Wedding Day Ideas For A Unique And Exciting Celebration

Last week my little sister got married. With the ongoing pandemic, we did not want to take any unnecessary risk. The wedding was a low key one, with just the close family members. Even then we had to cut back on so many relatives who lived in other places. Their transportation and accommodation posed added threats to our already planned wedding. Still we made sure the wedding day ideas were unique and personal.

We had to order most things online and make do with whatever was available. I normally order quite a few things online but this whole experience made me realise what a valuable asset this whole online shopping business was. We planned everything to make the wedding perfect. There were a lot of things that threatened to hinder our progress. But we pulled off ‘the ultimate pandemic wedding’ with some simple wedding day ideas.

If you are trying to organise a wedding in the time of Corona, this article is for you. Wedding day ideas are tricky but possible. You can do it with proper planning.

Wedding Day Ideas – Checklist

Now this list varies from family to family. Every family has their own set of traditions and cultures for their wedding day ideas. Based on what is important to you, you first have to come up with a checklist.

This checklist will essentially contain

• Bridal Wear/ Jewelry
• Invitations
• Reception Dresses/ Accessories
• Hair and Make up
• Bachelorette Party Props
• Wedding Photo shoot
• Caterers
• Decor
• Mehendi

These are the bare minimum requirements for any great wedding day ideas. Now you have to tackle each element on this list.

The trickiest part of conducting a wedding right in the middle of a pandemic is this: You cannot get anything instantly. Which means you can rule out most wedding day ideas being spontaneous.

The Pandemic

This Covid situation has disrupted our entire lives. What was prefectly normal before this, is not normal anymore. Before you get lost in all the wedding blur, do not forget the warnings of Covid. Here is a gentle reminder for you.

• Practice social distancing
• Wash your hands regularly
• Do not step outside without a mask
• Follow what the health authorities advise.
• Stay updated on news about your locality
• Do not spread fake news

Now we have the basics covered, lets get on with the wedding!

Wedding Day Ideas – Planning

You remember how every wedding has a last minute dash – things that have been forgotten and had to be purchased last minute?

That will absolutely not happen now. There is no ‘last minute’. That is why you should take your time to plan everything in advance, so that your grand wedding day ideas are not disrupted.

And if you are dependent on online shopping like me, I suggest you to start still earlier.

During our lockdown last month, many of the local shops did not function properly. The infection rate was high around the city centre and that is exactly where all the major dress and jewellery shops are located. By a stroke of luck, we did the wedding jewellery purchase long back, so that was one less thing to worry about.

Even if you are not a planner, you should re-think your priorities.

Time is something we cannot take for granted now! If your wedding can’t be the typical ‘big,fat Indian wedding’ , make it ‘unique and personal’.

Lets begin with the bridal wear.

Bridal wear

No Indian wedding has ever happened with one silk sari for the muhurtham. You need a bunch of silk saris to get through the wedding.

Since the shops were not functional, we decided to get the wedding saris from a well-known weaver’s community directly. The clothes looked a little different from what we were used to but ‘handcrafted’ is always special. isn’t it?

One shopping trip to buy the wedding silks, that’s all. See if you can get your dresses from weavers directly.

That way your bridal wear becomes unique and special. You are also helping the livelihood of our artisans. There is no dearth of designs and color either.

You can choose your favorite color and design within your budget!

Bridal jewellery

I mean gold here! Don’t wait till the last minute for your gold purchase. If you look at the market recently, the gold prices have been going mostly up and sometimes down (to a very little extent!) You will end up paying a lot more extra if you wait till the actual day. Finish your gold purchase when you have ample time before the rest of the wedding rush kicks in. Gold purchase needs more time. You can look at your wedding jewellery and pick them out at leisure.

Take advantage of seasonal offers or market discounts if possible.

Reception dresses/Accessories

If you want to wear dresses, other than saris for your special day, you have to do some homework for it.

Say if you are leaning towards a lehenga, then think about

• Where to source it?
• How to source it?
• Where are the trending designs available?

There are a lot of semi-stitched materials available in the market. You can choose one of them and get it tailored according to your tastes. Or you can wear ready-to-fit dresses like my sister did for her D-Day.

Myntra has a very good collection at decent prices. Lehengas are pricey! So choose one that you absolutely love. My sister took ages selecting one online but it was totally worth it.

After payment, I realised that the delivery date fell after the wedding date. I ran from pillar to post, contacting customer service for an early delivery.

Avoid such hassles and select your special wear upfront.

Same goes for accessories too. Amazon online shopping spoils you for choice.

There are a lot of bridal sites that specialise in wedding wear and accessories but they come at a very high price. Be wise and choose what you need.

A wedding is important but not being bankrupt at the end of it, is even more important, people!

Invitations

We did not opt for any fancy invitations as we had to leave out most relatives. I come from a very big family on both my mother’s and father’s side. We had a good-looking wedding invitation printed out for some close relatives. Otherwise the usual scramble to invite people was missing.

Alternately you can simply use an e-invite to send to people. A well -designed e-invite will look quirky and make the act personal too.

Mehendi

All beautiful Indian brides are adorned with Mehendi on their hands and feet. It is a skill that requires patience (loads of it) and a good eye for design. Luckily for us, one of my cousins in excellent at Mehendi designs. So we took her help. She lived nearby and was more than excited to do the Mehendi for the bride. The end result was just beautiful!

There are a lot of Mehendi designs available on the internet. But if you do not have a Mehendi cousin or are not sure about applying it, then opt for henna stickers. You just have to stick them onto your hand and it will look real!!

Pre Wedding photo shoot

A day prior to the wedding, we had the bachelorette party. We had planned for a big party at a resort in an exciting place but nothing of that sort happened.

So a handful of cousins gathered with amazing party props and set up the photo wall.

My sister had already picked out her dress for the occasion (as I said, planning is important guys!).

We danced our heart out to movie songs and finally did a quirky photoshoot with the bride making funny faces and we held onto our props.

Create awesome memories with your loved ones!

Caterers

For our party and dinner, we had organised caterers who thankfully were willing to cook for us even during the lockdown. We set up tables outside and arranged lunch and dinner. Lunch was a typical traditional affair from sweets, payasam to vethalai pakku. Dinner was arranged buffet style. Normally in our weddings, we love to cook for the entire family, but owing to the current scenario, we just handed over the responsibility to a caterer.

See what works for you.

Decor

I never thought I would be a wedding planner in my own sister’s wedding (God, bless her soul for trusting me!). But it happened. We did the decor from scratch with zero experience or expertise.

But when it comes to weddings, the intention is more important than precision when you are doing it for your family.

Remember how your parents loved your childish scribbles and thought your art was way better than any other artist in the world? It is something like that.

So we rolled up our sleeves and got some balloons, color papers and decorative items and lots of flowers(marigold, lillies, carnations, roses, jasmine). Want to know more about which flowers to opt for? Here is an article for you.

We also draped a bunch of colorful saris to make the venue look catchy.

I cannot speak for artistic flair but we decorated the house with such earnestness that it looked beautiful in the end. Around dusk, we even put up some fairy lights around the house. It was absolutely magical!

Hair and Make up

I’m more of an eye liner and lipstick girl. I have never applied layer after layer of make up in my entire life. But now I had to get my sister ready.

I scoured you tube videos and so many make-up tutorials to know the products – primer, concealer, foundation, highlighter, (Wait? Was that the same as countouring?!!)

Luckily my sister was a full make-up person and had all the necessary products. Under her expert guidance and a few trials of make-up (she wanted cat eye and I did not exactly have steady hands), countless errors and her depleting stash of patience, I finally got to a point where I could convince her.

Along with that I watched a lot of hair styling videos too. I learnt two very good hairstyles and my sister knew couple of other styles and we decided to manage with that.

If anything, this pandemic has taught me patience. Otherwise i would have never have picked up any of these skills in my life ever.

Wedding Day

The wedding day rushed past in a morning of frenzy between getting my little sister ready in time – draping the sari, make-up,hair and accessories and the wedding ceremonies.

No matter how many times you envision this day and are mentally prepared to be on stand by for any additional responsibilities at the last minute, there is no escaping the tears.

‘Tradition’ as Carrie from SATC says, ‘sneaks on you.’

I have attended my share of weddings but my sister will always be the most beautiful bride I ever saw. And I mean it. She was just decked up so beautifully in our traditional pattu sari and looked like a goddess who descended right from heaven. I could not even take a moment to process all that was happening because it was all happening very fast.

If you have watched the movie, ‘Father of the Bride’, you would know what I’m talking about. I saw my baby sister right from when she was two years old (that’s my earliest memory!) through her childhood, teens and the years beyond that, in my mind’s eye.

And I cried – not elegantly or subtly but outright big fat tears ruining my make-up.

The moment was just too real and close to my heart to worry about other things. I wished mom was alive to see my baby sister taking her vows. She must have been incredibly proud. But dad was right next to me, sniffling secretly. I did not dare meet his eye in case my tears intensified.

Dance

After the ceremony, our cousins had practised dances on many popular numbers and they started dancing one by one. My husband and me had practiced a dance on the famous song, ‘Morni Banke’. We both love dance. (Seriously! Dance is an awesome couple goal.) It was such a celebration. I saw my sister smiling and clapping her hands in joy and looking absolutely contented in the moment and that was exactly what I was hoping for!

All my efforts had finally paid off!