Big fat Indian destination weddings are back… and this time with even more drama

If 2021 was about #cancelculture, 2022 is all about taking #revenge. But not in the way you think. From revenge travel and revenge dressing, to revenge partying, people are claiming back things that the pandemic took away for two years.

When it comes to the social calendar, how can the Indian shaadi be far behind? With people now taking off to every part of the globe post-COVID, ‘tis the season for baraatis to arrive on a jet plane to a larger-than-life event set against a backdrop of panoramic views.

Wedding planners are pulling out all stops when it comes to the big fat Indian weddings as YS Life discovered, after peeking into the diaries of planners, curators and designers, and a bride and groom, too!

Mandaps on the global map

What do you get when you have a planeload of friends and family, fun, chatter, and a whole lot of love? A perfect recipe for a shaadi.

Now, throw in some season magic of November and December, and you have a dream winter wedding setting! 

Aditya Motwane, Director at Motwane Entertainment and Weddings, who crafts these high-end destination weddings shares why winter weddings are such a hot grab.

“We just did snowy weddings in November in Florence and another in Zurich and they were postcard-pretty! From the flowers to the candles, linen even white desserts fit into the theme and it looked like a winter wonderland!” he says. 

Families are not shying away from exotic locations. The annual report by wedding services portal WedMeGood throws light on how destination weddings have made a comeback, with Jaipur, Udaipur, and Goa being the usual choices. Other slightly offbeat settings include Mahabaleshwar, Puri, Pushkar, and Ranthambore.

Thailand, Dubai, Bali and Azerbaijan are emerging as the top international destinations in 2022.

Aditya recently organised a wedding in Marrakech and says he even has a bunch of inquiries about such events in Kenya.

Wondering which city is trending in the wedding planning circles?

“Watch out for Doha, Muscat and Bahrain, the trio is big. Turkey is another popular location now with Bodrum and Anatolia being hotspots,” Aditya says, “Just like bucket list travel was so important to everyone post-COVID, weddings are also grabbing the same sentiment. People want to feel they’ve tried something different.”

A Wakanda wedding?

Sure, the places make for a scenic backdrop, but the 70 mm-inspired themes add drama.

Joel John of Rainmaker Wedding Planners says cinematic influences are making for these quirky, eccentric themes.

“People want to go beyond what regular weddings can do. That’s why thematic experiences like bringing a sophisticated world of Wakanda from the movie Black Panther into reality pique their interest. But it’s got to be detailed–one has to curate the entire food and bar menu, décor to match, bring in artistes and give guests outfits to go with it, etc,” he says.

And that’s one example. His company has worked on some radical ideas like an underwater theme called Atlantis.

“Avatar 2 is about to release, so took elements from the movie and created the whole Avatar world for a sangeet event last week in Trivandrum,” he adds.

He's also created a Harry Potter setting for another wedding and used pop culture elements in yet another theme called Cyberpunk 2077, where the wedding was based around the game.

An avid gamer, Joel adds, “I love this videogame; it’s a bestseller and the client was a huge fan of it. We brought in the neon streets of Tokyo and Seoul, which are beautifully embedded in the game in the décor, the entry and more.”

For one wedding, he rolled three quirky themes into a single series with a ‘kaleidoscope’ mehendi, ‘cyberpunk’ sangeet and a ‘purple ball’ for the post-wedding reception. His designs bagged the Best Entertainment Design Award of the Year.

“It was among the 12 best weddings at the GWA (The Great Indian Wedding Awards),” he adds.

According to Joel, his clients in Kerala are NRIs who are frequent travelers and watch a lot of OTT content and they want their weddings to represent their tastes.

“I’ve got requests like, ‘Can you get the Squid Game guards for our entry?’ or ‘Can you get Game of Thrones White Walkers to just walk around?’ So, there are endless ideas and they’re sometimes crazy and fun,” he adds.

Tech that

Way back in 2005, Neelabh Kapoor created a 320-feet long stage and 160 feet in height dome in Mumbai for a wedding where Gothic arches met Disney characters in Japanese Zen-like landscaping. Two large bridges took guests to the main stage.

That was almost 20 years ago. Cut to today, his Studio Neelabh, a luxury wedding planning company specialising in design and décor, is experimenting with new ideas.

Neelabh shares how it’s no longer about going floral. According to him, a key trend now is to recreate landmarks of other countries. For example, he created a version of St Petersburg as a palace for a diamond merchant in Mumbai.

“The definition of lavishness has changed post-COVID. It’s scaled into a detail-oriented, consciously-Instagrammable wedding, in every aspect from the design to the décor and materials used,” he states. 

Technology is whipping up a whole lot of fun. One of the destination weddings, which had seven locations for each function, had its last event at the luxurious Bab Al Shams Desert Resort in Dubai.

“The beauty was we had to create a concept for 880 guests in the sprawling property without cordoning off any area. We created a moon-shaped dome, approximately 100 metres in diameter, with the mandap on a raised platform. The rituals were done late at night and the mega moon dome had projections thrown all around, with a feel of the galaxy along with shlokas by voiceover artists. Large scale is an understatement,” he says.  

Instagram is everywhere and it’s bringing out creativity to another level in destination weddings.

“Today, it’s about having areas where people can create more content, and brides and grooms have realised this, too," Neelabh says. "It’s a complete generation shift where they’re embracing new-age themes with less structure and they tell us it should “look more Instagrammable”.

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How Suzanne found her perfect match at weddings

Currently in trend are different designed areas, or pop-up corners, which may have no relation to each other. They could be futuristic concepts planned with immersive ideas such as allowing guests to try on digital jewellery and branded uber-chic ensembles. Or creating avatars of the guests and making reels of them.

“You walk in, the camera captures you, converts that to an avatar, and creates a story instantly! For a guest, that becomes a moment of the evening,” he reveals.

Big money

Blue lagoons, palm-fringed islands, desert slopes, snowy peaks and some of the world’s tallest buildings–these shoots are as exotic as they get. But they come with their share of cost and quirks, too! Photographers, who capture the thrill of the wedding story, say these projects can be challenging.

“We’ve done underwater shoots where we ask the bride-to-be to wear flowy gowns. This is usually kiss shot or a ring exchange that has to be captured in a few seconds. We have to get the couple to hold their breath, smile and make it look natural and it’s challenging! We also did a pre-wedding hot air balloon shoot in Manali recently, which was so exciting, but not easy,” Megha Israni, Founder of Israni Photography, says.

Those panoramic desert dune shoots look so mesmerising, but they require preparation. “You’re doing this in 45 degrees in June or July with skin burns and rashes happen as well as dehydration. It’s just like a film shoot with a spot boy who has to be at hand,” she adds.

Costs can hit the roof here. Megha shares how these shoots require a team of five—a photographer, cinematographer, drone operator, and shoot director who manages everything.

“The cost is inclusive of travel fare and stay for a five-member group goes up to four to five lakhs for two nights. Often, we need to do a recce to make sure the shoot plan flows effectively,” Megha says.

She also busts a myth. A lot of pre-wedding shoots have been happening in Gulmarg, Kashmir, and Manali. People may think that this is cheaper than going abroad, but it is not.

“You’re looking at Rs one a lakh a night at least,” she says, adding. “This season, I’ve also done a pre-wedding shoot in Banaras, which was amazing as a couple was inspired by the song Kesariya.” 

The year-end is also the holiday season, making prices hit sky-high. Aditya says an average destination wedding can begin upwards of Rs 2 lakh per person for a three-day extravaganza at say, a beach destination. The price tag can up to Rs 4 lakh in Europe and with star performers and Michelin-star chefs flying in, that amount doubles to about Rs 8 lakh per person, depending on the scale and size of the event.

Even for a mini destination, he starts planning four months ahead, going into a whole year’s advance prep for a big wedding.

“But more than being about the planning, it’s about crisis management,” Aditya grins.

Food curation

When it comes to the food experience at the destination wedding, it’s literally about three key elements: chefs, equipment, and ingredients arranged locally or flown in from different parts.

From 12-course Michelin-starred dinners to soirees and sundowners at a palace, it’s as swish you can imagine. Neelabh shares how a wedding that took place recently at The Palazzo Versace in Dubai for a Jain client was specially customised to suit tastes.

“It was a no-onion, no-garlic rule and so we had 140 chefs flown down from India for this. Every dish was designed differently and the prep took place in a separate section of the Versace hotel kitchen,” Neelabh says.

At another wedding in South Africa, the family wanted branded crockery with their initials made and flown down for the wedding. The best part? It was all just one-time use.

“I remember for the Lulla family wedding at Soneva Fushi in Maldives, in addition to the organic food they flew in lamb chops from Australia, a prize catch of crabs and lobsters from South Asia, and more. It was a ‘Barefoot in Lehengas’ theme and everyone ended up loving the food. And in Zanzibar, Mombassa for a family from an Indian family in Nigeria, they had special chefs flown down to add a touch of Indian to the banquet,” he adds.

Challenges aplenty

Missed flights, angry teams, sudden weather changes—organisers have to deal with it all.

Nidhi Sahi, Celebrity Wedding Planner and Founder of Enjay Events, shares a peek into the challenges associated with destination weddings.

“We have charters that get delayed and times where the artist has gotten delayed due to flight. One of the crazy incidents that we’ve had was at Jaisalmer where a well-known artiste was to perform that night, but his luggage was left behind in Mumbai. We spoke to different airlines and located the bags, but there was no incoming flight and Jaisalmer is a military airport. Later we managed to fly his bag with his guitar to Jodhpur and sent a car there to bring it to the venue. It was touch and go,” Nidhi says.

Tempers can fly as well. She reveals another incident where the florist and his team packed off and left after having an issue with the other teams. She had to reach out last minute to other teams and fly them down business class as economy tickets were unavailable.

Yes, it can also rain on the parade, quite literally. She recalls an incident at a December beach wedding in Shangri-La, Muscat, when it suddenly rained on the morning of the wedding.

“It was a complete washout. We shifted the mandap and moved all the food indoors into a coffee shop and also tried to get the entire marquee done from Dubai, as Muscat didn’t have anything in-house. This would have cost Rs 30-40 lakhs, which we were willing to pay, but nothing was available at last moment. Luckily, we managed to remove the water from the top of the mandap,” she adds.

While there are also some impractical expectations at times, logistics can be nightmare, too. Even car movement of taking guests from point A to point B, in 300 cars for 500 to 600 people, is huge.

“Couple this with different flight arrival times, making the need for backend synergy crucial. Other things we deal with are visas, custom issues and immigration issues when a family comes to a destination. Managing customs as they carry heavy jewellery. Plus, language being a barrier, we need to sort all these issues out. We also have to work with tourism boards to make sure everything is put together as a whole,” she informs.

Kent-sational!

What does it mean to have a destination wedding? YS Life asked Anita and Colm, pharmacists in the UK, who had an Irish/Indian wedding in Kent. They called the experience “perfect”.

The couple wanted a wedding destination that wasn’t a hotel, banquet, club or restaurant so they found a manor that would host all of their family and friends and it felt like a home away from home.

“The point of marrying somewhere beautiful is so that we wouldn’t end up wasting money on props and sets. We wanted to use the space, architecture, and backgrounds of the environment to add colour and depth to the events,” the couple says. “Getting married at Eastwell Manor in Ashford, Kent, was even better than I expected it to be.

“We had our own little bubble of love and blessings on our island and it was perfect,” they say.

(The story was updated with new images.)