Weddings tips

French hospitality company Accor signed a record 11 hotels in India last year and opened six properties, it said in a statement released on Thursday. 

The average American couple spends just under $30,000 on a wedding, but for many, the celebrations start long before they walk down the aisle.

The party of the month (year?) is underway in India, and the local airport is pulling out all the stops to cope.

Jemma Schofield gathered the layers of tulle from her wedding dress in one hand and held a rope in the other. Her olive-green Wellington boots splashed in the frigid glacial runoff as she spelunked into the venue for her big day: an ice cave along Iceland's southern coast.

Junebug Weddings revealed the winners of its annual wedding photography contest in December.

After Austrian Empress Elisabeth married Emperor Franz Joseph in Vienna in 1854, her wedding dress disappeared. Commonly known as Sisi, the Empress has long been quite the celebrity in Europe. Her rebellious nature has been depicted in films like Corsage and the chart-topping Netflix series The Empress. Yet, despite her popularity, Empress Sisi’s wedding dress has been veiled in secrecy for almost 200 years. Now, thanks to a series of clues, Austrian researcher Dr. Monica Kurzel-Runtscheiner may have solved the ancient sartorial puzzle.

Aiming to be a top adventure tourism destination, the Indian tourism minister recently spoke about focusing on infrastructure development to boost this segment. However, India would need more than just infrastructure development. Quality standards, regulation and oversight would be needed for India to become a leading adventure tourism destination. Most guides, operators and instructors in the country fail to meet basic safety requirements as there are over 5,000 unregistered adventure tour operators in the country, said Vaibhav Kala, founder of New Delhi-based Aquaterra Adventures, told Skift. Highly specialized activities are operated by non-specialized operators due to lack of guidelines and limited skilling facilities. “We need a uniform nationwide regulatory system with ease of registration, training institutes and licensed guides to offer quality and safe experiences to tourists from around the world,” said Kala. Tourism in India lacks legislative backing and is therefore, a state subject. The Centre doesn’t have a mandate to enforce approved regulations and guidelines on the states. States like Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal have all been working on adventure tourism standards and guidelines — but in total isolation. Pradeep Murthy, director of Kerala-based MuddyBoots Vacations, highlighted to Skift how several unregulated adventure bucket shops which provide low-quality equipment severely impact safety. “Many operators use plastic helmets for bungee jumping and white water rafting which are otherwise used for scaffolding work in construction,” he said. It’s important that consumers understand and find out if the right adventure equipment is being used — which should ideally be tested in proper laboratories and certified to international standards. “Operators would be forced to adopt regulatory practices only if customers start demanding for licensed operators. The government should therefore, look at educating consumers on a mass level,” added Murthy. India also needs to have a proper mechanism for evacuation and rescue so that tourists are airlifted to safety. 

Jemma Schofield and Chris Watson always wanted to get married in the land of fire and ice.