This is probably the season when your Facebook News Feed is flooded with stunning wedding pictures of friends and acquaintances. After browsing through endless snapshots of events that seem to channel the best in ambience, food and clothes, you begin to wonder — surely, there is a foreign hand behind all this, that of a wedding planner.
However, it turns out that Chennai still has not caught up when it comes to hiring wedding planners. Only a niche crowd opts for this service.
Maria Sheela, founder of El Shaddai, that organises Christian weddings, says that when she started this business in 2009, there were hardly any takers. Only now is a small section reaching out to wedding planners. “The problem is that people assume hiring a wedding planner adds to the expense, but it is not really the case. I customise packages according to the budget of customers while ensuring that everything is covered,” Ms. Maria says.
Vivek Anand of Epic Weddings endorses this view and adds that concepts such as theme weddings are yet to become popular. “There are a few who are willing to experiment with the idea but, it’s mainly an elite crowd.” Everyone though is vociferous is pointing out that wedding planners are here to stay and their services will only become popular over time.
On weekends,
cricket rules
In a cricket-crazy city like Chennai that is woefully short of playgrounds, corporate employees have found a way out by ‘renting’ out grounds during weekends. The availability of cricket grounds in a few private colleges and schools has helped corporate employees to enjoy a game of cricket peacefully unlike the Corporation grounds in Somasundaram or in Kotturpuram where they have to fight for the ‘pitches’. Cricket fields in areas in the outskirts like Madambakkam, Medavakkam, Santhoshapuram and a few college grounds on Rajiv Gandhi Salai, have become hot spots for organising weekly corporate cricket tournaments and matches.
Former Ranji cricket player D.S.K. Reddy, who runs Reddy’s Cricket Academy, said he rents out five cricket grounds for 20-over corporate tournaments and league matches of Tamil Nadu Cricket Academy . On weekdays, the grounds are used for the district tournaments and cricket leagues.
For cricket enthusiasts like N.K. Srinivasan, weekends are normally spent playing in various tournaments. An IT employee, Mr. Srinivasan said there are a group of organisers who hold corporate tournaments regularly.
(Reporting by Sunitha Sekar and R. Srikanth)
