding of the Mittal family for example, had the bride’s mehendi ceremony in Taj Exotica, wedding in Leela Kempinski and reception in Holiday Village. In fact, for this wedding, the family had got a huge hall `constructed’ with steel and aluminium sheets and got the entire hall air conditioned for an evening’s ceremony. “The total expense for this wedding was around Rs 6 crore,” says one of the executives of the hotel.
The guests who come to attend these ceremonies also combine it with a holiday for themselves. “So, we have renovated our villas and added the latest gadgets like LCD TVs, battery operated buggies to take them from one place to another and for children, we have added an activity centre where they are kept engaged while the parents attend various ceremonies and hop from hotel to hotel,” says Derek Monteiro, who is a man much in demand as guest relations officer. He is also a bird lover and is worried that the large collection —about 80 different species who have made the hotel environs their home —may get disturbed by the loud music.
In Exotica, they have even included jacuzzi in rooms and villas, apart from sprucing up the spas. Goa is safe. There are women walking around wearing costly jewellery — glittering diamonds that sparkle in the darkness. “They are perfectly safe though we have open beaches to our hotels. There is a lot of privacy and no gatecrashers. That is one reason, perhaps, they prefer to get married in Goa,” says Allwyn Drego, the young GM of Exotica. “We also like to pamper them with various kinds of exotic dishes, prepared by our experienced chefs and the guests who come to attend these weddings would like to come back again and again.”
The ceremonies are quite elaborate. For the mehendi ceremony, one restaurant, say for example, the Thai restaurant under the large banyan tree at THV (Taj Holiday Village), is entirely booked and the big banyan tree is decorated with marigold flowers and colourful lights.
“Sometimes, they like to have exclusive dinners or the bridegroom would like to throw a party for his close friends. So, even for four or five people, we set up exclusive tables right on the beach, closer to the waters,” says Executive chef Jeevan Thomas.
Night on the beach
After a cozy, private dinner, the groom and his friends can spend the whole night on the seashore undisturbed. There is a bar, a barbecue counter and music, if needed. The weddings also are theme-based. There are ‘Egyptian nights’, ‘Goan village’, and various props are put up  like the ‘Leaning Tower of Pisa’, ‘Taj Mahal’ (which is a hot favourite for obvious reasons). “In the night, under the open sky, these artificial monuments glitter. There are also fireworks that can be seen miles away,” says Kutty.
These hotels have also added a spa, and health club facilities so that the bride and her friends go for various treatments before the D-day. There are separate spas for men too and a good facial and hair styling is a must. The spas are much in demand and one has to book much in advance. “Earlier, people used to come to Goa to have Goan food and feni. Now we get a more international clientele. So, we strive to provide any type of food they want. Sometimes, in the reception dinners, you will find food from all the six continents and the best of wines from various parts of the world,” says Jeevan. Feni still remains the favourite of the foreigners who find the sun and sand an ideal getaway from their cold countries.  But the bar men also try and create many cocktails every month. “There are more than 30 different cocktails on any given day ,” he adds. Everything comes with a price and these villas can cost anywhere from Rs 15,000 to Rs 60,000 per night. But it is of no concern to those who organise weddings here as it is still cheaper performing a wedding in Goa than in London or New York, or even Mumbai. 
“At other places too, hosts have to provide accommodation and guests would expect nothing but the best, Here, apart from getting a good accommodation, they also get a fantastic holiday,” says Gurdeep Singh from Patiala who has come with  his whole family for a relative’s wedding.
What more can one want for that important moment in one’s life? Five star hotel as venue,  international cuisine,  security, the right ambience, entertainers who are flown in from various countries (even purohits are brought from other cities).. .
 The season is in full swing—and hoteliers aren’t complaining!