Say ‘I do’ at these off-beat wedding venues like vineyards, trains, and museums

Discover unique wedding venues from heritage temples to vineyards, museums, and luxury trains across India.

Imagine a 400-year-old heritage stone temple with all its grandeur as the venue of your wedding. Earlier this year, actors Aditi Rao Hydari and Siddharth lived this dream, with an intimate weddingat the Sri Ranganayaka Swamy temple in Wanaparthy, Telangana, that hosts over 200 weddings a year, all of which are small, intimate, and yet grand. For decades, wedding venues were personal to the families and the couple. Maternal homes, family farms, and temples were top choices.

Over the years, couples have moved on to more commercial venues, capitalising on glitz and glamour. However, after Covid’s necessarily small weddings, there is a trend of couples going back to their roots, and opting for meaningful venues that are closer to their stories.

An off-beat, yet luxurious option is to host your wedding in the Chettinad region of Tamil Nadu. Numerous mansions spread across towns like Karaikudi and Kanadukathan have been restored with care and turned into historical resorts that give tourists a taste of a sect of Tamil culture. Of late, many couples have chosen these mansions to be the backdrop for their intimate weddings. “We recently hosted a big wedding. They came with the wedding planners and booked all the hotels — The Bangla, Chidambara Villas and Vishalam, and had events across the venues,” says Yacob George, General Manager at The Bangla.

Since these properties are hundreds of years old, there are restrictions to protect the integrity of the buildings. “We don’t allow decorators to change anything in the buildings, like nailing the walls or painting. Decorators often come prepared and are respectful of the properties,” he adds. Since the mansions have only 15 to 35 rooms per property, the guest lists are capped at 150-200, which makes for a grand, yet intimate wedding.

Growing up in a costal city, if beaches were a major part of your love story, you can opt to get married by the sea. For example, Samaaya Beachside on ECR, offers seven distinct spaces to choose from, like orchid and tulip lawns, a German style tent, the beach front, a terrace and more. The venue can accommodate as many as 1,500 guests depending on the space. “Celebration is a big part of our culture, and the Bay of Bengal is a very under-utilised coast in our country. We wanted to put it to good use and create a space that can accommodate celebrations of every kind,” says Rajiv Sampat, chairman of Samson group, which owns Samaaya, adding that clients can bring their own vendors and will have complete freedom to curate their weddings.

The ECR is also home to other five-star and boutique properties like the Intercontinental and Sheraton Grand, which host weddings to the sound of the ocean.

Another option is to look at heritage buildings. Apart from the numerous palaces and forts of Rajasthan that have hosted opulent weddings, there are other heritage properties across the country that have been turned into resorts and hotels, which can make for aesthetic venues for your special day. “There are approximately 170 heritage hotels in India that are part of our association. All of them are located close to big cities, so they make perfect destination wedding venues. We are eco-conscious and don’t allow usage of plastic, or let animals be part of the ceremonies,” says Steve Borgia, vice president, Indian Heritage Hotels Association.