Wedding card - Mandap decoration

It was my younger sisters wedding and I thought that I would do something extraordinary for her , a remembrance of sort , something different . I was looking around the hall and my eyes fell on the mandap and an idea clicked me , why not make a mini mandap , a mandap showing the groom  and bride about to take pheras ( i.e. they go around the sacred fire and take an oath on each round ) . It would be used to send an invitation to the groom’s side inviting them for the marriage. The theme was clear and now I had to make the Mandap and that too at a reasonable price and attractive.

I collected all the items required for the mandap. it was to be easily available and I had just 2 days in hand . the list of items is given below for your perusal.

Dry Fruit Box

4 cashew nuts cut into half to make 8 pieces

4 Whole Supari (Betel nut)

4 Pencils

4 Walnuts

 2 cloves

Glitter

Red Zari Cloth

Thermocole( EPS sheet)

Cardboard

foil

20 Small pots

Some artificial flower Leaf

Golden Net

Fabric Paint

Fevicol / Favibond

    Coloured paper

Procedure for making the Mandap : 

• We take a dry fruit box . This would determine the size of the mandap . The dry fruit box consists of the bottom and top  We have to use both the pieces . Initially, Take the bottom piece and keep it upside down. Now, this becomes the podium on which all the arrangements have to be done .

• Put the thermocole sheet on the top of the box .Thermocole sheet would make the floor in proper level and then Take a colored paper and  glue it over the dry fruit box so that the mandap flooring is made .. Try to use a light colored paper as all the arrangements would look good against a light backdrop.

•  Take five 1” x 1” cardboard pieces and drape them with colored paper. 1 pink, 2 with yellow and 2 with red .Calculate the center of the flooring and glue these pieces one above the other say pink then yellow then red and so on. On top of these 5 slabs ,put some glue and  put foil pieces  --- you would take , say , 2 sq cm of foil piece and crumple it , then make it into a ball shape with your hands – on the draped cardboard pieces You can also put some glitter over this. This would be your “ Havan ” or  ‘ sacred fire ’ at the centre

•   There are 4 persons in the Mandap , 2 pundits , the groom and the bride .Now we learn to make them . The body is made up of walnut, the hands of cashew nut, the head of betel nut and the pony of the pandit’s are make up of cloves . The body is covered with colored paper and lace as shown in the pictures . You can Put Kundan on forehead to act as  bindi . eyes can be made with ‘ til ’. Small boats have been made of white paper to act as hat(topi) for the pundits . Golden net acts as ‘chunri ’  for the bride .

•             20 matkis ( small pots) have been painted colorfully with camlin fabric paint and decorated with glitter and kept 5 , each one above the other, at the four corners of the mandap . Artifical bouquets are kept alongside the matkis.
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•       Take the pencils and cover them with lace. Make the pencils stand at four corners of the mandap to act as pillars. Now, Take the top cover of the dry fruit box and put it on the 4 pencils so that it becomes a cover for the mandap .  Put artificial leaves that are shown with red and golden color over the cover and then take the golden net and put it on one side of the mandap to act as a wall. The net has to be pasted to top and bottom cover of the mandap so that it holds its place. Twinkling lights cover all around the mandap to give it a festive look .·         Artificial flowers can be placed around the mandap to make it still decorative 
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    When the wedding card was presented in this mandap to the groom . They were fascinated with the presentation and my sister liked it the most . Everyone was impressed with the presentation and commented positively on the concept . You can also impress others by using this concept to give things . Do let me know your comments on the mandap or for any other clarifications on its making.