5 Wedding Planners Share The Wildest Requests Made By Clients

Weddings are one of the most special days in our lives and it’s only natural that we would want to make it as special as possible. For most, this means hosting the ceremony in a destination close to your (and your partner’s) heart or having your favourite songs serenading you as you celebrate your love surrounded by close friends and family. Professional wedding planners can take care of the lion’s share of work that it would take to organise your dream wedding. However, sometimes even the most experienced of the lot can be left stumped!

We asked some of the best wedding planners from across the country about the wildest requests they’ve received over the years.

From being asked to build a permanent bridge to connect an island to the mainland to catching live butterflies that would follow the bride as she makes her entry, these wedding planners have seen and heard it all! Take a look…

5 Wedding Planners Share Their Most Challenging Experiences

When the couple wanted to brave the stormy sea for a unique reception entry

The founders of luxury destination wedding planning company Resh&Co, Sushma Venkatesh, Reshma Ramaiah, and Costanza Giaconi, recall one of the instances where they had a tough them explaining to the client the irrationality of their requests. “We were doing a wedding in Miami and the sea was rough and stormy. And, on that very day, the couple wanted their entry to happen at the reception venue on a boat. The captain was not ready to drive them and we clearly told them about the risks associated. It was becoming a liability issue. They were still very stubborn about the idea, it took a lot of time to convince and coax them, but thankfully at the end of the day, they cooperated with us and dropped the plan!” says Sushma Venkatesh.

When the budget became a distant (inconvenient) memory

Prashant Dubey, founder of Elite Weddings India, recalls a time when a client had expectations beyond the budget he had set for the planner. “One time I was doing a lavish wedding and the client wanted OTT arrangements like visual effects, VFX and projection mapping. These were to be done all within a budget that was nowhere even close to the rental charges of the equipment. I tried explaining to him to extend his budget but he was adamant. He didn’t want to go ahead with planning the wedding with me because I refused to compromise on quality and do a half-hearted job or give them any false hope. They had been misguided by some random vendor who had fed them the idea that this could be done on a budget that they had. Luckily later on they realised that the vendor was a scammer and that he had no equipment at all!” He leaves us with a solid tip, saying, “My advice to all people planning their wedding is that when your planner tells you something please listen to them and trust them because they work really hard to make your wedding day special.”

When the wedding planner had to pull double duty as an architect

“One of the craziest requests I can recall is when we planned the wedding of the crown prince of Bahrain in Jumeirah,” says Hyderabad-based wedding planner Shravan Madiraju, founder of Aksharana Events & Entertainment, .”The property was newly built on a stranded island, it was super dusty and there was absolutely no access to the place. The only way to get to the island was to build a permanent bridge. So, after taking multiple permissions from various government officials, we went ahead and built a permanent floating bridge which was around 400 feet so that the guests could walk and reach the wedding venue. It was specifically built for the guests attending the wedding so that they could walk to the venue which was on the isolated island. We had to take a lot of permissions to get this executed but we still managed to do it!”

Chitra Madiraju, co-founder and styling director of the company adds, “The common mistake that brides and grooms make is that they constantly worry about the planning process, hire a smart and responsible planner and leave everything to them.”

When the client had a ridiculous last-minute request

While wedding planners are prepared to handle any and every emergency on D-Day, sometimes the requests are just too ridiculous for even the most seasoned planners to handle. “During one of the weddings that we had planned, the client wanted his car to be decorated just before the baraat was set to leave,” recalls Neeraj Kumar, founder of Jaipur-based Le Magnifique Events. “He hadn't told us anything prior and it was his personal vehicle which he was really possessive about, so we assumed that he would get it done by himself. He dropped the bomb at the last minute and asked us to arrange for the car decoration. We ran to the most renowned florist in the city and made arrangements in whatever little time we had. But, even after our efforts, the client said that he wanted specific exotic flowers for the decoration, which was difficult to get at such short notice. I put my foot down and clearly told him it was his fault and that he should have told us earlier about the same!”

When the bride wanted butterflies to follow her during her bridal entry

Nidhi Jani Saha, founder of Enjay Events and Weddings and the brains behind planning the star-studded roka ceremony ofAadar Jain and Alekha Advani, has had a long association with weddings but nothing could have prepared her for a shocking request from a bride.  “The bride said that she wanted a thousand butterflies to follow her while she was walking down the aisle. The first question that came to my mind was how do we control their movement?! We tried to explain to her if we could possibly make it possible to incorporate drone butterflies, but the bride insisted that she wanted real butterflies to follow her while she walked the aisle. Luckily the groom’s family intervened and they refused, so we were spared!”