How To Plan an Indian Wedding in Los Angeles (Ultimate Guide)
Updated: Jun 19, 2020
This Ultimate guide will take a bit to read so grab that coffee and get comfy. After reading it you should be well poised to save money and have an awesome wedding.
Thinking about an Indian wedding in Los Angeles, Orange County or other parts of Southern California like San Diego and Riverside?
That’s awesome!
Greater Los Angeles has roughly 120,000 Indian-American people and every weekend at least six or seven Indian weddings occur throughout the city’s major hotels, resorts, community centers and temples.
Bride and Grooms who live in the city either grew up here, married someone who did or are working in finance, IT, medicine, media or one of California’s many industries. As a result, Desi fever runs rampant!
In this post I’ll explain everything you need to know on how to have an awesome Indian or Pakistani wedding in Southern California. I’ll also give you some tips/hacks you can use to get educated and save some cash!
I have DJ’d, planned or coordinated over 500 Indian weddings in Southern California the last 20 years and have seen it all. If you have any comments or questions please feel free to drop them below! Our team maintains this blog very actively.
This post is structured in the following way, in case you want to skip ahead to any point:
The Very First Step You Must Do for LA Weddings
Why Plan your Wedding in Southern California?
Main Cities in Southern California to have a South Asian wedding
Venue Primer and Basics
Main Hotels in Southern California to host Indian Weddings
Factors That Are Unique to Southern California for Weddings
How Much Does an Indian Wedding Cost in Southern California?
Priorities for your LA Guests
Food and Catering Vendors
Venue Considerations (Guest’s Point of View)
Decorators
Photographers
Videographers
Lighting
DJ’s and Entertainment Options (besides us)
Pandit and Priest's we Recommend
Pros of a Wedding in Los Angeles
Cons of a Wedding in Los Angeles
Related Questions
Conclusions
You ready fam? Let’s Go!
The Very First Step
If you’ve already settled on Los Angeles for your wedding location that’s fine. But for the Indian and Pakistani folks who have family overseas, please go and finalize your GUEST LIST NOW.
You don’t even need to have the RSVPs sent out, but as we say over and over on this blog, everything in your wedding, including the city and hotel gets determined by WHO you're calling and from WHERE.
If grandma messes up her US visa interview in Mumbai and you already paid the Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel a $10,000 deposit..well, let’s not let it get to that! People pick the place!
Why Plan your Indian Wedding in Los Angeles?
The South Asian Communities in Southern California are pretty much all of them, including:
Gujarati
Punjabi
South Indian (Telugu, Kannadiga, Tamil)
North Indian
Bengali
Sri Lankan
Pakistani
Bangladeshi
Did we miss any?
As a result, the community is strong and you have so many options at your disposal, especially when couples from one community marry another.
LA provides easy access to
tons of Indian vendors,
easy airport access
plenty of sun/sand
luxury/budget accommodations.
Decent amount of temples
Weddings in more densely populated Indian populated towns like New Jersey and New York (where I was born!) are also beautiful, but will usually be heavy on ballrooms and indoor venues due to the varied seasons.
In California, the scenery and year-around climate play a huge part of the appeal so golf courses, oceanside cliffs, beachfront properties and even city weddings with mountain backdrops all have their own charm.
Major Cities in Southern California for Indian Weddings
As of August, 2019, a simple scan of our latest tagged photos on Instagram can reveal where most Indian weddings occur in Los Angeles and Orange County.
Since LA is famous for its traffic, folks who have settled here are very mindful of how far their friends and family will need to travel to attend the wedding each day.
The major cities in SoCal that work for marriages these days are:
Palos Verdes: Cliffside and oceanside views, close to the heart of LA are part of the appeal.
Cerritos: Inside the city and suburbs, close to downtown LA, and in the heart of Little India make mid-range weddings very appealing (e.g. you can host your mehendi or smaller functions in the restaurants here)
Anaheim (massive hotels with massive ballrooms via Disneyland make this a big fat wedding option that won’t destroy the bank)
Irvine (beautiful weather in OC, great venues that have excellent Indian wedding expertise are all part of this charm. A little less crowded/metro that Anaheim).
Lax Airport Area: Right next to the airport, great ballroom facilities and Indian vendor accessibility
Long Beach: Near the massive Long Beach harbor, your guests can also take a small cruise or you can even host your wedding on the Queen Mary, a massive cruise ship that is parked as a ballroom venue to be rented. Beautiful city lights from the bay. Very popular.
Laguna Beach: Cliffside and Beachside Sun/Sand and extreme luxury
Newport Beach: Basketball stars frequent these golf course/luxurious venues.
Venue Primer and Tips to Save Early
Hotels in Southern California rely on big business from weddings and conferences. They’re used to the game and are probably used to you not knowing how to proceed. We have a whole article on how to get more out of your hotel, but before you contact any hotel in California, it helps if you do the following:
Know your EXACT headcount before even getting a first quote.
Know how many events you plan to have (sangeet, garba, mehendi, reception, wedding ceremony).
Know if you have out of town guests who need rooms or family rooms, etc..
Ask other people who got married there for their contracts. Yes it's normal and not rude.
Don't fall for the book rooms before they sell out trick. Hotel rooms are rarely full 9 months before, and you don't want to be on the hook for 30 rooms and no guests to fill them (as many out of town guests back out up until weeks before the wedding).
Ask about hidden charges like entertainer power consumption, insurance, outside catering fee, etc… In other countries hotels don’t do this, in Los Angeles due to California laws you could get hit with 10% extra charges you didn’t factor in.
Best Indian Wedding Hotels in Los Angeles as of 2020
You're really spoilt for choice with so many hotels in Southern California, so we divided it up into places we see Indian weddings happen on the regular.
Luxury Segment
You're looking at weddings with a TOTAL budget between $350,000 and $1,000,000.
1 .Terranea | Palos Verdes | Los Angeles Side | Cliff and Ocean Views
