this is really happening huh
so hi I am Ambika I am an event planner
insomniac and a chai addict
guilty I am flaked by creative thoughts
how best to utilize the space and
designing massive areas on most of my
sleepless nights but I’m obviously not
here for pillow talk I’m here today to
share my experience of creating memories
and the power of weaving personal
memoirs into events of a lifetime now
while I do consume copious amounts of
fantastically brewed tea if I may say so
myself
I am also avid at drawing the ideal
concoction of a memorable event now I
have you guys heard of Band Baaja Baraat
the schmoovy well now that’s pretty much
what we do but – romancing around the
trees I plan scale arranged and
organized weddings and other life
celebrations
now each event of Earth has a very
unique storyline and that exact trait of
creating bespoke events infused with a
heavy dose of personalization pretty
much set us apart in the crowd from the
very start now before we move ahead into
the talk let me ask you something have
you ever dropped a pebble into the bond
as a child yes do you remember the
ripples being formed now even the
ted.com videos start with that exact
same visual now I believe that thoughts
and actions are just like stones dropped
into still waters they create ripples
which then spread it’s just that when
anybody makes a beginning or when I made
a beginning I didn’t know that I could
be that perfect pebble to create
fairly significant waves in the wedding
industry now every transformation like
every ripple has a point of Kuragin so
when I made my humble beginnings in
Chennai I did not know that I could
create my own point of origin and that
the ripples it would spread through word
of mouth and social media and in turn
the success that I would reap was
something I hadn’t anticipated you know
it surprises me to read so many articles
on marriages on so many various media
platform it’s the favorite topic of our
country and also worldwide I mean as
everything how to get married how to get
over a bad marriage infidelity in
marriages I mean pretty much everything
marriage marriage marriage but what
about the wedding celebration in itself
I mean it is probably the most common
centuries-old tradition that runs across
every culture one one celebration which
is common throughout every tradition and
hey probably the most expensive – so
this is where I step in as a event
planner and wedding planner to take care
of these once-in-a-lifetime celebrations
now let me take you through this very
interesting survey that Forbes did in
2017 about the ten most stressful
professions in the world just to give
you an idea just to give you an idea
what we do okay so the job of an event
coordinator and planner is the fifth
most stressful profession in the world
with firefighters and police officers
yes just casually up there with people
who save lives and these are Western
standards people so can you imagine the
stress in a decadent Indian wedding a
hundred percent top-ranking you know for
us it’s not so much about fostering the
dream of the big fat Indian wedding I
mean of course we love those but it’s
more about how we can truly touch the
hearts of those we are working for even
in those big settings
and that’s how we create spaces where
family and friends so we generally try
and concentrate on creating spaces where
family and friends feel like family and
friends and not like they’ve come to a
gala ball where everyone’s a prude so
let me take you through few examples of
how we create these wedding stories how
we create these once-in-a-lifetime
memories which will be remembered for
years to come
now also before I move into that example
let me tell you one thing if you had to
imagine an event setup of how it looks
like before we actually reveal these
spaces well an event is nothing short of
the drama in a Sanjay Leela Bhansali
movie or a Steven Spielberg film there’s
drama there’s action there people
running around the emotions of family
and friends and then there is the
wedding planning team the vendors
technicians florists everyone running
helter-skelter all to orchestrate that
perfect moment okay and all this chaos
and commotion and only one point of
contact more the wedding planning team
and unlike one of these magnum opus
movies we do all of this in real time we
get no retakes so moving on to the
example that I was talking to you about
this wedding was a listen geet who was a
high-profile celebrity studded event
designed and executed for rayon raadhika
sarathkumar a very prominent daughter of
very prominent celebrities in the
Tollywood industry and it’s IPL bola
Abhimanyu Metron now when they contacted
us to do the event they wanted the event
to embody the spirit of South India and
also their two cities Chennai and
Bangalore so we named this event fully
local let me give you a little glimpse
into this
now in order to make this event unique
we sourced a local auto which is the
favorite transport vehicle of training
the most commonly used one we also got
it hand-painted by artists we also
created a local bar to look like a
shaker also popularly called as TASMAC
in Chennai and we did a filter coffee
installation of a photo booth that great
that was supposed to bring out the most
favorite beverage of South India so now
apart from the many other quirky things
that we did for this event my most
favorite memory of this event are the
centerpieces that we did for this event
we actually did cricket wicket stumps
mounted a clapper board on it and got a
red ball the signature cricket ball in
in between the clapper board not the
clapper board on one side dreadfully
local on the other side it said take one
starring Abhimanyu mithoon rayon and in
the beginning so this event was attended
by the who’s a know of the media
industry in the cricket industry and it
became the talking point of you know the
event so you know one small thing is
something that you take back from the
event and it becomes a word-of-mouth and
ripple and also it kind of makes you you
know give you it gives you an insight
into the journey of the couple another
example of weaving magic into events is
that of two cuties kalai and Manish now
these guys met in school and used to
exchange oh you know Cadbury chocolates
as love tokens in fourth standard yes
but fate separated them and the event
different directions and then finally
like how Facebook has become this whole
dating site and you find people they
reconnected on Facebook years later and
sparks flew and they decided to get
hitched now when they came to us we
wanted to incorporate the story into the
wedding decor again to make it
personalized so we went with the
Facebook wedding for the main theme now
this was very unique for people who came
because they’re not
a facebook wedding so we used all the
Facebook color palettes to actually
bring out the theme of the deco
hmm
there were bespoke corners of decor we
also created small areas with the story
in the form of poems posted on various
art forms we also got a Manipuri artist
to actually do a portrait for them and
later on gifted it to the couple so we
got this portrait done by a money pure
artist where kalai in Manish are
actually exchanging Cadbury chocolates
as love tokens by the beach with their
meantime lines like the major dates in
their dating history you know drawn on
this and later on not only did this
serve as a memory on the day of the
venue but also we gifted it later to
them so that it served as a memory for
years to come so right there and there
we created our most favorite ripples by
making sure that we incorporate a
personal story into the event the third
event that I’m going to talk to you
about is the closest to my heart because
this event was the game-changer in my
career in life this event was the
engagement of Nivea and KK John now
before this I was a one-man army trying
to strive to give this my best shot and
we among the other things that we
decided to do I also dreamt of doing a
real truck in an indoor venue
now many called me stupid because I
decided to take this truck up the ITC is
container lift and that when he was
caught ITC grande cholan I decided to
take this up the lift and make a
photobooth outfit two floors up and a
real truck many call me stupid many call
me apprehensive and many more
apprehensive that I could pull this off
and many did not know whether I will be
able to ever pull this off and do it you
know on my own but I was held bail that
I am going to take this on as a
challenge so I traveled to the
sinister-looking and less traveled but
extremely resourceful lanes of Chennai
my truck in dumps dented bruised but
this was the one I wanted so this set
the ball rolling and I started working
on it now from sourcing this truck to
taking it by an industrial train to fix
it and finally getting art work done on
it took approximately 25 days now my I
saw their every day getting work done on
it and my truck was ready by the 1st of
January and 16 Jan was when this view
event was scheduled now as you can see
this truck doesn’t have wheels so we had
to create a trolley to move this into
them when you finally that also got done
now three or four days before the event
we decided to shift this truck and we
got the trolley we started to move it
and back the trolley broke the truck
suffered damages my heart broke too and
I broke down now Jenna was celebrating
its biggest festival Pongal okay it’s
like the valley in Delhi basically
everybody takes an off I knew I’m not
gonna find labor to fix this truck so
after a lot of perseverance lot of hard
work lot of stress and lot of tension
somehow the vendor then I finally
managed to fix this truck and it reached
the event late around three or four
hours before the you know event had to
start and taking this truck up the
container lift of ITC to the two floors
was nothing short of crazy
in fact the trials and tribulations we
face at every step of getting this drug
done was an adventure on its own but
finally when the truck did make it to
the venue I was ecstatic so happy that I
did a victory lap in all of the eight
ITC banquet halls I knew I had created
history in Chennai I knew I had nailed
it this truck was bespoke it had
caricatures of all the cup of the couple
and it was finally for the first time
being done in my city so
the compliments were never-ending unique
event bespoke decor and the clients were
ecstatic so the next day I went on to
Facebook and I uploaded these random
pictures on my phone and put it on
Facebook and created a thank-you note
and then I switched off my social media
and because I was basking in the glory
or what I had just done and also I
wanted to take rest but finally when I
did open my Facebook page I was
pleasantly shocked my post had been shed
450 times organically my inbox flooded
with people from the media industry from
wearing blogs
wanting to cover us and the unique
Facebook Wed and the unique okj wedding
and my inbox my email inbox filled with
hopeful resumes of people wanting to
join the team yes that’s how I ever
started building my team and you know
how they say one idea one thing that you
truly believe in from your gut can
change your life and it did for me today
we have been featured on almost every
wedding blog featured among big names in
the wedding industry on national
television
pitched among some really really
upcoming names in the wedding industry
and in 2018 we go international with the
destination wedding planners Congress in
Mexico you know when I look back at life
I realized that what makes us unique you
know are our journeys and a complicated
life stories I wanted to tap that exact
potential into my events I realized that
each one of us is unique and the each
event has a unique storyline thus became
the motto of most of my work because
neither you or you can have the same
journey
hence no two events can ever be the same
so playing with the five senses and
using the sixth one to
eight memories thus became a pivotal
factor in most of my work we realize the
main event the main motto of our work
should be reverent people enter a venue
they are disconnected with the humdrum
of their daily lives that when they come
into the venue they can savor the
current moment that they can actually
enjoy what is happening we realize that
our events make them laugh a little more
participate a little more dance a little
more and just live a little more it
makes you live out loud it’s an absolute
honor for me to be a part of a
profession that excites me every day
from the minute a client walks in to
hear their stories to build mood boards
around them to be just a part of their
family for a little while and on the
final day when it all culminates
together to see them smile that
gratification is heartwarming and what
is more special is the post-event
reviews that believe for us on various
social media platforms you know all the
Forbes ranking the stress everything in
that moment it becomes all worth it you
know when I look back at my life I
realized I’ve been a nonconformist with
every choice that I made professional
educational switching fields from
engineering as my mother fostered that
dream to and I did not feel I was a good
engineer changing from that to becoming
the journalist from a journalist to an
event planner and today an entrepreneur
the journey was not easy there were a
lot of naysayers but I had to stand my
ground you know I don’t know one person
who has made a mark for themselves
without really getting out if they
comfort zone you’ve got to step out of
it you know once I was asked one of
those redundant run-of-the-mill
questions being maybe because I’m a my
worthy goal they asked me you know I’m
because why do you want to work when you
can declare in diamonds I mean diamonds
are a girl’s best friend and they are
gorgeous
but my goals were shining brighter so
I can say is that believe in your gut
believe in what you do and savor the
current moment celebrate life and have
gratitude for it because no momentum but
each moment in life is singular no two
moments will ever be the same and you’re
definitely not getting this one back so
revel in the glory of the Sun on your
skin enjoy every celebration that Life
brings forth or just a day well lived
because you never know when you plunge
into that still pool apart from all that
may thing that you could be that perfect
pebble to create those terrific ripples
thank you [Applause]