Kalyanam pannip paar,
veettai kattip paar.
(Celebrate a marriage and construct a house) is a saying in Tamil highlighting the difficulties in both the activities.

After having constructed a house in 2005 and a marriage in 2006, I'd say the latter is more difficult - particularly when it is an arranged marriage. Your efforts may not fructify for a long time as the process involves a lot of steps. Even after the Nichayathartham, the activities in conducting a marriage are much more

Some innovations that we had done were

** Invitation was chosen with the drawing of a typical Iyengar bride and groom

** Booklet on 'Iyengars and their wedding ceremonies' was sent along with the invitations (There was a great demand for this booklet from a large number of people)

** An audio-CD (containing Venkatesa Suprabhatam, Vishnu sahasranamam, Hanuman Chalisa, Bhyavayami and Sriranga pura vihara) was given to all close relatives and friends along with the invitations.

** A display of Harish's photos from birth till his Nichayathartham was put up in the hall. Each of the panels contained an appropriate write-up. (This was highly appreciated by almost all the visitors.)

** Since Karthigai festival was just two days after the wedding, all ladies attending the Reception were given a pair of brass lamps (with a write-up on Vilakku)

** For the visitors to the Muhurtham, we had made two audio-CDs - one for men and the other for ladies. Both contained carnatic music songs by 01 Singer in 12 Ragams by 06 composers (to remind people of 01-12-06 which was the wedding date). Men had the CD of M.S.Subbalakshmi while women had that of Maharajapuram Santhanam.

We are happy that we have now got a second daughter in Archana. I have given the highlights along with the photographs.

Please click on the links in Table below to view the photos/read the write-up..