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Enjoying an authentic Gregorian wedding in Doric structures or a savouring a reception on the beach is no longer a dream, thanks to ‘La’kiru’.
The brainchild of Lakshmi Keerthi, an engineer-turned-entrepreneur, ‘La’kiru’ was started five years ago. Lakshmi works towards planning, designing and customising different themes and settings for weddings, based on the client’s requirements.
The software engineer, who dabbled in codes in different IT companies for years, had a passion for design at an early age.
She fondly recalls the times she would sketch, customise her own clothes and try out different designs.
Soon, she started designing apparel for her family and friends and also used to pay attention to the decorations every time she went for a wedding.
After quitting her corporate job, she started off as a trousseau designer. While she was designing the trousseau of a groom once, the couple’s parents asked her to organise the wedding as well. This gave her the idea of starting a full-fledged venture on wedding planning. Gradually, she built a strong team and today, ‘La’kiru’ deals with all aspects of a wedding — from interior decoration, floral arrangement, apparel design, choreography to even honeymoon destinations.
Planning her first wedding stands crystal-clear in her mind; the time she gave the ‘sangeeth’ a Moroccan look, brought out a contemporary purple-and-silver setting for the engagement and kept the wedding traditional by decorating the ‘mantap’ with red and white ‘diyas’.
Lakshmi gained success through word-of-mouth and has gone on to design a multitude of weddings ever since. She fondly remembers the time she gave the Bangalore Palace a rustic, bucolic look. “I created a ‘mantap’ and also incorporated the five elements of earth, fire, water, wind and sky. It was one of the most challenging and memorable weddings.”
She is constantly researching on new trends and feels that today, youngsters get involved in wedding planning. “The current trend is the Bollywood theme, where youngsters want their weddings to be based on a song that they have seen. Though they want a modern look for their weddings, they are also in tune with tradition which is a good trend.”
She makes sure that none of the colours or designs are repeated in a wedding.
Though couples have approached her a month and sometimes, even a year before the wedding, she feels that three months is the ideal time to plan.
She is flexible with her timings and cost and is firm on the fact that customisation depends on the time given to her.
Initially, she found it difficult to manage her own company. But she now loves her job. “On the 30th of each month, I used to get my salary. But now, I am the one giving the salary,” she laughs.
Excited about her new project, a wedding amidst the backdrop of a miniature version of the Tirupathi Temple, she says that her main objective is to let the family enjoy and savour the emotional feel of a wedding while she looks into the mercenary and commercial side of it.