Wedding registry is a shaadi gifting concept that's common in the West. Urban India might just be waking up to the idea of a bride pre-deciding what gifts her guests will give her. With elders playing protagonists in the big fat Indian wedding, will the new-age trend work? Asks Janaki Viswanathan
Wedding registry is a shaadi gifting concept that's common in the West. Urban India might just be waking up to the idea of a bride pre-deciding what gifts her guests will give her. With elders playing protagonists in the big fat Indian wedding, will the new-age trend work? Asks Janaki Viswanathan
It was day four after the wedding, when husband and wife ripped apart cellophane-wrapped boxes to unravel 200-odd presents. There were 20 dinner-sets, seven with the same pattern, (La Opala only does a few), 15 tea-sets, Bombay Dyeing bedsheets, and the most amusing -- a Milton water bottle and a ceramic bulldog. 
Every item on display at Mozaic is up for bridal registry.
Pic/ rane ashish
Wish they had registered; not just their marriage, but the gifts too.u00a0u00a0
Wedding or bridal registry, a common pre-wedding exercise in the West, arrived in India a few years ago, but it's now that the trend seems to be drawing eyeballs.
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Pick, choose, list, be gifted
A quick run through the concept. Say you are the bride, and you want to make sure you don't have to endure the ceramic bulldog. All you do is walk into a store that offers bridal registry, browse through products on display, pick the ones you like, and ask the store to mark them for you.
Next, the store marks out a webpage on its site with your name on it, and a list of the items you've picked, with details. Guests on the invitation list are kept in the loop. They log on, are acquainted with what you've chosen, and buy what they deem fit and can afford. The climax? You get exactly what you want, and the guests don't scurry across town, harrowed while hunting for the 'perfect' wedding gift.
It's taking time
So why hasn't the trend picked up until now? "We are still hesitant to tell someone what we want, upfront," says Shilpa Gupta, owner, Mozaic. Bandra's plush home accessories store housed in an old colonial mansion down Turner Road, opened barely two weeks ago. It offers bridal registry. Gupta says it's the new generation Indian couple that approaches the idea with excitement.
Mozaic offers a range of products for registry, starting from Rs 350 to something that can cost Rs 2 lakh. Every product on display, right down to the cushion, is up for tagging. If you are a close friend of the bride's, you might want to pick a three-armed candle holder worth Rs 12,900. If you are family, and loaded, maybe a Springtime handpainted couch for Rs 51,000 will work. A casual acquaintance could settle for a modest but tasteful patchwork tray at Rs 1,290.
Items could run into lakhs
Home d ufffdcor store GOODEARTH launched its bridal registry, Bridal Wishlist, five years ago. The response has been encouraging off late, says Beenu Bawa, head of marketing. But they still encounter cultural resistance.
"We get customers who say, 'I'd love to, but mum won't let me.' Most of the time, parents love the idea to spare them all the redistribution but are apprehensive about how the extended family and in-laws will perceive the concept," she explains.u00a0
Recently, GOODEARTH created a wishlist for soon-to-be-bride Mumbai bride Kanika Bhattacharya, who ties the knot this October. Her total wishlist, we are told, works out to Rs 3,89,560. Bhattacharya's is one of the new-age weddings, complete with her own wedding website that carries details of what she'd like you to gift her.
Say it with stones
The most obvious contender for bridal registry is the well-travelled young professional going to set up a new, independent home with a partner, instead of moving into a joint family.
And while home d ufffdcor items, accessories and crockery still top the favourite-gifts list, jewellery is becoming the next big wedding gift.u00a0
That's probably why Amrapali by Vandana Sarawgi recently announced the launch of bridal registry. Sarawgi, whose eclectic, vintage jewellery has been patronised by stars from the Hindi film industry, and some Hollywood celebs, says a two-month trial helped them gauge reactions. "It's still a very novel concept and needs to be treated delicately."
The jewellery brand mails letters on the bride's behalf, informing guests about the registered-for trinkets. The budgets for silver, gold, diamond and precious stone jewellery range from Rs 2,000 to Rs 2 lakh.u00a0
"Jewellery is the next big gifting option. Clothes are too personal, and these days, couples own smaller homes, and tend to entertain people outside. So, home accessories aren't in that great a demand either," is Sarawgi's take.
Rs 1,001, no less
But the guys who plan the big fat Indian wedding, still swear by the fat envelopes stuffed with currency; a Re 1 coin slipped in for good luck. Aditya Motwane, COO of Percept D'Mark Company, wedding planners behind the Sahara India Pariwar-Roy wedding, claims he hasn't heard of the concept. "I haven't encountered an instance of this in the last 10 years," he shrugs.
Motwane says the idea works in the West where a wedding sees a maximum of 100 guests. "Here, we have a thousand people coming over, and 60 per cent of them are elders, for whom this idea would be bizarre. Also, it takes away the surprise element!"u00a0u00a0
But Delhi-based Meher Sarid who handled former president of India Shankar Dayal Sharma's granddaughter's wedding, welcomes the idea. All the same, she says it's not the higher-income group that settles for bridal registry. "If you belong to an affluent family, for starters, you won't need much as far as gifts go. And, picking out gifts will reveal your spending power, and that of your guests. You wouldn't want that."
It's the middle-income group aka the BPO and corporate professionals who live off credit cards, are well-travelled and less traditional who are likely to sign up.
Delhi-based make-up and hair expert Ambika Pillai organised her daughter Kavita's shaadiu00a0 last year, and grudgingly opted for wedding registry. "Personally, I'd have loved to pick gifts for the couple. But they knew exactly what they wanted, so it was perfect. Let's face it, we do receive a lot of trashy gifts at weddings."
It's an easy gifting option all right, but it will be years before it catches on, says wedding planner Gurleen Puri over the phone, while tending to a function at the Jindal-Bajaj wedding in Pune. Puri admits that she finds the idea appealing and had considered tying up with GOODEARTH: "But the response hasn't been great."u00a0
So, it's functions like baby or bridal showers and housewarming parties that tend to find more patronage with the concept. Perhaps it's because these celebrations are inherently un-Indian. "Our weddings are still largely traditional, and the elders have more of a say than youngsters," says Puri.u00a0
Till the trend catches on with mainstream marriages, guess we must learn to make peace with that fifth set of glasses.
Bridal registry is free of cost at most stores, which offer it.
Where can you register:
>>Amrapali, Call 26125001
>>GOODEARTH, Lower Parel. Call: 24951954
>>Mozaic, Bandra. Call: 9820194985
What they say
The wedding planner
"Here, we have a thousand people coming over, and 60 per cent of them are elders, for whom this idea would be bizarre. Also, it takes away the surprise element of opening gifts."
Aditya Motwane, COO of Percept D'Mark Company
The parent says
"Personally, I'd have loved to pick gifts for the couple. But they knew exactly what they wanted, so it was perfect. Let's face it; we do receive a lot of trashy gifts at weddings."
Make-up and hair expert Ambika Pillai, whose daughter signed up for wedding registry last year
How it all started
In 1924, Chicago-based departmental store Marshal Field started wedding registry. They let an engaged couple pick out china, silver and crystal accessories, so that guests could come by later and buy the items. The electronic gift registry first began in 1993 by Target Stores.
You saw it in the movies
Sarah Jessica Parker and her gal pals made an appearance at the beginning of Sex and The City 2, picking gifts off the wedding registry for their gay buddy Stanley's nuptials. Other Hollywood flicks that featured the concept of bridal registry were 27 Dresses, Made of Honour and Bridal Wars.
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