The exotic ‘knot’

Kunal Nagpal plans to tie the knot at the end of this month with his fiancee Radhika And the wedding won’t be in a fancy Pune five-star. Instead,their destination is the beach haven – Goa! “I have always dreamt of having an exotic wedding. I love beaches and no place can be better than Goa!” says Kunal. This young entrepreneur thought of this idea with his parents. “And when I shared it with Radhika,she too was as excited as me. We are going to have a wedding ceremony at night. It will be a small banquet wedding with family and close friends,followed by a beach party!” he smiles,obviously excited about living his dream.

Winter weddings are very popular with couples. Though fancy weddings are on each one’s mind,people do look for ways to make their wedding more pocket friendly. And nothing can beat the idea of saying ‘I do’ at a distant location during the off-season! For foreigners,India is an exquisite destination for a wedding. The most popular locations that couples choose for their big day are the back waters of Kerala,beaches of Goa,royal palaces of Rajasthan and Port Blair.

Shivoy Gupta and Priyanka are all set to take their vows next year in Kerala. “My fiancée has always had this childhood fantasy of spending the wedding night in a tree house in Kerala! Thus,we decided to have an exotic wedding,” smiles Shivoy.

Neha Modi,who plans to get married at a resort in Hyderabad,says,“We wanted to have a different wedding so we chose Hyderabad. We plan to get married in a resort named ‘Dholaridhani’,a Rajasthani theme based resort.”

India has a vast resource of biodiversity,starting right from tropical lands to forests,mountains,beaches,back waters and deserts,and each one offers an array of wedding themes. Couples can choose to have weddings in the backdrop of adventure,royalty,temples,wildlife,snow-capped peaks,setting sun on the beach,tree houses and even sanctuaries. Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon married Anil Thadani in 2004 at Jag Mandir Palace in Udaipur,Rajasthan. Even Pooja Bhatt,former actress and director,tied the knot with hotelier Munir Makhija in 2003 in Goa. And the most recent celebrity wedding in line with the ‘exotic’ trend took place on October 23 this year when pop singer Katy Perry married British actor and comedian Russel Brand in a tiger reserve in Jaipur.