If you’re planning a wedding, particularly one with the pomp, ceremony and gaiety of an Indian one, look no further than the new Sudima Auckland Airport Hotel for the complete wedding package.
It boasts of every single facility that an Indian wedding would demand in a venue. A large commodious reception area with indoor/outdoor flow, a huge car parking facility, a modern kitchen and catering facility, guest rooms for the wedding entourage, a special suite for the bridal couple: you name it and its all there – and everything under one roof.
Sudima Director Laxmi Jhunjhnuwala, who oversees the wedding and events part of the hotel’s business says there is already a growing interest in the property as a possible wedding venue. One Indian wedding has already been booked for January next year and a couple more are at various stages of discussions.
“The reception and banquet areas are quite removed from the main hotel and have separate access – which gives the venue its own privacy and independence,” says Laxmi. “In fact there is even the space to have a traditional baaraat from the gate of the hotel along the long driveway that leads to the venue.”
The hotel is gearing up to provide every service in the long and demanding lists of Indian wedding planners. From elaborate floral decorations to multicourse meals, even when they are special vegetarian traditional ones, Sudima plans to offer the entire package.
Being from a traditional Indian family, Laxmi and husband Sudesh have a keen understanding of the myriad things little and big that go into a wedding – considered the greatest and most memorable event of peoples lives. “A right venue that is well geared for the celebration is hard to come by for Indian families living overseas. Sudima’s infrastructure and knowhow of planning and processes would take a big load of families planning weddings here,” says Laxmi.
The hotel management is already liaising with a number of wedding planners and families that are seeking wedding venues in the foreseeable future. Quite clearly, there isn’t another venue yet in Auckland – or for that matter anywhere else in New Zealand – that could be so geared to suit Indian weddings as Sudima Auckland Airport Hotel.