Indian Marriages and Entertainment

Indian weddings are known for their love, emotion, ceremonies and lots of good food. 

Emotion – When the father holds the daughter’s hand, feeling painful to let go of his little baby girl to another man, yet putting on a strong face

Ceremonies – We need not go into the details of how many ceremonies take place one after another on quite a monotonous note. 

Food – This is the part the guests look forward to the most!

So now, let us do a little thinking. While Indian weddings are filled with lots of drama, emotions and ceremonies, your guests might not be actually paying attention. All that most people in the audience have on their minds is “Wonder what’s on the menu?” It is not wrong on their part either. They might be your best well wishers and friends, still, when it gets to that point where the bride arrives late after a ceremonial “saree change”, or the priest chanting some extra prayers, even worse, the food arrival at the venue gets delayed.

So the trick is to play safe. And how do we do that? Well, the only thing that you can do to get your guest’s attention through the whole show is to provide various forms of entertainment. 

In the earlier days, the entertainment at weddings was fixed depending on the culture and caste. South Indian Muslim weddings had the oppana being played. No Punjabi wedding was complete without Dhol and bhangra. Tamil Brahmin weddings had veena artists, portraying the best of classical hits. Nevertheless, in the present day wedding entertainment is customized according to the taste of the couple and their guests.

A live concert:

A brilliant idea would be to hire a band, to sing and play various songs at your wedding. It is a good investment as you would be assured of professional artists on your big day. Now, when it gets to what kind of music to be played, well it truly depends on the couple’s taste and the type of guests you invite. However, Acapella performers are well appreciated in the present and can make your big day stand out from the regular.

Song dedication:

If the couple has a lot of friends who can sing, well they must consider it a blessing and make the best use of it. The friends of the couple can dedicate songs to them by singing and playing for them. This would add a more personalized touch to the event. 

Photo booth:

While singing and dancing may hold the attention of adults, it is difficult to gain the attention of smaller children. They all might flock to a place where there is a fun photo booth with cute props with and sticker give aways on their printed copies. 

Keep the children busy:

Most children get bored easily and then they go bug their parents. Apart from a photobooth, another idea to avoid this is to engage a caricature artist, magician or fortune teller to keep the little ones entertained (just so that you don’t have noisy kids running around and pulling off all your decorations!)

Hire the fire!

If you plan to have your wedding, or any related function in the open air, at night, consider yourself very lucky as an amazing option that would keep your guests raving about you is holding a firework show. This can be teamed up with music as the colorful array of light hits the night sky. Fireworks can be let out once rings are exchanged, or when the groom makes his speech or even as the function comes to an end. 

Dance little lady, dance:

For couples who dare to be different, and would like to westernize their wedding, just a wee bit, a romantic “first dance” would be a fantastic option. You can get a choreographer to teach you both the moves, and do the needful.

Suggestions please!

Every loves to give free advice, especially when it is wedding time, everybody becomes a relationship guru. So, go ahead and quench their thirst of going on an advice-spree. But would you like to listen to lectures one after another? Surely, no. So print out little hand out cards and pass them around to your guests during the function with captions like “ Words of wisdom” or “Advice, please!” . You can get someone to go around and collect the cards after a while. We are sure you will find a few useful suggestions in these cards, and definitely a good laugh at some others as you both sit together and read them.

Make a wall to remember:

A wedding is when a couple needs to make loads of memories to remember. And we have done our research to give you a great idea with a simple plan to carry out. All you need is a big canvas board. Next to the canvas board, you can lay out some oil paint, permanent markers and glow in the dark colors .Your guests who are interested and who want to make impressions in your life can scribble and paint on your memory wall. You can frame this and hang this on your wall in your home where you live together, a beautiful memory on a canvas to make you smile each time you see it.

So, yes! These are a few ideas which could keep your guests entertained. You can get creative my incorporating tattoo or mehndi counters, depending on the type of function and your type of guests. So get creative, do it together for more fun.