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Wedding Venue Hot Spots: Pooja and Anupam recommend LocalOye
Wedding Planning - May 9, 2014
Like a number of young couples ‘set up’ by their parents, Mumbai based Pooja and Anupam Tulsyan were both pleasantly surprised to find their perfect match in each other. They met ‘formally’ and then spent some time getting to know each other. Pooja shares, “Anupam had just returned from the US while I was working in my father’s business. We met through a family arrangement and soon discovered that we really enjoyed each other’s company. We met for several dates, got to know each other better and fell in love. And soon our wedding date was fixed.” Pooja and Anupam’s wedding celebrations were everything they had always dreamt about- lavish functions spread out over three days, at venues like Hotel Sahara Star and Kamal Amrohi Grounds in Goregaon, Mumbai.
Wedding Planning
Pooja and Anupam wanted a wedding which was highly personalized and reflected their tastes and styles so they worked hard to add a personal touch to all the elements. Everything from the outfits to the decor was carefully planned to reflect their tastes. One of the biggest challenges they encountered was finding the perfect venue for the wedding ceremony and the other functions. Since they had spent so much time and effort personalizing every detail, they were unwilling to compromise on the venue!
Explains Anupam: “We wanted our wedding to be held in an open space, we weren’t too keen on an indoor (or banquet hall) space. There are a lot of restrictions in hotels and most of them insist on a food or décor monopoly. We wanted a venue that permitted outside catering, so we eventually chose the Kamal Amrohi Grounds (after hunting around for what seemed like forever!). Here, we could bring in the best caterers, the open-air space at Kamal Amrohi was beautiful and well maintained and overall it seemed like a perfect venue.”
The Wedding Celebrations
The family members from both sides stayed at the Sahara Star and most of the functions were held there. Anupam and Pooja wanted a signature theme to all their celebrations, so they designed each one accordingly, like the ‘Qawali Blues’ event at the Sahara Star. The cocktail party was hosted at Polpo Up (Shatranj Napoli) and the ‘Wedding Dhamaka + Reception’ at Kamal Amrohi Grounds.
Wedding Venue Search
In the course of wedding planning and search for venues, the couple realized there was little depth information on venues for weddings and social events. This set Anupam and his friend Aditya Rao to think about how to ease the process for future venue seekers. They decided to come up with a solution to serve this need, and this led to the setting up of LocalOye.com.
On LocalOye.com visitors can browse venues in Mumbai- by localities, occasions and budget (per person)
Anupam and his friends including Aditya had spent hours poring over online classifieds and listings looking for a venue for the pre-wedding celebration. They realized that the biggest hurdle was the lack of concise and reliable information. Prices quoted by venue managers on the phone did not match what they were told when they visited in person (which they had to since there were hardly any venues listed with photographs). Availability of amenities, total capacity, decor and food monopolies etc. would be misquoted or not listed at all. This first hand-experience gave them a clearer view on the features they must incorporate on LocalOye.com.
LocalOye was launched in September 2013, designed to simplify the process of looking for venues for weddings and any other kind of event. Says Anupam: “LocalOye uses algorithms to suggest venues, based on user inputs like budget, style, rating, amenities, capacity and more and offers a customized list of results for every search. We have received a very good response to the website, users looking for big or small capacity spaces can pick from a range of venues, from banquet halls and open grounds and five star properties like Trident, Sofitel, Novotel, ITC and Renaissance. At present the search is restricted to properties in Mumbai, and few properties in Delhi and Bangalore only.”The website does not require users to register and anyone looking for a venue can pick from the filters available and start the search, be it a wedding venue, or venues for corporate conferences, community events or parties.
“So that’s our ‘how we met’ and ‘how we wed’ story, and how LocalOye.com was born”, conclude Pooja and Anupam.
Our blog post series ‘Wedding Venue Hot Spots’ features Real Couples and their search for the perfect venue. If you got married recently and would like to be featured here please email us a few wedding photos along with the details below. Our Editors will review the same and get in touch with you for a more detailed interview:
– Your Names and where you live
– The Wedding Functions, Date(s) and Venue & City
