Detailing is the new fad: Anika Dhawan

New Delhi (IANS) – (IANSlife) After being in the industry for four years now, Anika Dhawan Gupta, founder of wedding decor Rani Pink and co-founder of label Bageecha Banaras, believes that to get more likes and views on their social media posts, people today want more detailing in decoration and other arrangements when in comes to wedding the social and other ceremonies as compared to a few years back when the focus was only the marriage.

Dhawan, who did the wedding decoration for Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor and the movie “Veere Di Wedding”, in an interview with IANSlife shares her views on her journey into the industry, sustainability and more. Excerpts:

Q: How have you seen the market evolving over the years?

Anika: Nowadays, everyone wants personalized and customized themes for their wedding. It has become more detailed and the entire family has their own preference, they sit with us to plan the entire theme for the wedding and ceremonies. Details have important significance, like the lehanga of the bride has to go with the theme and the packaging of the gifts has to be similar to the theme. Whereas, earlier people didn’t care much about the decor and just focused on getting their children married. In today’s time, social media also plays a vital role for every bride and groom, they want to add hashtags, proper layout for their Instagram and get more likes and views. Media also inspires them like Pinterest and other wedding-related posts. Even international wedding themes have created inspiration for people.

Q: There has been a lot of talking on sustainability. But when it comes to big fat wedding, how sustainable do you think it can be?

Anika: Today’s generation is much more informed and aware about their surroundings. Weddings are a huge celebration for every Indian family. However, the large scale of these festivities sometimes lead to negligence towards the environment in a number of ways. Food wastage, energy consumption, noise pollution are a few things where consciousness and the application of innovative ideas can help beat the woes caused to the environment. We live in a digital era, E-invites is a great option to start with, we end up spending so much money on wedding cards… they are a total wastage of paper. If you still want to send out wedding cards, you can use recyclable and reusable papers.

Q: Your journey from being the founder of Rani Pink to Bageecha Banaras co-founder, how has it been?

Anika: Our experience overall with Rani Pink and Bageecha has been great. Rani Pink is all about what the client wants on their big day and if they’re happy with our work, nothing makes us happier than that. Same goes with Bageecha, we aim to create beautiful Banarasi weaves with a legacy across decades and our success lies in the happy consumers we encounter. It has been a gratifying journey for me, both have given meaning to my life. We now also have Rani Pink Gifts, a luxury packaging label that we launched a few months back and has been very well received.

Q: What do you like the most about your work?

Anika: Here, we make sure Rani Pink is all about what the client wants and how we can make their big day special and if they’re happy with our work, nothing makes us happier than that. We try to make every wedding function unique and exquisite with our handcrafted props and setups built from scratch. The idea continually remains to innovate within the space of wedding decor while creating everlasting memories through dreamy and ethereal setups. The creative freedom I get is what I truly love about what I do.

(Puja Gupta can be contacted at puja.g@ians.in)

–IANS
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