r/IndianWeddings

Hey everyone!

Either I am stupid or delusional. Likely both. Imma foodie. I love to eat, cook, feed—that’s my favorite thing to do in the world. But I absolute hate looking at the phone while cooking. I just don’t get the feeling. Scrolling mid-prep to see where the cinnamon is coming? Screw that.
So, I went ahead and designed this A5 flat-lay spiral recipe journal to feel like a timeless kitchen keepsake diary.
I split the layout to make it super roomy:

• **Left Side:** Ingredients and numbered directions.
• **Right Side:** A space to paste a photo of the dish and a notes section.

I'm printing a sample on thick 100GSM matte paper this week. My plan was to sell them out of Bangalore for ₹349-399 for general ones, and 499-549 as a cute, meaningful addition to **customised** **bridal shower hampers, bridesmaid gifts, or pre-wedding favors**.

But someone recently told me it's a dumb idea and that brides only want expensive luxury makeup or generic items in their hampers. I don’t know. I am just really tired and frustrated tonight.

Be brutally honest with me—am I wasting my time? Would you actually value a physical family heirloom kitchen journal as a wedding/bridesmaid favor, or should I just scrap this whole idea?

Let me know! 🙃

I’ve been going crazy searching for my wedding heels. I want a good platform heel which I can wear for all my events ( have only 3). My budget is 5k-7k. I’m in Mumbai but don’t mind buying online if it’s tried and tested.

I am Indian (Gujarati) and my fiance is white American. I grew up in the US so I'm religious to an extent and want to do the Indian ceremonies, but I'm okay with cutting out things like the sangeet. He's not religious and would want the American style wedding.

I need help visualizing how to fit everything in with a $50k budget for a fusion style wedding, and between the both us, maybe having 70 people total.

All we have done so far is book the venue (located in southern Delaware), which we have for 2 days (Thursday, Friday). It costs $12k for the 2 days (wasn't much less for the one day).

My idea is

Day 1 \\- Mehendi at my home.

I do not have a large home, so this would just be American friends, some cousins, and immediate family. Roughly 15 people.

Day 2 \\- At the venue

Indian rituals

Followed by Grah Shanti

Then a break for people to change

Then Haldi with games

A night before dinner (rehearsal)

Day 3 \\- At the venue

American style wedding

Cocktail hour - gives time for us to get changed

Reception (would include dances and dinner)

I spoke with a wedding planner (not booked yet - MIL will pay) and she said a $50k budget was tight so I guess I have 2 questions:

1. Do I cut things put of my wedding? Increase budget somehow?

2. Or change my timeline in someway that would make things flow easier and cost less?

After some discussion, I found out that $50k is too little for something that I'm trying to do. But I also want to note that although this big fancy stuff is nice, I don't necessarily care for all the decor or over the top items that Indian weddings usually carry the expectation of having. But I'd love input from others.

Most photographers have shared a package of 2 photographs and 2 videographers for our wedding of 150 people. Same for reception of 200 guests.

On mentioning that we’re good with just 1 videographer, one studio explained that having 2 videographers helps you capture both POVs of a moment, eg. during the entrance, varmala, sagai, etc. so the storytelling will be better in the edited wedding film. I get his point, but the diff is ₹20k. I’m not sure if it’s worth it or not, or if it’ll matter later, because the photographers are still going to be capturing photos of both POVs.

Does anyone have experience with this? Advice?