Top 5 Places for Destination Weddings in India

The Most Popular Places for an Indian Wedding

The interest in India as a wedding destination has greatly grown in recent years. These days, not only do foreigners want to get married in spectacular venues all across the country, Indians do as well! The most popular locations for destination weddings in India are the authentic palaces of Rajasthan, and beaches of Goa (and now Kerala). Regal wedding or beach wedding, it's up to you to choose. One thing is important though, make sure you have a decent wedding planner or hotel event planner to do all the organizing. Their help will be invaluable.

Here are five of the top destinations for weddings in India.

1. GOA

Goa is undoubtedly the most popular place for destination weddings in India. People flock to Goa's beaches to tie the knot. There are a couple of ways of arranging a wedding there -- either through a wedding planner, or through one of the luxury hotels. Beach weddings do require a permit.

Popular luxury hotels for weddings in Goa include The Leela, on secluded Morbor beach, and the Taj Exotica, on quiet Varca beach. Both are in south Goa. Alternatively, if you'd prefer an intimate garden wedding, try the gorgeous Turiya Villa & Spa near Palolem beach in south Goa. You'll have the assistance of the owner, who's a renowned architect and interior decorator

UDAIPUR FORT

2. UDAIPUR

What makes Udaipur such a standout destination for a wedding in India? Foremost is the setting. Known as the city of lakes and palaces, Udaipur really is one of the most romantic and    charming places in India. A lot of this charm comes from the city's regal palace buildings -- and the best bit, you can get married in them! Contemporary wedding venues, these historical palaces are not. However, their uniqueness and fairy tale qualities make them very sought after.

 For those who still want to get married in an authentic palace, but in more contemporary style, there is Devi Gargh. Located around 45 minutes from Udaipur, this rambling 18th century fort-palace has been  refurbished in modern minimalistic style

JAIPUR PALACE

3. JAIPUR

The "pink city" of Jaipur is a favorite destination for those getting married due to the sheer range and diversity of wedding venues available. The range from authentic ornate palaces -- such as the Raj Palace, Rambagh Palace, and Jai Mahal Palace -- to old mansions.

Those looking for a less costly option for their wedding will find one of Jaipur's old mansions to be the perfect venue. Alsisar Haveli and Mandawa Haveli are popular choices.

If you'd like a wedding in a heritage venue away from the city, Samode Palace could be the answer. It's located around one hour from Jaipur, and is built into the Aravali Ranges. Its setting and the way it's illuminated at night make it a wonderfully romantic venue for a wedding.

JODHPUR FORT

4. JODHPUR

The extraordinary Umaid Bhawan palace hotel, with a hilltop location overlooking the "blue city" of Jodhpur, has played host to some very lavish weddings indeed. The palace is very much a modern day one. It was completed in 1944, after 15 years, making it one of the last great palaces to be built in India. The royal family of Jodhpur still occupies a section of the palace.If your budget doesn't extend that far, two other popular heritage places for destination weddings in Jodhpur are Ranbanka Palace and Ajit Bhawan.

Imposing Mehrangarh Fort, which towers over Jodhpur, is a sought after place for wedding receptions.

HOUSE BOAT @ ALEPPY

5. KERALA

The attraction of Kerala as wedding destination is just being discovered. It holds much appeal for those who want a quiet and picturesque wedding in a tropical setting, along the banks of a lake or palm fringed canal, with food served on banana leaves. There are a number of resorts that cater to such weddings. The luxurious Zuri Kumarakom, near Alleppey, is perhaps the most popular.

After the wedding, head off on a honeymoon along the backwaters in a traditional style houseboat.

It's also possible to have a beach wedding in Kerala. Resorts such as The Leela in Kovalam arrange beach weddings. Varkala is a particularly scenic spot for a beach wedding.

Kerala is known for elephant themed weddings, where the groom rides on elephant back, too

source : http://goindia.about.com

.

Crazy Wedding Trends....

Bridal Diapers

Perhaps the most startling new trend of all, bridal diapers alleviate the need for a bride to awkwardly maneuver around yards of fabric and crinoline in order to relieve herself on her special day. Hey, moisture-wicking technology has come a long way in the last few years.

Personal wedding website..

Personal Wedding Websites are websites that engaged couples use to aid in planning and communication for their wedding. The websites are used to communicate with guests of their wedding and inform them of location, date, time, and a gift registry. Each wedding website is different, and a couple has to pick what is best for them.The websites can be free but may sometimes cost a fee.However, most couples find that the website fee is less costly than hiring a wedding planner, as wedding planners can cost as much as 15% of the total wedding cost. Criticism of wedding websites include that invitations from websites are too informal for the occasion and these websites can turn into a forum for women to make judgment on each other.

Purpose :

Personal wedding websites are used for a variety of purposes including communication with guests, sharing wedding photos and videos with those who were unable to attend, providing maps, hotel and destination information, bridal party and couple biographies, and profiling vendors. Increasingly the sites are being used as tools for wedding planning. Many do-it-yourself sites offer features like online RSVP, blogs, registry management, and budget management tools to aid couples through the wedding organizing process. Wedding websites offer a way for couples to showcase their personality and set the tone for what their wedding will be like.

As wedding couples see the importance of wedding websites, there has been a growth in worldwide wedding website suppliers. Led by many of the large United States based operators, wedding website suppliers now operate in many worldwide locations, many creating specific functionality and tools for their own national identities, customs and faiths. Each website offers different templates, services, and some charge a fee to use them and experts recommend comparing websites before choosing one.

A recent development in wedding websites has been the addition of Flash. Some sites offer 100% Flash wedding websites using innovative templates that provide animation and enhanced visitor interaction.

Depending on the specific site, some will host the personal "wedpage" for six months, 12 months, or forever. The cost is strongly correlated between factors such as domain name, advertisements appearing on the page, number of pages available, and different amounts/types of media available

Planning:

Wedding websites provide couples with tools to ease the planning of a wedding. Some have electronic seating charts which allow users to calculate the exact size of a room, budget calculators which allow for a more accurate dispersal of funds, as well as, payment plan reminders. Depending on the site, some will provide a couple with deals on local vendors, ideas for different photos, and a gallery of photos from other weddings for idea inspirations. These sites can also come with links to wedding planning message boards for users with the same interests and problems to share ideas. The sites also can provide monthly checklists counting down to the wedding day and after.

All of these features allow brides all over an organized template for planning their weddings. Through the use of these various tools, a bride is provided with even more avenues of information than brides in the past. This gives couples the opportunity to save money and generate ideas more representative of their personalities.

Communication :

Through the use of the internet information about any wedding has become available to anyone with a smart phone or a computer. This is an improvement from standard wedding invitations which only allow for limited information about the ceremony and reception. With the ability to view the website, a guest has the option to RSVP, choose their meal, see surrounding attractions in the area, view the accommodations to reserve a hotel room, and view the bridal party list. Though the standard mailed invitation is a carried out tradition, websites allow for a more interactive way to communicate the information.

Comparing & Contrasting the price wedding planner with the price of website :

While personal wedding websites are mostly to give the guests information on the wedding such as the date, time and location, the websites can also include things such as blogs and planning bibliographies in which viewers of the wedding website can interact with the bride. Weddings brought to life from personal wedding websites may lack in creativity and originality as many of them suggest traditional weddings and encourage brides to look at celebrity weddings for inspiration.With free or fee-based websites, the user receives their own domain name for the website. It is also important to note that wedding planners are for the purpose of helping the bride while the wedding website caters more for the guests. Most wedding websites are used for both planning purposes and personal pages.

According to White Weddings: Romancing Heterosexuality in Popular Culture, wedding planners typically consist of 15% of the wedding's total cost. The average wedding costs $28,000 and depending on what percent the planner takes they usually make between $2,880 and $4,320 for every wedding they plan. Wedding planners can charge an hourly wage, ranging from $40-$100, depending on which part of the country they conduct their services in. The rate also depends on how much experience the wedding planner has had; those with more experience are paid more than those just starting out.

Criticism of wedding websites :

Criticism of wedding websites includes the process of sending out invitations via email rather than by mail. In a recent survey, 37% of voters said that evites should "never" be sent out, while 49% said it "depended on the wedding," and 14% said "anytime. Most wedding planning books suggest to the brides ways to find cheaper wedding invitations and typically do not suggest evites. However, evites are a money saving and environmentally friendly way of sending invitations. Money is not spent on the actual paper and postage and paper is not used.

Wedding websites also create a forum for women to criticize and judge each other. If a woman sees something she does not like on another woman's website, she will not use that idea for her wedding or the use of a certain company's service.

Website etiquette can become complicated when it comes to what information can be put on the personal site. Putting a gift registry on the website is looked down upon by some experts. Couples can put the registry on the websites but let the guests find it themselves. Couples are not to put events that not all guests are invited to on the website, such as the engagement party or wedding shower.

For a personal innovative wedding website contact   ammonia effects ...

Marriage Vows

Marriage vows are promises each partner in a couple makes to the other during a wedding ceremony. Marriage customs have developed over history and keep changing as human society develops.


Background:
In secular ceremonies, vows can be chosen freely or created by the couple. Couples marrying within a religious tradition are often constrained to use the standard vows of that tradition's ceremony.
Writing one's own vows
In some countries it is common for couples to write their own vows. Inspirations are often taken from poems, movies, or music. Vows usually consist of what characteristics each bring out in each other, what they look forward to in life, how their lives changed once they met. Vows tend to be between two and three minutes in length and are a public expression of love
Traditional Roman Catholic Vows

Couples wedding in the Roman Catholic Church essentially make the same pledge to one another. According to the Rite of Marriage (#25) the customary text in English is

I, ____, take you, ____, to be my (husband/wife). I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.

In the United States, Catholic wedding vows may also take the following form.

I, ____, take you, ____, for my lawful (husband/wife), to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.

The priest will then say aloud "You have declared your consent before the Church. May the Lord in his goodness strengthen your consent and fill you both with his blessings. That God has joined, men must not divide. Amen.

Marriage Vows in England:

The law in England authorises marriages to be legal if properly carried out and registered in the Church of England and some other religious bodies (e.g. Jews, Quakers): other men and women who wish to marry can be married by a local official authorised to do so (civil ceremony). Circumstances may result in the same partners having both ceremonies at different times though this is rare. The vows, presence of witnesses and civil registration are absolute requirements under the law.

Civil ceremonies often allow couples to choose their own marriage vows, although many civil marriage vows are adapted from the traditional vows, taken from the Book of Common Prayer, "To have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part.

They were first published in English in the prayer book of 1549, based on earlier Latin texts (the Sarum and York Rituals of the medieval period). An older version of the final phrase is "and to obey, until death us do depart" where "depart" means "separate". "Until death us do depart" had to be changed due to changes in the usage of "depart" in the Prayer Book of 1662. In the 1928 prayer book (not authorised) and in editions of the 1662 prayer book printed thereafter "and to obey" was retained (in the 1928 book an alternative version omitted this). The 1928 revised form of Matrimony was quite widely adopted, though the form of 1662 was also widely used, though less so after the introduction of the Alternative Service Book.

The original wedding vows, as printed in The Book of Common Prayer, are:

Groom: I,____, take thee,_____, to my lawful wedded Wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth.

Bride: I,_____, take thee,_____, to my lawful wedded Husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I give thee my troth.

Then, as the groom places the ring on the bride's finger, he says the following:

With this Ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

In the Alternative Service Book (1980) two versions of the vows are included: the bride and groom must select one of the versions only. Version A:

I,N, take you, N, to be my wife (or husband), to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy law, and this is my solemn vow.

Version B is identical except for the clause "to love and to cherish" where the groom says "to love, cherish, and worship" and the bride says "to love, cherish, and obey".

On September 12, 1922, the Episcopal Church voted to remove the word "obey" from the bride's section of wedding vows. Other churches of the Anglican Communion each have their own authorized prayer books which in general follow the vows described above though the details and languages used do vary.

Eastern Orthodox:

There are no vows exchanged during the Crowning (wedding ceremony) of the Orthodox Church. However, the priest asks first the groom then the bride:

• Priest: Hast thou, [Name], a good, free, and unconstrained will and a firm intention to take unto thyself to wife (husband) this woman (man), [Name], whom thou seest here before thee?

• Groom (Bride): I have, reverend Father.

• Priest: Thou hast not promised thyself to any other bride (man)?

• Groom (Bride): I have not promised myself, reverend Father.

It should be noted that in the Byzantine Rite, the rings are not exchanged during the wedding ceremony itself, but rather at the Betrothal. In current practice, however, the Betrothal is usually celebrated immediately before the Crowning.

source : wikipedia.org

Wedding Anniversary Gifts...

A wedding anniversary is the anniversary of the date a wedding took place.

Official Recognition:

In the Commonwealth realms, one can receive a message from the monarch for 60th, 65th, and 70th wedding anniversaries, and any wedding anniversary after that. This is done by applying toBuckingham Palace in the United Kingdom, or to the Governor-General's office in the other Commonwealth realms.

In Canada, one can also receive a message from the Governor General for the 50th anniversary, and every 5th anniversary after that.

The situation is similar in Australia, where one can receive a letter of congratulations from the Governor-General on the 50th and all subsequent wedding anniversaries; the Prime Minister, the federal Opposition leader, local members of parliament (both state and federal), and state Governors may also send salutations for the same anniversaries.

In the United States, one can receive a greeting from the President for any wedding anniversary on or after the 50th.

Roman Catholics may apply for a Papal blessing through their local diocese for wedding anniversaries of a special nature (25th, 50th, 60th, etc.).

Celebration and Gifts:

The names of some anniversaries provide guidance for appropriate or traditional gifts for the spouses to give each other; if there is a party these can be brought by the guests or influence the theme or decoration. These gifts vary in different countries, but some years have well-established connections now common to most nations: 5th Wooden, 10th Tin, 15th Crystal, 20th China, 25th Silver, 30th Pearl, 40th Ruby, 50th Golden, 60th Diamond. The tradition may have originated in medieval Germany where, if a married couple lived to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their wedding, the wife was presented by her friends and neighbours with a silver wreath to congratulate them for the good fortune that had prolonged the lives of the couple for so many years. On celebration of the 50th, the wife received a wreath of gold. Over time the number of symbols expanded and the German tradition came to assign gifts that had direct connections with each stage of married life. The symbols have changed over time. For example in the United Kingdom, diamond was a well known symbol for the 75th anniversary, but this changed to the now more common 60th anniversary after Queen Victoria's 60 years on the throne was widely marked as her Diamond Jubilee.

The origins of the current gift conventions date to 1937. Before that, only the 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, 50th, and 75th anniversaries had an associated gift. In 1937, the American National Retail Jeweler Association (now known as Jewelers of America as a result of an organizational merger) introduced an expanded list of gifts. The revamped list gave a gift for each year up to the 20th, and then for every fifth anniversary after that. 

Traditional anniversary gifts

Lists of wedding anniversary gifts vary by country.

Year	U.S.	U.K.
1st	Paper	Cotton
2nd	Cotton	Paper
3rd	Leather
4th	Linen, silk	Fruit and flowers
5th	Wood
6th	Iron	Sugar
7th	Wool, copper	Woollen
8th	Bronze	Salt
9th	Pottery	Copper
10th	Tin/Aluminium
11th	Steel
12th	Silk	Silk and fine linen
13th	Lace
14th	Ivory
15th	Crystal
20th	China
25th	Silver
30th	Pearl
35th	Coral, jade	Coral
40th	Ruby
45th	Sapphire
50th	Golden
55th	Emerald
60th	Diamond
70th		Platinum
75th	Diamond & Gold
80th		Oak

Flower Gifts :

Year	Flower
1st	Carnation
2nd	Lily of the Valley
3rd	Sunflower
4th	Hydrangea
5th	Daisy
6th	Calla
7th	Freesia
8th	Lilac
9th	Bird of paradise
10th	Daffodil
11th	Tulip
12th	Peony
13th	Chrysanthemum
14th	Dahlia
15th	Rose
20th	Aster
25th	Iris
28th	Orchid
30th	Lily
40th	Gladiolus
50th	Yellow rose, violet

Source : wikipedia.org