Say hello to Kavi Shastri, our newest guest celebrity blogger who’s currently juggling his career and wedding prep! (I feel ya man, me too!) I thought it might be fun to get his take on it and after reading it might I suggest you give my planners a call? Marry Me – The Wedding Planners to the rescue 🙂 xoxo
Decorator, Photographers, mandaps, wedding cards, wedding cars, flowers, DJ, sherwani, suit, band baaja, food, mandwa, mehndi artist, hair stylist, make up artist, colour combinations, rings, mangal sutra… These are just some of the thoughts in my head at the moment! These are also some of the things I need to organize in the next three weeks, in order to have a smooth sailing and uninterrupted wedding and these are not just things ladies think about, it’s the guys wedding too!
Hi my name is Kavi Shastri. Some of you may know me from Yash Raj Television’s Rishta.com, for those who don’t know me yet, you will probably know me as Bechara by the end of this blog! Welcome to the stage in my life, which my family refers to as “oye Balle Balle Shaadi hai”. Well, actually I’m a Gujarati so it’s more like “dikra nu Lagan Che”. On the other hand, my fiancé Sherryl and I refer to it as aaaaaaghhhhhhhhh!
I want to make clear that I have no problem with getting married. I can’t wait to get married and create a happy home with Sherryl. But before both of us can even think about how to arrange the house and how to create a fun stable atmosphere, we have not one… but two wedding ceremonies to organize!
You would say the hardest part of the entire wedding would have been trying to convince both families, one being Gujarati Hindu Brahmin and the other being Catholic Anglo Indians, to have a multi-faith wedding! That was the easiest part… everyone fell in love with the idea (and each other) everyone is extremely happy and both families have turned into the 2011 version of Hum Aapke Hai Kaun types!
My family is all based in London… Sherryl’s family is based in Australia. Both sets of parents and siblings have their own full time careers, which leaves my Mrs Shastri to be and I in the pits of wedding organizing hell, right here in Mumbai!
We both love Mumbai to bits, it’s the city where our dream have been made and are being fulfilled everyday. But why is everything so damn complicated? Do you know how many licenses one needs to play music?! The venues are extremely over priced and then there is no one person we can go to and get a set of things done from. We have to go individually to every aspect of what we want! I’m sure they’ll ask me to grow my own flowers soon… (wait I can’t just grow flowers, I’ll have to get another license to do that!!!!)
Monopolies! Let’s not go there…. I like a venue, I want food from somewhere I like – wait I can’t do that, “Sir there is a monopoly, our caterers will give you the food you don’t want at extortionate prices, and you have to cater from them.”
Weddings are the most joyous occasions of a person’s life. But I’ve heard people say, “when you’re getting married, the couple is starting out from the bottom of the pile, and work their way up.” (It’s probably because the couple goes bankrupt at the wedding itself!)
All in all marriage is a blessed affair and I am blessed to be with Sherryl. Although the city drives us both insane and is probably soon to take us to bankruptcy. There is no other place to get married than Mumbai. Organizing a wedding is tough. A lot of people tell me that it’s the woman’s day… let them deal with it! I disagree. I am as much responsible and part of it all. If you let your bride to-be deal with it all before the wedding day… then for sure you’ll bare the brunt when it is all over!
Thanks for hearing my story of stress and despair… and if anyone knows a licensing guy… please let me know.