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My Indian destination wedding in Thailand: 30 hotel floors, 24-hour foot massages for 700 guests, waterfall bars – and a Batmobile

Hongkongers Mira Mahtani and Ravine Mahtani had a dream destination wedding in Bangkok – complete with 700 guests and a Batmobile. Photo: DotDusk

Fairy tale weddings are proving a dream come true for Thailand’s tourism chiefs, with the country looking to capitalise on lucrative Indian destination weddings in the coming decade.

The average cost of an Indian wedding in Thailand is 10 million baht, or US$330,000. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has conducted promotional campaigns in recent years to capture this desirable, high-spending segment.

Thailand is a good choice for Indian wedding celebrations, including proximity to India, availability of direct flights, visa-on-arrival for Indian passport holders, overall cost-effectiveness, and the availability of resorts and hotels that can accommodate high numbers of guests.

 

These are just some of the reasons that Hongkongers Mira Mahtani, née Uttamchandani, and Ravine Mahtani chose to wed in Bangkok in February 2018. The much-anticipated “RaRa” wedding featured 10 events over four-and-a-half days. Highlights included the groom entering in a Batmobile driven by Batman (requiring an entire Bangkok street to be closed for 20 minutes), 360-degree LED visuals in the ballroom, waterfall bars, a 3D-motion butterfly installation and light-up trainers gifted to every guest.

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Who needs a beach, when you’ve got LED screens at your wedding? Photo: DotDusk

“Doing a destination wedding was always something we knew we wanted,” says Mira. “When people take time off work to come celebrate your wedding, no one has to wake up to work, or commute to get to the party – it’s all one lift ride away. The energy, warmth and love are felt among the crowd.”

The Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen, where Hongkongers Mira and Ravine Mahtani tied the knot – in front of 700 guests. Photo: Ali Ghorbani

The couple had initially sought a beachside resort, but chose the 1,200-room Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen's Park for its large ballroom and ability to hold all 700 guests, most of whom flew in from Hong Kong and the US. “We chose to have our guests all in one tower, so we had around 20-30 floors and 350 rooms dedicated to us,” says Mahtani. “We also took up the lobby coffee shop and created a 24-hour lounge that served food and foot massages all day.”

Faced with a lack of ocean views, the happy pair teamed up with Rahul Idnani, director and founder of Hong Kong-based bespoke events company Elite Entertainment, to orchestrate a 360-degree LED screen displaying immersive beach scenes in the ballroom.

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Mira and Ravine Mahtani got the hotel to put Astroturf over the pool to make more room for dancing. Photo: DotDusk

“We had to be creative to find solutions to our setbacks,” admits Mahtani. To create extra room for the pre-wedding Mehndi party, the couple also worked with the hotel to cover the swimming pool with AstroTurf, creating a “lawn” for guests to walk around on.

“The themes, concepts and visuals (of RaRa) raised the bar of your traditional Indian wedding in Thailand, and it was known to be one of the trendiest weddings of all time,” recalls Idnani, who works as a visual content manager for many high-profile Indian weddings. “Videos, pictures and Insta stories were circulating in many parts of Southeast Asia, and people were messaging us to post more of the live action.”

Lavish, novel entertainment is a common touchstone of ‘RaRa’ weddings. Photo: DotDusk

“If I had to do my wedding all over again, I would choose Thailand every time. The hotel worked with us in every possible way they could,” Mahtani concludes. “Everyone was able to fly directly to Thailand, which made it easy for our guests. I could not have asked for a more beautiful, powerful and positive way to begin our marriage.”

Jakarta-based Innayat Khubchandani, director of Innaz Communique, is a wedding planner who specialises in destination Indian weddings for HNI (high-net-worth individuals). He told STYLE he operates with an average budget of around US$500,000 per wedding, and last year worked on around 30 weddings across Southeast Asia, three of which were in Thailand.

Everyone needs a good wedding photographer. Photo: Ali Ghorbani

In December 2018, Khubchandani co-planned the wedding of Hong Kong couple Kunal Samtani and Divya Vaswani at Splash Beach Resort in Phuket. With more than 1,200 guests and five days of festivities, it was the biggest wedding ever held in Thailand. “We took over the hotel for five days – we had 250 staff for the events, 300 decorators and six different venues,” he says.

Khubchandani adds that many Thai hotels have changed the way their work to cater to Indian weddings. “As long as a client fulfils minimum revenues and buyouts, the hotel will work with them to give them whatever they need,” he says. “Usually, hotels do not allow catering or bringing in alcohol from an outside source. Now, they just charge a corkage. Loud music is usually shut down at 3am, but they’ll let it go until 6am because Indians like it.”

Thai hotels are known to be accommodating to a couple's needs, especially when they fulfil minimum revenues and buyouts. Photo: Handout

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Idnani agrees that Thai venues and vendors are very well equipped for the various needs of Indian weddings – both logistical and cultural.

“Most of the hotels in Bangkok, Hua Hin, Phuket and Pattaya cater specifically to Indian weddings and the requirements that come with them. I think the hotels in Thailand are some of the few who can cater to the cultural needs of an Indian wedding,” he says. “Plus, there is so much availability of different elements to make a wedding look glamorous in a cost-effective way, compared to other parts of Southeast Asia. Thailand is a dream destination to have a wedding.”

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Weddings

Driven by celebrity trends, social media and amenities, couples from India and Hong Kong are taking over Thai hotels and resorts to host lavish celebrations with exotic flourishes