Planning the big fat Indian weddings

From a journalist to choosing a more creative platform to showcase her talent Devika Narain is one of the top wedding planners of India. She feels that every individual should develop their unique style of creativity and make sure that they enjoy the work that they do. In a freewheeling chat she shares about how her career in the wedding industry, challenges and more… 

Excerpts:

When did you start as a wedding planner?
The first time attended a wedding I was 10 years old and I couldn’t believe that there was so much energy. When I was 13 I saw the movie ‘Wedding Planner’ and that’s when I felt this is something I want to do. I did my majors in literature it wasn’t a career back then and then I wanted to be a journalist so, I worked with a couple of organisations when I realised that this is not for me. I wanted to do something on my own and different. I worked with an event management company, which did not connect with the bride and groom. I wanted to do something more personal and get connected to people, who were getting married. That’s when I started on my own.

What are the challenges involved in wedding planning?
The greatest challenge is that no two weddings come up with the same problem, which means you can’t be prepared for the same problem. Every wedding comes with a different challenge and that is the real challenge.
And while planning a wedding abroad the best thing to do is to be able to surround yourself with a team. They are always there to help; when I work abroad we make sure we have a local team who understands our language. The wedding industry is surrounded with good people, who can think for you and with you and that makes you feel that you’re never alone.

On an average how many weddings do you plan?
We do about 10 weddings a year and we do not cross that, because every wedding takes months to plan and a few also take 15 months, however, we strictly try to stick to six months. We put our heart and soul to the weddings.

We never do weddings at the same time, but it has happened once for which I couldn’t be available as a person, but I was on the phone all the time. The good thing is that I have an amazing team, who can handle situations smoothly. Our team is of eight members in which the only one is a guy and the rest of us are girls, who are under 30 and are young and enthusiastic.