Candid weddings-Tattoos and sneakers teamed up with lehangas!

New Delhi, Dec 13: Bid adieu to the customary posed wedding photos, mandatory video-graphing of the 'saat-phere' and the cliched styles of wedding arrangements.

For the quirky, social media active generation, Indian wedding means showing off the world the much-in-love-couple! "This season, quirk is what is in!" says Anand Shahni, co-founder of Gurgaon based WedMeGood.

People no more want the photographers to tell them how to pose for a perfect wedding photograph or stand behind the bride and groom for a conventional picture.

"Candid photography is what people prefer nowadays. There are funky photo booths, props and some placards that even make the posed photographs look more fun-filled," says Sanna Vohra CEO of online wedding portal, Indear.

In fact, pre-wedding videos have immensely grown in popularity. Grooms lifting their brides and bollywood-styled videos are in trend, says Vohra.

"Some even release trailers of their pre wedding videos, in case they don't want to share the complete video with everyone," she says.

Shahni says that our generation is the Instagram generation. There are common hashtags that friends and family use while sharing the wedding pictures on social networking sites.

Many are now switching to e-cards. They prefer to send these pre-wedding videos on WhatsApp as invites, he further says. Wedding cards have also got a whole new look. It's no more just an envelope and a card by a 'shaadi card wala' but personalization has made each card unique.

"This wedding season 'D-I-Y' (Do it yourself) is trending. Most wedding cards have personal logos nowadays. They are even recycling things, decorating and using it to send as special tokens with invites. Along with invitation cards, almonds, green teas and flavoured honey are being sent," says Shahni.

According to Vohra, personalization is in this season. From photographs to food to invites, couples want personalization to make their wedding special.

"Not just the cards, it's a combined thing. People send candle holders, small idols, shells. So the whole box is carefully designed as well. Invites are the first thing of a wedding. So a well packaged invite sets the tone of the wedding," says Vohra.

With the changing food habit of youngsters today, the wedding menu has gone international. It's not only the Indian dishes, Lebanese, Italian and Mediterranean are also on the spread. At many weddings now couples opt for their favourite cuisine like in a recent wedding the entire menu was Lebanese as the bride and groom loved Lebanese, says Vohra.

Shahni says the food at weddings is now more about live counters.

"Nobody wants hundred spreads and then waste it. We also rope in some organizations to pick up food and serve underprivileged. Menus are becoming classier. People are choosing new age caterers for better presentation. It's not only the taste but the way of serving also matters nowadays. Some high end weddings include molecular gastronomy. They have liquid nitrogen churned ice creams," says Vohra.

Foodhall, a premium lifestyle food superstore, in Mumbai, Bengaluru, New Delhi, Pune and Gurgaon are offering its custom-made gift hampers and ingredients like Tomotillo (Green Tomatoes of Mexico) and gluten-free breads such as pizza dough to bring a global variety to the menu.

The couples are not even hesitating from experimenting with the traditional rituals and wardrobe.

"This season couples are opting for ring tattoos. They are getting their ring finger inked instead of wearing the engagement ring. Obviously they don't do it at the ceremony but after it they mutually go in for a permanent tattoo. We have got many inquiries regarding this," says Siddarth Dalal, co-founder of BookMeIn.in.

Shahni says that some brides are even personalizing the lehangas and mehandis.

"This time there were some personalized lehangas like getting small prints of Harry Potter on it. There were mehandi designs applied with Minions. In fact one of the quirkiest thing was wearing smart sneakers with the lehanga!".

Dalal says that many want to look like their favourite actress so we are getting them Madhuri Dixit look or any of their favourite actresses. For the brand conscious brides, Indear has roped in leading wedding designers like Ritu Kumar, Anita Dongre, Falguni & Shane Peacock, Shehlaa Khan and others.

Brides are even experimenting with colours. Instead of the traditional red, there are blues, greens and new age colours like pastels. And once you think you have got addicted to clicking pictures and posting and reposting wedding pictures, BookMeIn has a solution there as well.

Dalal says they offer selfie detox and social media detox for it! He says that this season there have been enquires for detectives to do a background check to be sure of each other and the families. BookMeIn also provides kundali matching and pre and post marriage counselling for the couples to help them embark on a new phase of life.

PTI