Tying the knot during Covid-19 lockdown? In India, live-streamed weddings and home-delivered feasts are all the rage

A recent Tamil wedding has gone viral on social media, with images of the traditional wedding meal served to guests while the ceremony was broadcast online

Wedding planners say the new approach allows people to feel involved while also scaling back on food waste

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The wedding meal was delivered in insulated tiffin carriers to the homes of the guests who could not attend the ceremony. Photo: Weddings and Marigold

Published: 12:00pm, 9 Jan 2021Updated: 8:39pm, 10 Jan 2021

After a pandemic-hit year characterised by movement restrictions and social distancing, Indian wedding planners and families are getting more creative with ideas for the big day – with a live-streamed event creating a huge buzz on social media.

Shivaprakaash and Mahathi’s recent Tamil wedding held in December in Chennai went viral, with images of the kalyana sappadu – the wedding meal, traditionally served on a banana leaf – provided, hot, to guests in the comfort of their homes, along with a menu card and Indian sweets.

The invitations, when they were sent out, listed the details of the virtual wedding, along with when the meal would be delivered on the day of the wedding. Many people complimented the couple on their creativity, noting that the method could also scale back food waste, a common problem at large weddings.

“During the pandemic, my brother’s son got married, and we decided to have the wedding meal delivered in a kind of bento box to the guests who could not attend. When I had to plan a wedding later, the family wanted the typical feast of more than 20 dishes served hot at the right time, so people could watch the ceremony from their homes and then partake of the meal,” said Mathangi Srinivasamurti of Weddings and Marigold, the Chennai-based wedding planning company which coordinated the live-streamed wedding.

“Since I had already done it on a small scale before, we now planned a larger logistical exercise, buying hot cases [insulated tiffin carriers], numbering each dish in the order it should be served on the leaf, and packed it in neat woven bags sourced locally. The bag also contained the traditional bakshanam [sweets and savouries] and thamboolam [a bag containing betel nuts and leaves],” she said.

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