To give it a very clichéd beginning, marriages are made in heaven and they are solemnised on earth. But what is truly amazing about the solemnisation is that even when the western world and most of the business communities in India are reeling under the effect of the global economic meltdown, a certain faction of the city population are not in two minds when it comes to spending big on weddings.

Speaking about their daughter's wedding which took place only recently, Pramjit Rajpal says, "Wedding are occasions that happen only once, so it doesn't make any sense to cut costs, and reduce the spending. We have been saving fo this day and tgus were able to spent lavishly for the function and it was immensely satisfying to see that the event turned out to be fine."

Wedding in the recent days has acquired a whole new dimension with the wealthy going in for theme weddings. Spending for wedding now includes not only the traditional rituals and functions but also lavish parties, multi cuisine catering, and expensive decors; and all this at exotic locales, says Faiyaz Khan of Accordz Events and Promotions.

The recession has definitely slowed down the marriage bandwagon a bit but the rich are not afraid or do not think twice before planning prolific theme weddings. Even as recently as last month we had catered to a wedding that had a budget of over Rs. 30 lakhs," he adds.

Seconding his opinion is Shraddha Mehta of S n S Events, she says, "Wedding planning and execution has not taken much of a hit even in these times. Its understandable because for most families weddings are a grand one-time affair, so everyone wants to ensure that they get a starry eyed gold-plated stage for that special day. And if that has to come at the cost of a fat budget they are all game for it."

Ashok Kamdar, whose daughter recently got engaged and who had a miniature helicopter hovering overhead , showering them with petals says, "For us more than the lavish decoration it was the meticulous planning and the hospitality that played an important role. Besides this is the only time that our daughter is going to get married we need to ensure that there are no glitches as far as the wedding goes. More than the money involved we believe that it was due to the way we planed the affair that it turned out to be such a good event."