Planning to Marry? Think Kashmir as a wedding destination

SRINAGAR: – While Kashmir is celebrated across the world as a prime tourism destination that the place can be a splash for weddings has eluded people till now.
Weddings in Kashmir offer a different ambiance- relaxing, serene and pristine with great weather and surroundings, far away from the maddening crowd, in the serene environs of nature.
This holds despite the association of conflict with Kashmir.
It is not only Kashmirs majestic beauty that excites the imagination of people but also how the vale allows people to reconnect to their selves.
To drive forward the wedding niche , the states Tourism department last week organised two high profile weddings an attempt to sell J&K as a wedding destination.
A Gauri business family from Indore had booked the entire five-star Khyber Himalayan Resorts in Gulmarg, besides four other hotels at the tourist destination , for around 300 guests.
Special rides on the Gulmarg Gondola, took the guests further to Affarwat at a height of 13,780 feet for a breathtaking view of Srinagar. Sources said Rs. 6 lakh were spent on the Gondola tickets alone.
This wedding was first of its kind at Gulmarg. It would have been a showpiece event but for the turmoil. Still these weddings carry the message that despite the conflict, weddings of this scale can take place peacefully,Deputy Director Tourism Peerzada Zahoor said.
According to sources, the bride and the groom and their entourage were flown in on chartered flights to Srinagar. The Tourism Department ensured e that the guests safely arrived Gulmarg, even as the streets were roiling in anger across the Valley.
Similarly, A Malhotra family from Delhi had booked the entire five-star Taj Vivanta for 200 guests. The wedding was performed on Monday and all the guests were able to go for sightseeing as normality returned in Srinagar, said a Tourism Department official.
Two days ago, Two Kashmiri pandit families living outside had turned up along with their immaculately dressed relatives to celebrate their wards wedding. The families returned to home to celebrate the auspicious occasion danced on the local bands tunes.
The bridegroom happens to be the son of the Nehru family, owning famous Nehru Hotel at Boulevard and the bride, a granddaughter of late historian, Pyarelal Parmu.
We perform the marriage in purely Kashmiri style, he said. From Mehindiraat to wazwaan, everything was local, they said.

Weddings in House Boat
The unique and once in a life time themes -Exchanging wedding rings while sailing on the water and with friends and family, carousing on the boats will be a unique wedding experience- to reconsider, mull and boast about.. A small and intimate ceremony with a view of the horizon and the cool breeze blowing by your side and the pristine waters surrounding is nothing short of an ideal wedding ceremony.

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