From The Peopling of New York City

Irene,

This looks interesting.What can you conclude from this? Does it raise other questions--such as, what happens in the non-mixed weddings? Do the families plan it themselves?

What kinds of contacts does a planner need with caterers, suppliers of flowers, those who rent space (hotels, wedding halls, temples), clothing suppliers, clothing designers,musicians, photographers, printers? Is an astrologer involved? In other words, can you identify an "Indian wedding industry" in the same way that you can identify an American wedding industry?

Does a planner have ongoing relationships with certain businesses that she finds helpful/reliable? Are any of them in Indian shopping areas? or are the elsewhere?

Where does she advertise? Can you find one of these ads to add to the website?

How involved are the bride and groom versus their parents (or the bride's parents)in the planning?

Can you find out how much a planned wedding might cost? This is touchy, but if you want to make the argument that the growing number of planned weddings indicates growing affluence among Indian American parents, it might help to have a ballpark figure. You could also argue that the use of planners indicates an "Americanization" of this central life ritual, as does a growing number of mixed marriages.

Good work--keep going. Hanna Lessinger