Are you ready and excited to start designing your wedding? Keep this in mind: the most important thing is to enjoy this wonderful process. This is an exciting beginning of a wonderful life. Your wedding week is a celebration, so let's make planning it a celebration as well by incorporating the things you cherish the most. Let's make your big day uniquely yours so it leaves behind cherished memories. As you begin planning, take it easy and go chapter by chapter. Start formulating your own ideas of what your wedding will be. The key is never to become overwhelmed. We love the idea of having an inspiration board to keep track of your wedding ideas so you can share them with your decorator, florist, or planner. Most importantly, give yourself some time off occasionally from planning. That will help you be relaxed and refreshed and see things with a clearer view. Trust your vendors to handle the details. You'll be married and riding into the sunset before you know it. In the meantime, you have some planning to do. Cheers!

Following in the footsteps of tradition, Indian American couples are marking their impressions on an inherited culture. Through a mix of approachable text and scintillating photography, this book is a visual guide to Indian American weddings today. Resources include beauty and shopping tips, budgets, and schedules to help anyone who is planning an Indian wedding. But beyond that, this book will inspire couples to recreate the beauty of the rich Indian cultureone that is famous worldwide for its wedding celebrations.

Embark on a captivating journey through the kaleidoscope of Indian wedding traditions with "From Haldi to Honeymoon." This comprehensive guide offers an immersive exploration of the rich tapestry that weaves together the diverse rituals and customs embedded in the fabric of Indian matrimonial celebrations. Delve into the heart of cultural significance as you unravel the pages, beginning with the pre-wedding rituals like the vibrant Haldi ceremony and moving through the sacred vows of the wedding ceremony steeped in Vedic traditions. Traverse the labyrinth of post-wedding customs, savor the opulence of attire and jewelry, and get lost in the enchanting cadence of music, dance, and decor that characterize Indian nuptials. Discover the symphony of flavors in the extensive chapter dedicated to the culinary delights of Indian weddings, from traditional feasts to modern culinary innovations. Immerse yourself in the intricacies of wedding invitations and stationery, and gain valuable insights into managing finances and budgeting for the grand celebration. As the narrative unfolds, witness the evolution of Indian weddings through Chapter 10, exploring modern trends and innovations that are reshaping the landscape of the wedding industry. Navigate the delicate nuances of cultural sensitivities and overcome challenges with grace in Chapter 11. "From Haldi to Honeymoon" is not just a book; it's an odyssey, a visual and intellectual feast that captures the essence of Indian weddings in all their splendor. Whether you're a bride-to-be, a cultural enthusiast, or simply a lover of vibrant traditions, this book promises to be your ultimate guide, offering a panoramic view of the sacred and celebratory moments that define the journey from Haldi to Honeymoon.

Bollywood Weddings examines how second-generation Indian-American Hindus of the middle and upper classes negotiate courtship and wedding rituals. Kavita Ramdya integrates the stories of twenty couples, showing the ways and means by which a subcommunity falls in love and expresses their identity. She provides readers with a window into these Indian-American couples who are navigating identities through a major rite of passage in their lives-marriage. She affirms that this community flaunts all things Indian as a way to assert their American identity. Many of these couples are occasional Hindus, displaying their Hindu religious background only on important occasions. Instead of choosing either India or America, or arriving at a compromise between the two, this community embraces both cultures simultaneously.

This book lists all the Hindu ceremonies, what they mean, what you need to do them and finally why you are doing them. It's an all emcompassing guide for planning your wedding. It gives you control over your big day. You select the ceremonies you want to do, how you want to do them and you are not cohered by either a pundit or an auntie you hardly know. You can budget for your wedding with the help of this guide. This book is easy to read, user friendly and has checklists to ensure that you do not forget anything. This book gives you an exposure of our rich culture and symbolisms. You will do the ceremonies with understanding and enjoy your wedding day more. This book makes the understanding of Hindu Weddings easy and logical.

An innovative cultural history of the evolution of modern marriage practices in Bengal, Marriage and Modernity challenges the assumption that arranged marriage is an antiquated practice. Rochona Majumdar demonstrates that in the late colonial period Bengali marriage practices underwent changes that led to a valorization of the larger, intergenerational family as a revered, “ancient” social institution, with arranged marriage as the apotheosis of an “Indian” tradition. She meticulously documents the ways that these newly embraced “traditions”—the extended family and arranged marriage—entered into competition and conversation with other emerging forms of kinship such as the modern unit of the couple, with both models participating promiscuously in the new “marketplace” for marriages, where matrimonial advertisements in the print media and the payment of dowry played central roles. Majumdar argues that together the kinship structures newly asserted as distinctively Indian and the emergence of the marriage market constituted what was and still is modern about marriages in India. Majumdar examines three broad developments related to the modernity of arranged marriage: the growth of a marriage market, concomitant debates about consumption and vulgarity in the conduct of weddings, and the legal regulation of family property and marriages. Drawing on matrimonial advertisements, wedding invitations, poems, photographs, legal debates, and a vast periodical literature, she shows that the modernization of families does not necessarily imply a transition from extended kinship to nuclear family structures, or from matrimonial agreements negotiated between families to marriage contracts between individuals. Colonial Bengal tells a very different story.