Wedding Rentals and Party Linens, Tents and Supplies in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill & Cary, NC The wedding rental stores in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Cary, NC area are ready to provide all the extra touches for any wedding and reception location you have chosen. Are you looking for pristine white wooden wedding chairs and an arch for a lakefront wedding ceremony? Or maybe you would like elegant chivari chairs and gorgeous table linens for the wedding reception hall. Whether it’s tents, tables or champagne fountains, our Raleigh-Durham rental stores will deliver, set-up and help you design whatever you need for a beautiful wedding day. 3633 S. Alston AvenueDurham (map)919-544-1555 Special event lighting and audio-video services919-257-8736 2828 Industrial DriveRaleigh (map)919-354-2595 Event Decor, Rentals and Design600 North West StreetRaleigh (map)919-833-7900On his sprawling horse farm in rural Wayne, Billy Massuci has become an unexpected intermediary in the local Indian wedding scene.
His five-car garage houses a 15-foot tall silver chariot used to transport the groom and his family during the baraat, a customary procession to the ceremony. Boxes of fireworks, buckets of silk roses and rows of red carpets offer clients enhancements for a dramatic entrance. And stacks of jewel-covered horse costumes stand ready to transform Massuci's old white geldings and mare — named Rum, Dusty, Vanilla and Buzz — into breathtaking symbols of Indian culture."I'm impressed every time," says Massuci, who was born in Chicago and is of Italian descent. He and his horses have been hired more than 1,000 times in the 10 years since he converted his ranch, Billy's Horse Farm, to a one-stop shop for Indian grooms, called Maharaja Farm. As the Indian population in the Chicago area has grown dramatically in recent decades — adding 20,000 people in DuPage and Cook counties from 2007 to 2013 alone, according to U.S. Census bureau statistics — so has the local industry geared to throw Indian weddings — customarily large, upscale events in which guests eat, carry on traditions, and dance during a series of celebrations that stretch over several days.
In Indian culture, a wedding is considered to be the most important event in a person's life. Wedding guest lists often exceed 500 people, according to vendors.Summer is a particularly busy season, starting with Memorial Day weekend. "It's the kickoff for the busiest time for Indian weddings," said Pritesh Gandhi, general manager for Waterford Banquet and Conference Center in Elmhurst, which hosts about 100 Indian weddings each year, the bulk of which take place between Memorial Day and Labor Day.Gandhi said couples planning Hindu Indian weddings gravitate toward Memorial Day weekend because the extra day works well for the traditional wedding itinerary, which calls for one night of a mehndi party, when a bride and her family apply decorative henna designs on their hands and feet; a second day garba, or night of traditional dance, and a third day wedding ceremony and reception. Other Indian couples choose summer dates after consulting with priests who identify certain dates as "auspicious" and therefore good luck for a budding marriage.
June 6 is the date many priests recommended this year, and it was booked by multiple couples a year in advance, Gandhi said. Fifteen years ago, such cultural awareness from banquet hall operators was hard to come by as the Indian immigrant community was still new to the area, vendors and Indian community leaders say.From 2000 to 2013, the number of Indians across the six-county Chicago region nearly doubled to 111,000 people, according to U.S. Census statistics. The population rise was due, in large part, to highly skilled workers being lured to Chicago for jobs and to the suburbs for high-performing schools, Indian community leaders have said.While working as a catering assistant at the Fairmont Chicago hotel, Sabrina Hans, who is Indian, remembers how relieved potential Indian clients seemed when she understood requests such as the need for vegetarian menus, or that Muslim wedding receptions don't offer a bar; or the Hindu custom known as homa, in which the bride and groom circle a holy fire that symbolizes light, power and knowledge.
After a steady stream of Indian families began requesting her services at the Fairmont, Hans knew she would have enough business in 2002 to open an Indian wedding-planning business known as Sabrina Hans Events."There were no (Indian) planners. I worked with Jewish planners, Italians, Greeks. But the Indian weddings were so elaborate that they needed a planner, so I thought this was a perfect segue for me," she said.It didn't take long for Hans' business to grow. What began as seven to 10 weddings each year quickly tripled as Indian families recognized they could turn over the tedious job of coordinating — traditionally a responsibility assumed by both families — to one person. Today, Hans averages 30 multi-event weddings each year, with an average budget of $150,000, she said.Hans wasn't the only one who capitalized on the demand. The families who operated two well-known Indian restaurants in the Chicago area also recognized a need for large banquet facilities to host weddings with Indian cuisine catered in-house.
In 2003, the owners of Viceroy of India in Lombard bought a former movie theater in Downers Grove and converted it into a hall capable of hosting weddings of up to 1,000 guests, said Kruti Purohit Jain, event manager of the venue, called Ashyana Banquets.And in 2008, the owners of the India House restaurant chain took over a hotel and conference center in Elmhurst to open Waterford Banquet and Conference Center, a venue capable of hosting 1,500 in theater-style seats, or 1,000 guests seated at tables, said Gandhi, its general manager."As the Indian population started growing and we saw more people being here for long periods of time, the demand was there," Jain said. "There weren't very many outlets that Indian people could go to."Eventually, mainstream hotel chains caught on to the burgeoning industry and entered the market. Today, the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center, Westin Lombard and the Hilton Chicago/Oak Brook Hills Resort offer separate Indian catering menus for special events, while dozens of vendors compete for the steady business.
Sameer Patel, 36, of Skokie, couldn't believe how many vendor options there were when he volunteered to help his younger brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law plan their wedding for Memorial Day weekend.At the couple's request, Patel contacted five of their top DJ choices, all of whom specialized in offering both Indian and popular American music. All five were already booked. He eventually found another, he said."It's become a huge business. I feel like you have your choice of whoever you want in terms of DJ, decorator, flower people," Patel said.Meera Gadde, who married her husband, Raj, in mid-May at Ashyana Banquets, said the couple considered getting married in her home state of Iowa, but opted for Chicago's suburbs because of the large selection of vendors able to pull off a cultural event."If we would have done it in Iowa, it's not as easy to find those type of things," said Gadde, 29, who lives in Chicago. "A lot of the decorations would have to be shipped from Chicago."Mayank and Sonal Patel, husband and wife owners of a business called Shaadi Creations, supply decorative chairs, altars, lighting and other dressings for Indian weddings.