Ankit Bhargava, professionally a management graduate and an online marketing specialist with over 16 years of experience in travel industry turned into Destination Wedding Expert is ready give more than 100% to see that “smile ” on Bride’s face. He is confident in easing out every little bit of “overseas wedding planning” after having it done successfully for more than 550 overseas brides . Likes to take up challenging jobs and extra ordinary commitments.
Started journey with an Online Travel company, he developed the first Travel Portal for Rajasthan with an ability of online Reservations, Live travel assistance available via Chats, 360 degree Virtual Tours of various destinations and Hotels, he was overwhelmed by the response which lead to formation of “Travel made Easy”.
“Travel made Easy” inspired him towards the beautiful Palaces and Mansions across Rajasthan to a level where he was clicked with an idea of “getting married at such beautiful locations”. Destination Weddings was in vogue in Europe and America and quick googling lead him to understanding that there is so much being already offered at Asian destinations like Phuket, Bali, Fiji, Mauritius etc. whilst India being one of the most beautiful tourist location was not at all mapped on the world of Destination Weddings.
Ideas formed into a Company “Regal Weddings” (in year 2003) which was quoted by London Times to be the only active organisation in India portraying and publicizing India as a Wedding Destination around that period.
It took 18 months of hard work to research around locations, venues, logistics, contacts etc to be able to convince the first couple to get married in Goa. This Australian Couple had a full faith in him despite of knowing the fact that they were being experimented however that faith gave the courage to organise the most memorable day of their lives. They got married at a Hilltop near Palolem Beach in Goa, location was beautiful and the wedding was even more beautiful!
Within 6 months after that Regal Weddings had an experience of 4 more Weddings organised in Goa and in Udaipur which was truly magical. Getting to know the westerners and understanding their culture to mix then well in Indian culture and come up with a solution that pleases the Couple, the family and the Planner was a challenge but well achieved after a few Weddings.
Soon Regal Weddings gained a great visibility over the Web (thanks to so many international publications who helped in popularizing Indian Wedding Destinations), it was imperative for him to learn every bit of a Destination Wedding planning which was altogether a different ballgame as compared to planning a regular Indian Wedding. It was difficult to experiment with the live projects because there is no retake of a wedding day, however the exposure to Couples from across the world and the “very specific demands” from the Brides gave a good learning and in hand experience.
He feels gratified and proud with the fact that India is now counted amongst one of the top choices in world to get married and Regal Weddings had been the pioneer organisation setting standards in Destinaion Weddings niche.
Today he loves his profession as it has so much to learn and for him every wedding comes as a challenge and an opportunity to learn. Apart from being a passionate Wedding Planner, he is also a Hotelier and an avid Hotel Marketeer (looking after online sales & distribution of more than 15 Hotel Properties).
Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back. ~Chinese Proverb
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