The Planner

From one big thing to another. We were looking for a person who would be able to do most of the planning for us, and this was not easy. I am talking about five years ago. What more an Indian Planner. It took me a good two whole months to get contacts and calls to meet up with them.

It was all very disappointing as none had the kind of service we were looking for. There were planners of other races but they were not willing to undertake this event as it can be very elaborate. :)

Thanks to the ever famous Cine Fashion Magazine, which started its distribution somewhere around the time I was doing my research. It actually had advertised some very useful contacts of companies offering various wedding services. And there was one advertisement which caught my attention with their decoration pictures done for a previous wedding.

AWESOME! That was the word which was running in my mind. They are called Dreamworks and I was almost instantly attracted to their work...and guess what they don't only do deco or photography, they offer the whole wedding planning as a package. WOW!! ( Okay this was about five years ago)

Immediately called them up for an appoinment and Guna, the MD of this company, met up with us. His presentation was very impressive and he is very talented. He was what we were looking for, we told each other. And I am glad to say that finally, we have the planner for our wedding. This included photography, decorations,everything you name it.


Thank God For DreaMWORKS!!!

THE VENUE

We first got the total guests expected by both families, and concluded that there would be at least a thousand five hundred of them attending, a big number eh.....what can we expect when its the first wedding on both sides!

From here we narrowed down the halls with the right capacity and environment. And yes there are many halls which are big and non air conditioned, I would not know why. With the wonderfully hot weather in Malaysia and as the wedding was scheduled to be in the late morning, at around 10.30a.m. to about 12.00pm, it was only right for us to get a venue fully air conditioned.

As we decided to have the wedding in Klang town,(Anand is from here) there were only three halls available. After viewing the places and the charges we finally decided on the Teng Chin Hall which is located about ten minutes away from Anand's home. I was already having a picture of my wedding taking place there. The huge hall, the grand stage, air conditioned and the huge parking space was just superb! Even the changing rooms for the bride and groom was spacious and neat!

That was it! Initial payment was made and phew, that was done! Now comes the next agenda, the planner and of course the make up artist :) for me....

BIG DAY & ENGAGEMENT DATES SET

The dates were set for both engagement and wedding. Being one month away from each other was an additional stress, besides the whole wedding hype and tension. It goes without saying that Hindu weddings are one of the most elaborated weddings and it did not help much with the fact that it was going to be the first wedding on both sides. hhhhmmmm!!! :(

After loads of thinking, Anand and I decided that we are not going to go through the whole planning all by ourselves. The engagement is not so bad as it is only a day affair and is a simpler event. This function is normally held by the girl's party. And since it was to be held in my hometown, :- a smaller town in which there was no hurry to get bookings done early, we concerntrated on the plannings for the weddings first.

The date for the wedding had to be set one year ahead as the eligible wedding halls in Klang (where Anand is from) are always in great demand.

We decided for the engagement date to be on the 03.07.04 and our BIG DAY to be held on the 22.08.04. No significant reasons whatsoever. It was decided after discussing with the priest (another Indian custom).

And so the research for eligible hall and wedding planner begins.......................................

The Changes In Life!!

From the moment we coupled, life changed for the better. I knew my life had a direction. I knew that there were more things in life to achieve. Not just receiving a degree and traditionally get a job and be happy with it. There was more to it.

Marriage, building a family of my own and sustaining a job, and improving myself. All these were running in my mind, and as usual being the calm one as he always is, Anand, broke the news to his parents first.

The welcoming was greater than expected....... a very young at heart father in law, a fantastic & loving mom in law, and a sweet and lovely sis in law. What more can I ask for!!! :)

It was then my turn to inform my parents, it all turned out to be much easier than what I thought. All the tension, the panicking was actually a litlle exaggerated. Hubby was given green light by my parents after two weeks of discussion and meeting the priest for horoscope match. My siblings as usual being adorable as they always are, accepted him very well. Phew!!!!!

Both families met and dates were fixed. As I was in the midst of completing my MBA, the big day was set for 2004. Both engagement and wedding to be held in the same year.

YIPPPEEE!!!!!!

The Right Person!!!

This I would say is the most difficult part of the whole wedding process. Deciding on if this is "The Person" to spend the rest of our life with. Its a very subjective matter since there is no standard rules or principles about what kind of a person one should marry. The expectation differs.

As for me I had some expectations towards the man that I would spend the rest of my life with. And with God's grace, I am now very happily married to a man whom I fell in love with 10years ago. ANANDRAJ....He is everything a lady would want.

It was not easy to decide on the right person but with the assistance from a simple guide which i created myself helped me "big time"!

I always told myself these few things:

• My life should not change because of that person- my personal life ( social life ).


• My family should not be deprived
  
• Ego should be put aside (this is coming from someone who had always found it difficult to say I am sorry! :)
• Parents and in laws should be treated equally

And so happen, these are the things that we both believed in and are still holding strong with them. Naturally, we coupled immediately! Everything else was HISTORY!!! And of course along these wonderful ten years, I learnt a lot more.