Indian themed event

Colors of India themed event

When the client – Echo (Erinvale Care and Help Organisation) ask us to do their yearly gala event and they announced the theme – I was immediately so excited. I’ve always wanted to do a themed event on India. What is there not to love about the Indian Décor? The bright colors, vibrant décor and amount of flowers!

The website Colors of India describe it like this -”India stands for its incredible culture, spectacular forts & places, great traditions and rituals. This so called "country of snake charmers and magicians" boasts of a great civilization. Be it the people, lifestyle or the mystical charm- India has always amazed the world with her uniqueness. Colors of India, as the name suggests, is an attempt to highlight various aspects and achievements of India and its people.” http://www.thecolorsofindia.com/

If you decide to use the Colors of India for a function – make sure that you choose bright jewel colors and not dull pinks, purples etc.  First go onto the internet to start researching what the colors means to the Hindu people. Also go and Google Indian traditions and pictures to start getting an idea on different focus areas that you can try and create. As an example: www.manicksorcar.com has a picture of an Indian shrine in a home.

 We took that idea and create at the fire place in the venue a type of shrine. The difference between realistic décor and suggestive décor is the amount of thought you are putting into your focus area. We could have just put the statue in front of the fire place with a few candles on the ledge – but we decided to do realistic décor and due to that reason you need to bring a lot of smaller detail to make the “shrine” look real. Have a look at the amount of statues, candle etc.  On the ledge of the fire place. Also look at the water in the little container of the statue with some rose leave floating in them.

We were extremely fortunate to have a few of FCE’s students (http://www.fce.org.za/) at our function to help us set up the décor. It was part of their practical training on how to do themed décor and they really did an awesome job in setting up this Colors of India function. Just look at the photos of when they were busy setting up versus the finished themed venue.

When you have to decide on colors that you are going to use for your function – look at jewel colors, Bright pink, emerald, yellow, blue etc. Be careful not to just throw color around – try to use the color with a purpose in mind. Rather use bright color tablecloths instead of a white or black color table cloth. It will make it so much more difficult to bring in the brightness of the Indian functions if your base colors are in black or white.

Depending on your budget – you can play around with a multitude of different centre pieces. You can just use candle or you can “paint” a picture with flowers on the table. When you decide to go this route – try and use a flower type that will not wilt to easily. Especially if it is a warm day. Have enough people around to help you pack out the patterns on the table. Try to start painting with the flowers not more than an hour before the function.

Don’t forget colourful Indian dancers! Indian music, incense and last but not least – the smell of real Indian food. The real success of any themed function lies in the use of all 5 senses.  Enjoy your colors of India function!!!!