Indian weddings are truly magical - you can transform a basic banquet hall into a Rajasthani mela, a Moroccan-themed affair, a secret garden or luscious forest, or a floral romantic fantasy. The ways in which wedding decor can elevate your events are endless. Indian wedding decor is one way to transform a venue into your wedding venue.
How do you go from a banquet hall or a farmhouse to a Punjabi dhaba or a rustic chic wedding? With the million and one options and decision, planning your wedding decor can also feel overwhelming. You can easily go from $200 here, $5000 here to $100K + decor bill. From getting the most value from your decor investment to balancing between too little and too much decor, with input from Bilen Walga (Designer at Prashe) and Ketan Mistry (Founder of Divine Decor of Dallas), we have created the Indian Wedding Decor 101 guide to help you on your wedding planning journey.
Photo credit: IVY Weddings, Decor by Prashe
Decor is easily one of the top costs of your wedding budget, alongside your venue and catering / alcohol.
Indian wedding decor is usually 20-30% of your overall wedding budget. As an example, for a $150,000 wedding in Dallas, your wedding decor may cost $30,000 - $50,000 (across a sangeet, wedding ceremony, reception and a home mehndi / grah shanti / haldi). Notice how there can be a large range in the cost of decor. There really is no cap - the more fresh flowers and customization you add, the higher your bill will go.
You’ll find other frequently asked questions and answers if you scroll to the bottom of the Wedding Decor page on The Desi Bride.
Image via Altair
While we included a more detailed wedding decor checklist of decor items at the end of this article, according to both Bilen and Ketan, there are four main components you will want to think about:
Decor by Prashe
Image via Design By PeeraPach
Every decorator has a separate process, but we recommend giving yourself at least 6-12 months from conception to design to execution of your wedding decor. Some of the best designers, like Prashe, get booked out well over a year in advance.
After you have designed your mood boards, ask potential wedding decor vendors to see actual pictures of what they have done for couples in the past. Instagram is not always reality and does not have a portfolio of all of their work. Phone pictures are great because you can see the work without as much editing. Secondly, videos are awesome, because you can see all angles of the decor and see how the room was brought to life.
Additionally, before you put a deposit down, ask the vendor to provide a couple of sample designs or let them take you through their warehouse to see your options. A luxury wedding decorator will create something unique for you, so while looking at images from other weddings is great, it’s also helpful to see what the designer would create for your wedding.
Set wedding decor budget: Once you have selected a decor vendor, you always want to set expectations on budget. They can easily take a $50,000 decor budget and make it $200,000 if you add a ton of fresh flowers and all of the bells and whistles. By setting a budget at the beginning (and really 10-20% below your actual budget as you will go over when you see the beautiful decor options), the decorator should make recommendations that fit your budget.
Get decor vision mock-ups: Many decorators, like Prashe and Rao Factor, will provide a mockup of your vision before you sign a contract. This mock up gives you the opportunity to figure out which styles resonate with you and what is realistically achievable in your budget.
Warehouse walkthrough and discussion: Now that you have aligned on budget and priority events, we recommend doing a warehouse walkthrough with your significant other or your maid of honor to start selecting the type of wedding decor you like and point it out to the decorator.
Design and blueprint: After you’ve met with your wedding decor vendor to discuss your vision (or theme) for each Indian wedding event, show mood boards, get inspiration from their warehouse, your designer or decorator can go off and create sketches of how they will bring elements of your vision to life. They can add colors and actual pieces and come back to you with a detailed sketch as well as a line item level quote.
Site visit: We recommend visiting the wedding venue(s) with your decorator and talking through the space and anticipated design. You should make sure the decor fits the space, so your stage etc don’t look too small or too large for the space.
Final decor selection: When you meet with your decorator ahead of the wedding, they should take you through the sketches and show you exactly which inventory items they’ll be using, colors, fabric types, and flowers. Note that we always recommend asking for a line item level invoice ahead of your event, including labor, so there are no surprises the day of. At this time, you can still change decor elements. Also, make sure to review layouts with your decorator and ensure that decor takes up the right amount of space, the mandap and stage are set up so guests can openly see what is going on, there is enough space between tables for guests to move around and mingle, etc.
Final site visit: We recommend a second site visit with your Indian wedding decorator and / or wedding planner to make sure everyone is on the same page about the layout and design. You can make last-minute adjustments as needed.
Image via Design By PeeraPach
Decor by Prashe
Aside from the details like signage, entrances, and props, we’ve included a checklist that will take you through the basic decor items you will need for an Indian Hindu wedding.
Wedding Ceremony
Mehndi
Haldi
Grah shanti
Sangeet / Garba
Wedding Reception
Backdrop by Social Sticker
Originally from Ethiopia, Bilen grew up exposed to both American and Ethiopian cultures. His dad ran one of the largest souvenir shops in Ethiopia, which inspired Bilen’s creativity at an early age. Bilen was approached by a floral shop owner and started working there during school. For the next 12 years, he enjoyed creating and designing different flower arrangements and centerpieces. He would bring home fresh flowers every Friday and design for his home. He fell in love with the colors and the ability to create something beautiful. The designs just came to him.
About 12 years later, Prashe, the top luxury and bespoke decorator in Dallas, approached Bilen, and the rest is history. He very quickly learned about the extravagance, colors, and vibrancy of South Asian weddings, and the cultural nuances. Today, he is one of the lead designers on Prashe’s team and has become one of the most sought after designers to work with.
Ketan Mistry is the man behind Divine Decor of Dallas. He has been in the wedding decor industry for years and has a large warehouse in DFW with a variety of mandaps, ganesh statues, swings, food carts, and whatever else you would want. Ketan and his team design for everyone from the lavish, Gujarati weddings to the smaller, intimate Indian weddings. Ketan’s team is known to have anywhere between 4-6 weddings or more on a busy weekend, so make sure you book them in advance.
Find luxury Indian wedding decorators here
Find top Indian wedding venues in Dallas here
Find top Indian wedding venues in Houston here
Find top Indian wedding venues in Austin here
Use The Desi Bride Wedding Venue Concierge to find your luxury wedding venue
Find top Indian wedding hair & makeup artists in Dallas here
Find top Indian wedding hair / makeup artists in Houston here
Find top Indian wedding hair and makeup artists in Austin here
Fly in luxury celebrity Indian bridal hair and makeup artists for Texas Desi weddings from this list
Find top Indian wedding photographers in Dallas here
Find top Indian wedding photographers in Houston here
Find top Indian wedding photographers in Austin here
Fly in luxury celebrity Indian photographers for Texas Desi weddings from this list
Find other Indian wedding vendors for Texas South Asian weddings on The Desi Bride
Google trends show that the View Details -->
For the many brides and grooms who chose to tie the knot during a global pandemic, their wedding was truly an adventure happeni
To the couples getting married during this pandemic, masks have quickly evolved to become beautiful, fun and personalized and a
Today, we're featuring a Hindu bri