Here Are Some Stellar Ways That the Pros Bring Fun Back to Weddings

Image Courtesy: Bhargav Boppa Photography

Can we say all things weddings are not the way they used to be before? The past 6 months with the pandemic, every celebration has been affected drastically. From the dates of the weddings being shifted to the way they are being planned, from long evening weddings to day weddings, from big weddings to small intimate ones - the last 6 months saw everything being re-invented.

Keeping traditions in place, the conventional ways have taken a backseat as the world and the industry process their way out of the situation that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has created. Dwindling through the "new normal" as the world is now calling it, couples and experts have realised that no matter what the fun elements of a wedding cannot be compromised with. 

Maybe you cannot really sit up all night listening to old Hindi songs with your cousins while you write out the invitations, but that does not mean the fun at weddings has to end because of the coronavirus. In fact, experts are looking at this as an opportunity to explore their creativity and provide mindblowing solutions to the clients to bring back the fun even if it is a small wedding or a virtual wedding.

Now you must be wondering how, and this is exactly why we have listed all the innovative ways to induce fun into a lockdown wedding and how! Make sure to bookmark your favourite ideas and try it for your next project.

Focus on guest engagement

While a physical wedding planning process has a lot of voluntary and involuntary guest engagement, making that happen in a lockdown wedding with many guests appearing virtually or gathering at your backyard for a few hours on the D-day might be confusing. However, you must keep your guests engaged and invested. The wedding might have been postponed or changed to an intimate wedding in your drawing room and so on -  despite it all we suggest you to encourage couples to be in touch with the guests. Be it through video calls, fun games and online quizzes about each other, happy hours, sending personalised gifts or dividing the work on your wedding website; make sure to keep the wedding spirits alive. It's on the way!

Priority to heirloom

Wedding shopping especially the bridal trousseau shopping is one of the most exciting yet exhausting parts of a wedding planning process. However, with home weddings becoming more and more popular and the wardrobe for intimate weddings being starkly different from weddings otherwise, this is a great time for an heirloom hunt. You can include this as your wedding outfit theme even for the guests where they all need to have at least one heirloom piece in their attire. It could be a whole 9 yards draped or it could be a brooch. Including heirlooms will make sure each of your guests even the virtual ones digs through their parents' wardrobes to find their "something old" for your big day. The intimacy and warmth of an intimate wedding will also allow you to focus on attending to each guest personally and spend quality time and appreciate their efforts better.

Virtual fun with BTS

Who doesn't love behind the scenes peeks? Right from those movies where we wait for the end credits to see if there are some behind the scene shots we knew very well that our love for behind the scenes is immense. To make the best of this love for BTS and at the same time keep it candid and fun, you can ask your clients or couples to shoot some behind the scene videos. They can upload one video a week or in two weeks until the new wedding date, on their social media platforms or their wedding website too. This will not only keep everyone along with yourselves entertained but this is also a fun way to keep your guests updated about the happenings. This way even if they are not present, they will get to be a part of it. Not only groom and bride getting ready videos, but also provide some videos of the aunt freaking out or the uncle caught yawning and such fun "oops" moments for your virtual guests to feel that they are a part of the wedding too. 

More of DIY for the family

Never has anyone said, "DIY" and "boring" in the same line. Do it yourself tasks are always fun. Be it the props for your intimate pre-wedding ceremonies or a counter at the wedding brunch where you can make your own salad - guests love DIY and clients love them too. Make sure to avoid making it a lot of work for anyone and keep it light and simple for all to cherish the moments and have fun. You could opt for handpainted invites where the entire family can bring out the Picasso hidden in them or ask the couple's guests to send handwritten messages that can be read on the day of the wedding. This is a great time to emphasize on the itty bitty details and while at it, make it fun and happening in the best ways possible.

More video content

Image Courtesy: Gopal Sardeshpande

Instead of sending just Change the Dates and New Save the Dates followed by the invites if you ask the couple as well as the families and guests to add more video content to the entire process. Get in touch with your virtual artists to design a virtual photo booth for all to update an album that can be cherished forever. Since digital is here to stay - pandemic or not, we suggest you make the most of the moment to tell stories. You could ask the couple to get their families on board and play some dumb charades or just get on a virtual coffee date to get to know each other better and spend more time together despite the social distancing and lockdown norms in place. A regular wedding might not have bought you this ample amount of time to be able to spend time together this way. Make sure to make the most of it! 

Intimate weddings with families in one place

Image Courtesy: Anoop Studio

While virtual ceremonies have become quite the trend that came in hand in hand with the intimate wedding trend in the industry, with the lockdown norms being eased evidently, you can actually help your clients plan an intimate wedding with both the groom and bride's families in one place. Instead of the usual separate pre-wedding celebrations, and the Team bride vs Team groom cutthroat competitions, you can actually have a lot of fun if you are in one place. The warmed of intimate weddings is anyway unmatched to any other and having the families in one place just makes the wedding one grand fiesta or a fun vacation.

Personalised Menu for all present

If the bride's maternal uncle has diabetes, or the groom's cousin follows a Keto diet - you can actually pay heed to the tiniest details while you help the couple plan a menu. In a big fat Indian wedding, it is impossible to take care of every minute needs of your guests. Keeping it safe yet fun, there have been ideas like Chaat on a conveyor belt or snacks on a tabletop train have been used. You could also opt for individualised platters that is also the catering trend right now instead of a buffet where you can place small personalised cookies with the guest names and hand it over to them at lunch/dinner.

Personalised drink names

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What is more fun than drinks? Personalised drinks! You can actually prepare a personalised cocktail and mocktails for your wedding and name them after your family members or guests. Maybe the dirty Martini can be one of the groom's super hot cousins or a virgin mojito can be named after the coolest sister of the bride. When it comes to personalisation, the sky is the limit. Make sure you let the couple introduce these drinks out and loud for their virtual guests. You can also help the couple to put out the recipes along with the drink names on their wedding website for every virtual guest to have made one Seema Aunty or one Bubbly Didi drink for themselves. Saying cheers will be fun amplified without a doubt!

More toasts

Image Courtesy: Merry Go Hearts

In an average Indian wedding that happened before the pandemic, the guest list would consist of 300-500 guests mostly if we keep aside the 1000+ ones. Leave alone spending time with each guest, the newlyweds would not even get the chance to hear the congratulatory notes or enjoy the "Remember that time when..." stories over drinks. Since the guests are a handful amidst the lockdown and the rest are attending via Zoom or other live streaming platforms, you can actually help the couple plan an itinerary where every person gets a chance to share a story or congratulate the couple without losing out on any extra time. The more the toasts, the more memories they get to add to their wedding especially if the best friend is drunk while giving a toast. 

These are the different ways you can step up your game and work towards bringing fun back to weddings.

If you find any other interesting way to make your client's wedding fun and unforgettable occasion, let us know in the comments below.