Gone are the days when the demure Indian bride sat at the mandap and waited for the groom to arrive on a bedecked horse. Things have changed, and how, with more and more brides opting to make a stunning entries at their weddings.
“Brides, and very often both the bride and the groom, want to make spectacular entries, one that is unexpected and will not be easily forgotten,” says Candice Pereira, co-founder of the wedding planning company, Marry Me Weddings.
Like entries, even the exit or the Vidaai ceremony, is getting quirked up. Actor Gul Panag, for instance, exited her wedding in a motorcycle with a sidecar. “I had no plans of making an entry, but I was very clear that I didn’t want to go away in a conventional doli,” Panag says. “The bike was my brother and husband’s idea. The sidecar was specially manufactured on order since I told them I won’t sit in it if it had sharp edges, as I was wearing my mother’s wedding lehenga. So, they got it lined with velvet.”
Wedding photographer Kalyan Yasaswi, who has covered many celebrity marriages, says, “The ones that I remember the most are where the bride enters in a doli carried usually by six people to even a 20-man army on some occasions. In some Telugu weddings, the bride is brought in, in a basket that is carried by her uncles.” Pereira shares another popular entrance idea of a flash mob. “The couple makes a grand entrance while performing to a song, and a couple of minutes later, their friends join and break into an impromptu performance,” she says.
{{/usCountry}}Wedding photographer Kalyan Yasaswi, who has covered many celebrity marriages, says, “The ones that I remember the most are where the bride enters in a doli carried usually by six people to even a 20-man army on some occasions. In some Telugu weddings, the bride is brought in, in a basket that is carried by her uncles.” Pereira shares another popular entrance idea of a flash mob. “The couple makes a grand entrance while performing to a song, and a couple of minutes later, their friends join and break into an impromptu performance,” she says.
{{/usCountry}}Wedding planner Priya Agarwal chips in, “A wedding that I organised, had the bride sit inside a huge rose flower, wheeled in by her bridesmaids.” She feels that the novelty factor of the helicopter entrances is past its prime. “Brides want to upstage the traditional groom who makes his entrance on a ghodi,” she says.