New-age Indian weddings: Extravagance meets tradition and innovation

WEDDINGS are an integral part of Indian culture and recently, the celebrations have become bigger and grander.

One couple got married on an aircraft, while others had a Bollywood flash mob. With guests greeted with curated gift boxes upon arrival, full of designer goodies, artisanal chocolates and even spa treatments – weddings are serving up all the glitz, glam, and glee one could dream of.

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For those looking to tie the knot, here are some trends that combine tradition with innovation and sustainability.

Gourmet grub on wheels

Food trucks are seen in vogue this season as everyone embraces the idea of a smorgasbord of quirky, Instagram-worthy options.

Gourmet taco trucks, artisanal ice cream carts, and butter chicken sliders are being served from a luxury truck parked at the venue. It’s basically the food court of a couple’s dreams, with a side of champagne flutes.

Having a food truck parked at the venue is a cool way to serve guests a range of authentic cuisines with an equally authentic feel, especially at pre-wedding events such as haldi and sangeet.

Sky is the limit

Remember when high-profile destination weddings meant a beach in Bali or a palace in Rajasthan? Those would be passé now. Wealthy Indians have taken things to the next level – quite literally – by tying the knot on private jets. This is what happens when the sky is the limit for the wedding budget (pun intended, of course).

UAE-based businessman Dilip Popley’s daughter, Vidhi Popley, exchanged vows with Hridesh Sainani mid-air on board a modified Boeing 747 aircraft on a three-hour journey from Dubai to Oman.

Anant and Radhika Merchant at the sangeet

The aircraft was decorated with flowers and each section of the plane was fixed with a small projector, so that everyone could watch. While the ceremony was taking place, guests were treated to much elevated version of a flight meal, which included vegetable jalfrezi, mushroom pulao and palak paneer.

Fun fact: Twenty-eight years prior, Vidhi’s parents also had a similar “wedding in the sky”, transforming an Air India flight into a marriage venue.

East meets West, and then some

‘Fusion’ weddings have been around for a while, owing to demands of the interracial marriages.

However, the recent ‘fusion wedding’ trend isn’t just about blending some elements of Indian and Western traditions. Now, it’s a full-scale cultural mashup – such as a baraat with the groom riding an elephant while the bride enters as Coldplay’s Sky Full of Stars plays.

This extends to the menu, too, where samosas are served with sliders, and tacos are stuffed with tikka.

When Manchester-born entrepreneur Umar Kamani, founder of fashion brand PrettyLittleThing, wed model Nada Adelle in a four-day wedding extravaganza on the French Riviera, some of the celebration’s highlights were poolside welcome party, a stunning Western as well as a vibrant Indian wedding ceremony, where the Kamani family paid homage to their cultural roots.

Professional sari drapers

Brides, are you struggling with this unstitched yard of garment and don’t know where to start? Joining the league of make-up artists and fashion designers, brides and other members of the wedding party are hiring the services of professionals to drape the sari, for a hassle-free and elegant celebration.

There has been a surge of interest in the sari, driven by social media influencers.

Among the most famous sari drapers is Dolly Jain, a professional who counts billionaire Nita Ambani, Bollywood A-list actresses Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt and international super model Gigi Hadid as her clients.

At this year’s extravagant wedding ceremonies of Akash Ambani and Radhika Merchant, Jain was highly-sought after as she was responsible for dressing the Ambani women, including bride Radhika Merchant in gorgeous weaves.

Drones capturing the venue

Haldi by the pool

Why stick to the typical haldi ceremony when you can turn it into a pool party? The traditional ceremony is getting a splashy upgrade with couples opting for a poolside theme.

What was once a simple, at-home affair has now become a full-blown summer celebration, with tropical vibes and water fun. Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas set the trend with their vibrant and playful haldi by the pool, and since then, others have followed, with yellow flower showers and guests dressed in hues of the colour.

Reveal parties

Move over, gender reveals – there’s a new event in town and that is the “maid of honour” reveal. For those who want to add suspense to their nuptial build-up, brides are hosting parties to “reveal” who will be their number one gal.

The reveal parties are not just girls’ me-time. These parties have choreographed dances, or even (wait for it) a treasure hunt where the chosen one finds the coveted “maid of honour” tiara. Why should boys have all the fun?

Sustainable yet luxurious

Couple are becoming more eco-conscious, but also know how to blend in the idea in a more fun way. Now, having a “green” wedding doesn’t mean skimping on style. Venues run on renewable energy, flower arrangements made from locally sourced, sustainable flora, and invitations are printed on recycled paper embedded with seeds (for guests to grow a plant afterward).

Bollywood personalities Rakul Preet Singh and Jackky Bhagnani married in a spectacular and eco-friendly ceremony. To decrease their carbon footprint, they planted 520 trees, each representing a guest. Previously, Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma and Indian cricketer Virat Kohli invited their guests by sending them a sapling with the invitation.

At a recent UK wedding, entrepreneur Anita Rathi sent out seed-paper invitations and had a zero-waste setup, proving that big fat Indian weddings can be sustainable and fabulous.

Entries become epic

Forget walking down the aisle – these days it’s about how one can roll. Whether it’s a royal carriage, a vintage Bentley, or a helicopter, making an entry worthy of a top Bollywood star is in. Brides and grooms are making their grand entrances epic and unforgettable.

Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma’s fairytale wedding in Italy a few years ago had a classic and royal vibe, and it inspired others to up their entrance game.

Some couples are going a step ahead by blending in their entry with personal narratives recorded prior to the ceremony. So a bride enters the venue, flanked by her family, to the sound of a narration (in her voice) of her childhood memories and how she found love.

Isn’t it a beautiful way to capture the newly-weds’ story than playing cliched Bollywood numbers?

Luxury food trucks serving guests

Intimate, but oh-so-exclusive

With tiny guest lists, but with huge flair, micro-weddings are high on the wish list of Gen Z. When the guest list is 30-strong, there’s more cash to splash. Think intimate ceremonies in private castles, complete with personal string quartets, and chefs flown in from Paris for a dinner that takes three days to plan.

Bollywood actor Rajkummar Rao and Patralekhaa tied the knot with just 100 guests, with an emphasis on elegance, showing couples don’t need a showy crowd for their big celebration.

Viral moments and 3D invitations

Couple looking for options to conventional paper invitations can chose 3Dprinted sculptures of themselves instead. Tech is all the rage, and this has been adopted in the wedding industry, too.

Drone footage captures every possible angle of the ceremony. There’s also holographic cake-cutting, so guests attending virtually feel as if they are present at the venue even when sat halfway across the world. QR codes for pictures? Check.

Tech-savvy couples are embracing every gadget in the book to turn their weddings into sci-fi-inspired spectaculars with a futuristic flair.

Bollywood celebrities Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh’s mehndi was basically a Pinterest board come to life, and inspired countless couples to turn every aspect of their wedding into a photo-op on social media.

The minimalist mandap

Big, bold decor? Not always, say some. Weddings are seeing a shift towards minimalist mandaps – simple structures with elegant florals or chic greenery. Sonam Kapoor had a serene, intimate set-up that was equal parts regal and understated, when she wed Anand Ahuja.