How To Greet Guests At Your Wedding

How much time have you spent planning your wedding day? Months, right? Most brides (and their moms) try and organise their wedding with all the precision and accuracy of a military manoeuvre. It is not called D Day for nothing, folks!

But it would be a shame, would it not, if the only thing that your guests remembered about the wedding was the fact that the chicken tikka was too spicy? After all, India is still a land that is imbued with culture and tradition, and one of our most honoured traditions is that of “athithi devo bhava”. You would want your guests to take away only good memories from your wedding after all the time and effort that you have spent planning it.

So take the following tips if you want to ensure that your guests have a memorable time at your wedding:

Traditional Indian Arti

In olden days, guests coming into the home for the first time were greeted with an arti. Have you considered reviving this old tradition to your wedding day? Have a group of your friends and other young girls from your family stand at the entrance of the wedding venue, ready to greet guests with a traditional arti. It will add a personal touch that your guests will surely love.

Have fun dressing up

In earlier times, guests to a wedding would come days before the actual event in order to help out with the wedding arrangements and have a grand time catching up with everyone. That may not be possible today, but you can still add a touch of traditional glamour to your big day. At the entrance to the wedding venue, you can ask guests to don traditional pagdis and chunnis. You can also hire professionals who will tie them for your guests, thus adding a unique touch to your revelry.

Personalised souvenirs

This is probably the best way to show your guests how much you value them. There are plenty of ideas for personalised souvenirs that will suit every taste and budget, such as:

• If you and your new husband are both fond of music, then compile a CD of your favourite songs and give them as a gift to your wedding guests. After all, who does not like music?
• If music is not your thing and you prefer arts & crafts instead, then give your guests a little knick knack that they can use to decorate their home as a memento of your wedding. You can buy such things in bulk at discounted rates from stores like Archies.
• Here’s one that your lady guests will love: a little change purse that has been gussied up with brocade, lace or silk.
• One of the best stimulants to memory is the olfactory sense. Confused? What I meant was that whenever you smell a certain scent that you associate with something, you will recall that thing immediately. For me, the scent of cardamom is irrevocably associated with my grandmother’s kitchen. So give your guests a packet of your favourite potpourri which will make their home smell delightful!