A wedding planner designs a wedding, keeping in mind a client's requirements and budget. The job entails planning the ceremonies, preparing budgets, helping the client select the venue and even the trousseau. A good planner will work out a theme and design the event, the menu, the invitations and even the décor of the venue around it.
He or she also has to arrange for a priest, the entertainment, the photography, and look after the guests’ travel and accommodation needs. A planner should be imaginative — creating a Bollywood set or a sheesh mahal (glass palace) for the venue or flying down Zulu dancers or a BMW on a chopper for entertainment. Planning a large wedding can take a year or six months
Flying in giraffes and Zulu dancers from South Africa or a BMW on a chopper is child’s play for wedding planner Meher Sarid. Recreating a sheesh mahal in saadi Dilli, doing up a frosted glass theme in blue, or even launching a Bollywood extravaganza in surreal Singapore…Sarid does it all without batting an eyelid. It’s her job to create mega memories and she loves every bit of it.
This passion goes back to her childhood, when she drew inspiration from her mother, an Army wife. “I used to be her assistant, doing the handiwork at all the lovely parties she organised. The creative bit came naturally from my mom,” says Sarid.
She started her career at Hotel Hyatt Regency and then worked at the ITC Welcomgroup Maurya Sheraton Hotel and Towers, New Delhi, after getting a diploma in hotel management. Then came a specialised course in theme parties and wedding management at Les Roches Bluche in Salzburg, Vienna.
When she trained with the Hyatt Regency in Delhi in 1988, the manager there launched food festivals and Sarid got to plan her first event with a Mexican theme with cactus trees, hats, tequila-based cocktails, haystacks and brooms serving as flowers. On her return from the Austrian institute, she joined ITC’s banquet sales division where she organised country-related events. However, a great urge to travel made Sarid join Cathay Pacific and get involved with recruiting and training staff for the food and beverage service. Subsequently, she set up her own design and event management company, Sound of Music, and since then there has been no looking back. “It was difficult convincing people why they should pay for a special service like mine, what value-add I had on offer, etc. I did a party with a crystal theme way back in 1988 when nobody had heard of crystals. The greatest challenge then was to bring about a total change in people’s mindsets, train talent to meet my requirements,” says Sarid.
The first wedding she helped organise was that of an industrialist’s nephew. “The theme was Paris. We recreated the café walks of the city, built a 60-foot Eiffel Tower with a bar underneath it, called in dancers from Moulin Rouge. It was great fun,” she says.
Another wedding planner, Vandana Mohun, the formidable force behind the Priya-Vikram Chatwal wedding bash, says that the wedding planning process starts with meeting the client and then getting on to working on the look and feel of the wedding.
Flying in giraffes and Zulu dancers from South Africa or a BMW on a chopper is child’s play for wedding planner Meher Sarid. Recreating a sheesh mahal in saadi Dilli, doing up a frosted glass theme in blue, or even launching a Bollywood extravaganza in surreal Singapore…Sarid does it all without batting an eyelid. It’s her job to create mega memories and she loves every bit of it.
This passion goes back to her childhood, when she drew inspiration from her mother, an Army wife. “I used to be her assistant, doing the handiwork at all the lovely parties she organised. The creative bit came naturally from my mom,” says Sarid.
She started her career at Hotel Hyatt Regency and then worked at the ITC Welcomgroup Maurya Sheraton Hotel and Towers, New Delhi, after getting a diploma in hotel management. Then came a specialised course in theme parties and wedding management at Les Roches Bluche in Salzburg, Vienna.
When she trained with the Hyatt Regency in Delhi in 1988, the manager there launched food festivals and Sarid got to plan her first event with a Mexican theme with cactus trees, hats, tequila-based cocktails, haystacks and brooms serving as flowers. On her return from the Austrian institute, she joined ITC’s banquet sales division where she organised country-related events. However, a great urge to travel made Sarid join Cathay Pacific and get involved with recruiting and training staff for the food and beverage service. Subsequently, she set up her own design and event management company, Sound of Music, and since then there has been no looking back. “It was difficult convincing people why they should pay for a special service like mine, what value-add I had on offer, etc. I did a party with a crystal theme way back in 1988 when nobody had heard of crystals. The greatest challenge then was to bring about a total change in people’s mindsets, train talent to meet my requirements,” says Sarid.
The first wedding she helped organise was that of an industrialist’s nephew. “The theme was Paris. We recreated the café walks of the city, built a 60-foot Eiffel Tower with a bar underneath it, called in dancers from Moulin Rouge. It was great fun,” she says.
Another wedding planner, Vandana Mohun, the formidable force behind the Priya-Vikram Chatwal wedding bash, says that the wedding planning process starts with meeting the client and then getting on to working on the look and feel of the wedding.
“We create mood boards for each function and make another presentation to the client. Once a board is chosen we go in for extensive designing and make a final presentation along with costs, fabric samples to the client.” It’s not easy. “Wedding planning is a constant learning process, we learn from our mistakes. In fact, I’m still learning,” adds Mohun.
Source: HT Horizons
Skills Needed
. A flair for organising events, an eye for colour and fashion sense . Good communication skills, great negotiating skills, knowledge of customs and
rituals . Good with time and space management . Major USP is multitasking abilities
How do I get there?
You could be from any field — scriptwriting, jewellery designing, textile designing, commercial art, interior designing or for that matter from the area of hospitality or event management — anything that allows your creative juices to flow.
To begin with, you can work with an established wedding planner to gain hands-on experience before you venture out on your own
