The Big Indian Wedding: The Ultimate Guide for Dummies

Dip in to discover the zany, over the top, and thus far undisclosed stories associated with the well-heeled Indian’s courtship and nuptial dance.

From inebriated first dates over bottles of Dom Pérignon; to inspired proposals in exotic locations; to the entrance of the big-ticket wedding planner to, finally, the giant wedding itself, accompanied by shopping sprees, bachelorettes, sangeets and mehndis, and culminating in the mother of them all, the saat phere this book is the ultimate compendium to the Indian marriage tamasha.

~ Synopsis from goodreads

Oh dear! I don’t know where to start with this book. I accepted this book for review because of the following reasons:

• The bright and lively looking cover
• Hoped to get an idea on how weddings are held these days, and some wedding planning tips hopefully

Well, I wasn’t disappointed with the first expectation, because the book cover is prettier in person. Plus it comes in its own embossed bag, accompanied by a wedding planner, which is really well-designed.

Snubnose was totally kicked with the wedding planner (never mind that she’s nowhere close to the wedding planning stage 😀 ), and swiped it immediately, and then promptly mislaid it somewhere in her pile of junk. So, I wish I had inside photos to show you but I don’t 🙁 .

So, I went into reading the book with high expectations. At first, the book seemed equally delightful. Sakshi has a wonderful way with words, and the various anecdotes she narrates about different weddings she’s been to are really funny.

But, and this is a big but, the book is nothing more than that.

I kept on reading hoping that I would get some useful information, but all this book is a saga of different super-fancy weddings, with a funny story or two, and some high-fashion brand names thrown in.

I kept on reading all the time wondering why I was reading this, and to whom is the book actually catering to? If for example, a reader is planning a wedding, it would have been helpful to have added a list of wedding planners she recommends, tips on achieving some of the luxe described in this book for a budget price, or just some sort of planning guidance.

Maybe it’s just me, but I expect a non-fiction book (that is not a memoir) to have some purpose – to educate, or guide. I was also specifically reading this book looking for some useful tips on planning weddings.

All I got was an extremely skimpy very materialistic, sarcastic take on Indian weddings. That too only North Indian weddings – all the ceremonies, and expenses that she refers to, almost nothing applies to South Indians.

So, I guess the book title is also quite misleading. The book is about North Indian weddings only, and there is very little that one can use in this guide as a planning tool. It is more like a funny, knowing take on high-fashion weddings of the super-rich, and should be marketed along those lines, not like a dummies guide to weddings.

Overall, just a very disappointing read.

Huge thanks to the publishers for sending me this book for review consideration.

You can also purchase a copy of this book from Amazon