Facebook Pixel Code

Invitation to splurge

For companies like Hallmark and Archies, February 14 is, quite literally, a red-letter day.

For companies like Hallmark and Archies, February 14 is, quite literally, a red-letter day. It?s the day they rack up their biggest single-day sale of Valentine?s Day cards. Little wonder then that each year, the cards get bigger and more expensive. Yet, there?s a natural progression from the romance of V-Day to the wedding, where invitation cards, too, are becoming more expensive, elaborate, and a statement of who you are and, more importantly, what you are worth. In Delhi, there are at least three outlets devoted solely to the creation of wedding cards for the wealthy. There was a time, a few years ago, when they started losing business to fashion designers when it became a status symbol to have your card designed by Tarun Tahiliani, Rohit Bal or Sabyasachi Mukherjee.

That proved a passing fad, but largely because other factors had intervened. The rich, unlike you and I, need to be constantly engaged in one-upmanship, which basically means spending more and in a flashier manner than their contemporaries in the millionaires? club. Till a decade ago, luxury or designer-branded wedding cards used to cost between R6,000 and R10,000 each. Those were the days when the in thing was the Swarovski-embellished card with multiple folds in silk, brocade and tissue fabric that came accompanied by a box of designer chocolates from Belgium or dates flown in from Dubai. Today, the cost of a card could be anything between R50,000 or a lakh each and here?s the catch: it?s now fashionable to send cards merely asking you to save the date, or dates, for the upcoming nuptials. The save-the-date cards are as elaborate as the wedding cards were a few years ago.

Technology has also come to the aid of the shock-and-awe seekers. A wedding invitation card received by a friend came with a mini TV screen. A Dubai company (where else?) is retailing these cards, which sport a high-resolution HD screen and mini speakers. They may be in miniature form, but the resolution is impressive, and it also has a USB port. The cards were originally made for corporates, but an Indian NRI in Dubai ordered them for the wedding of his son. It came with videos of the family and the prospective bride and her family stored in a flash drive along with shots of the wedding venues. Naturally, there is a minimum number requirement and my friend tried to find out the cost of the cards, but was told that it was too vulgar an amount to be made public.

The most expensive wedding invitation on record, perhaps anywhere in the world, was the one sent by Lakshmi Mittal (who else?) for the high-profile wedding of his daughter held at various venues in Paris. The invitation card was encased in silver and was 20 pages thick, each page was hand-painted and contained details of the functions planned for each of the five-day celebration. The guests were divided into two categories; closest relatives and friends had the invitation delivered along with a luxury watch and a necklace, while the other category received a 5 kg hand-carved silver centrepiece. That will be a tough act to follow, but not from the lack of trying.

Another friend of mine received a save-the-date card which came in a hand-carved wooden box. The velvet-lined interior had a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne and two Swarovski crystal champagne toasting flutes.

The great Indian wedding is now synonymous with an exhibition of affluence and, being the very first overt symbol of the family?s wealth status, the invitation has to be planned as elaborately as the wedding itself. In India, religious iconography still rules, except these days, Ganesha is almost unrecognisable, covered as he is, from head to toe in everything from crystal beads to gold and silver or precious stones. There are wedding card manufacturers located mostly in Rajasthan who specialise in jewel-studded wedding cards using real gemstones.

Now, with destination weddings being all the rage among India?s wealthy, wedding card designers have a new avenue. Dubai was a popular choice when hotels there started targeting rich Indians. So invitations carried Arabic engravings in gold foil encased in a silver scroll. Turkey is the new Dubai, even for those who live in Dubai. A couple from the Emirates held their daughter?s wedding in Antalya, the popular wedding destination near Istanbul. The card came with exotic condiments in a fancy box, but the centrepiece was a set of Arabic prayer beads in rare black jade with gold thread.

The Venetian hotel in Macao has also been wooing Indian clients and recently hosted one wedding where the invitation came slotted inside a gold gondola. Few invitations, however, deserve to be framed. One that I saw a few years ago was for the wedding of Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai; simple, elegant and beautifully worded but the reason it was framed were the handwritten signatures of the parents, Amitabh and Jaya, at the bottom.

The writer is Group Editor, Special Projects & Features,

?The Indian Express?

Get live Share Market updates, Stock Market Quotes, and the latest India News and business news on Financial Express. Download the Financial Express App for the latest finance news.

First published on: 17-02-2013 at 02:00 IST
Market Data
Market Data
Today’s Most Popular Stories ×