Now, make a statement with designer weddings!

Given the nod, the city's wedding planners will be raring to go to make each and every moment of your D-day a unique and memorable experience and that too with all the grandeur and pyrotechnics for something as low as Rs 3 lakh.
"It's a myth that only the upper-urbanised class was keen on designer weddings. It's not always about spending a million dollars," says decor stylist and wedding planner Swati Pandya Sood.

What is most important according to her is that "your style shows".
"Weddings in India are lifestyle-oriented. Everything needs to be designer and contemporary. It's about making a statement," feels Sood, owner of Bollywood Secrets.
The trend of hiring wedding planners is growing even among the middle class as these expert professionals give a personalised touch to a marriage ceremony by making it theme based as per the choice of bride and groom.

"What makes a designer wedding different from its traditional form is a theme-based arrangement as here we incorporate innovative ideas with the help of state-of-the-art techniques to make the biggest day of a couple's life special and unique," says Manik Chopra of Mansha Wedding.

"The most popular theme weddings in the city are aqua marriage, Taj Mahal vivah, Ram vivah, Kundan vivah and Ganesha vivah," says Chopra.
Describing the process of arranging a theme wedding, Pankaj Bindal from Showmakerz Wedding says, "In aqua marriage, we prepare a pandal using white and blue clothes and with the help of special lighting create an ambiance of an ocean, while in Kundan vivah the whole stage is made up of pearls and other colourful stones."

Apart from decorating the venue, these experts plan each and everything about your marriage right from the card designing, entertainment, catering, designer trousseau packing, jewellery, make up, mehendiwalas, photography and choreography.
"When we take charge of a wedding, we make sure that our clients do not face any difficulties. We not only decorate the venue and provide catering but also take care of other things like wedding dress, jewellery, make up and entertainment," says Chopra.
"Although there is no upper cost limit, on an average families of brides and grooms are ready to shell out Rs 20 to 30 lakh per marriage in the capital. However, we have arranged weddings for as low as Rs 3 lakh," he says.
"Generally families want to call Bollywood singers like Sonu Nigam, Kumar Shanu, Sukhvinder and item girls like Rakhi Sawant and Kashmira Shah for entertaining their guests but as their price start from Rs 50,000 per night in low cost marriages we call local artists," says Bindal.

"We compromise here and there by using readymade pandals or good hotels, less expensive music bands and sober decoration with flowers and fancy lighting," says Bindal.

But the general feeling among affluent families in Delhi is that they are ready to spend to the full of their capacity during a wedding as they find it the perfect occasion to exhibit their money.

According to available data, the wedding business in the city has crossed the 50,000-crore mark.

The growing tendency of spending on marriages in the city can be gauged from the fact that till now Showmakerz Wedding alone has booked 12-13 marriages at a total cost of around Rs 4 crore so far while Mansha Wedding has got 8-9 assignments of nearly Rs 3 crore.

But their common regret is lack of exotic marriage venues in Delhi due to which most of the time they have to turn to farm houses in Mahipalpur and Gurgaon.
"This is the reason why rich and affluent Delhiites insist on arranging marriages outside Delhi like in backwaters of Kerala, foothills of Khandala, beaches of Goa, Jaisalmer and Jaipur forts and sometime abroad like in Switzerland," says Sood.