Clients typically deal with planners like modern-day “Ginnies,” they will rub the chirag and ask for something,” quips Mohsin Khan, a marriage planner. They usually do.
One bride in Higher Noida insisted on taking her pheras in a racing automotive. One other in Jaipur wished to enter a helicopter—by no means thoughts that the venue didn’t have a helipad. Khan recollects flying a vendor from Kolkata to Goa on the morning of the marriage to supply a particular form of jaimala unavailable domestically.
Hyper-personalisation has reached astonishing ranges. From flying in Kunafa from Dubai, hen chips from Thailand, welcome drinks from Sri Lanka, to a shopper demanding that “each serving employees must be a Russian feminine,” the listing grows longer each season.
The rise of ‘Ask For Something’
In India’s booming luxurious marriage ceremony business, there is no such thing as a such factor as a “regular” request anymore. From chartering helicopters with out helipads to staging ceremonies in –25°C mountain blizzards, fashionable {couples} are rewriting the principles of extravagance. Social media has grow to be the final word temper board—and the stress to go viral has pushed marriage ceremony planners right into a world the place uncommon, eccentric, and downright unbelievable calls for have grow to be simply one other day at work.
To discover this new panorama, indianexpress.com spoke to marriage ceremony planners shaping India’s most bold weddings: Mohsin Khan (Founder, Vivah Luxurious Weddings), Shashank Gupta (Founder, TailorMade Experiences), and Rajat Tyagi (Founder, Wed India) share their tales demonstrating simply how far fashionable {couples} are keen to go to make their big day extraordinary.
Weird marriage ceremony requests (Photograph: Freepik)
Blame social media
Each Khan and Shashank Gupta agree on one factor—Instagram has completely modified the marriage recreation. “The stress of creating a marriage go viral is actual,” says Gupta, whose purchasers now rent whole social media businesses only for the marriage.
Requests that after shocked planners now not do. {Couples} need originality, spectacle, and one thing by no means seen earlier than on the web. TailorMade has executed every little thing from shifting mandaps to Japanese-inspired installations, and even decor made totally of tiny objects forming a sacred determine, provides Shashank.
Story continues beneath this advert
Certainly one of Khan’s strangest requests? A pair who wished pretend candid pictures staged with employed actors — and demanded a social media blackout till their official photos dropped. Rajat Tyagi’s groups have been requested for unimaginable cinematic photographs—like snow pictures when no snow exists, or shoots in distant deserts and no-man’s lands.
Unreal expectations
Some calls for are theatrical. Some are logistical nightmares. Some — like a baraat on elephants and camels, or a baraat arriving totally in classic vehicles — border on surreal.
However “nothing compares” to what Rajat skilled. Right here’s why:
The Kaza winter marriage ceremony
A pair wished to get married in Kaza, Spiti Valley, within the useless of winter—at a temperature of -25°C. The planners survived blinding whiteouts, black ice, and a number of near-death moments throughout recce. Simply hours earlier than the marriage, violent mountain winds ripped aside the decor. The staff deserted aesthetics and went into survival mode, working solely to make sure the marriage might occur safely.
Story continues beneath this advert
“We handled the marriage like a high-altitude expedition,” Tyagi recollects. From snow chains and emergency provides to thermal mandates for friends, each step required military-level precision. The one lifeline: extraordinarily dependable native companions who knew the terrain.
For Tyagi, although, nothing is “weird”—solely bold. “It’s not absurdity; it’s the altitude of ambition,” he says.
The listing is limitless
Among the many three planners, the listing of bizarre necessities might fill a e-book:
Decor that defies logicEiffel Tower-themed marriage ceremony
- Heaven-on-earth staircase mandap
- Large earthen pots sourced and ready in 10 winter days
- Architectural illusions created utilizing view blockers
Meals whims from each continent
Story continues beneath this advert
- Kobe beef
- Genuine Italian lamb flown in with the chef
- Total menus with cooks and serving employees flown in from seven international locations
Unpaid emotional labour
Purchasers typically count on planners to be:
- household counsellors
- missing-guest chasers
- wardrobe-fixers
- private customers
- last-minute present arrangers
Assembly calls for
Nonetheless, all three planners view these excessive calls for as alternatives. As Rajat places it, “Each uncommon marriage ceremony is proof of what units us aside. It forces us to develop.”
Gupta sees it as the muse of TailorMade’s identification—hyper-personalisation is their area of interest. Whereas Khan believes the bar is rising yearly, pushed by aspirations, international publicity, and the evolution of the marriage business.
The longer term? Tyagi predicts immersive, multi-sensory weddings in distant canyons, historic ruins, deep forests, possibly even underwater.
Story continues beneath this advert
“For us, it’s by no means concerning the weird—it’s about making somebody’s dream actual, regardless of how excessive the altitude or how wild the imagination,” he concludes.
Drawing boundaries
All three planners have agency boundaries.
They refuse:
unlawful preparations
unethical visitor exclusion
disrespectful or hostile behaviour
unsafe setups
budget–imaginative and prescient mismatches
And as Gupta emphasises: “Arranging unlawful issues or ladies—full no.” Rajat provides: “Our staff’s security and dignity are non-negotiable.”
