“Women have sat indoors all these millions of years, so that by this time, the very walls are permeated by their creative force, which has, in deed, so overcharged the capacity of bricks and mortar that it must needs harness itself to pens and brushes and business and politics.”  Virginia Woolf

Indoors no more, women are now finally begin ning to harness their overcharged creative force, and making their presence felt in all fields: in writing, in art, in politics and in business. Neha Arora, Co-founder, Partner and CEO of Var Vadhu Weddings, is one such epitome of wom en’s creativity and business acumen. Her Wed ding Planning enterprise, Var Vadhu is a team of wedding architects who plan, curate, design, and conceptualize the weddings of their clien tele’s dreams. With a decade of experience in the wedding business, they have brought over a 100 iconic dream weddings to life and every wed ding has been exclusive.

At the helm of this company is Neha, who started -working very early in life. She worked at the Oberoi Hotel as an intern at the age of 17, and as a corpo rate trainee at Hyatt at the age of 19. Her exposure to -larger-than-life weddings as an hotelier at Hyatt made -her realize that weddings were her true calling, as a field where she could explore her creativity. She ac credits Manoj Gopalani (Partner & Co-founder of Var Vadhu) for encouraging her to do something better, to groom her creativity, and that is when she started her journey as an entrepreneur 11 years ago.

Var Vadhu, House of Signature Weddings, thus be gan. From invites, trousseau shopping, venue selec tion to décor designing & execution they undertake – all aspects of a wedding. Historic or contemporary indulgent or simplistic, luxurious or budget planned. vintage or highly rustic, low key or large scale the team of Var Vadhu is proficient in designing and de livering to all kinds of client demands.

Neha’s journey has no doubt been difficult, but behind her success story is her never give up attitude and an extremely supportive family. A wife, a daughter, a daughter-in-law, a mother and an entrepreneur all at once, she has mastered the art of multi-tasking and even when all hell seems to break loose at times. Even as it gets overwhelming ever so often, with everyone from her kids and in-laws to her clients and employ ees looking up to her, she has kept herself together all these years. Even as women deal with a lot more than men, Neha feels that the intensity with which women do things is very different from how men do it.

The Indian wedding industry is dynamic and rapidly changing. Even though an expert in the field, to keep pace with it, Neha keeps herself informed and pol ishes her knowledge from time to time. Reading and being up to date with the ongoing trends and devel opments is her way of doing so. She constantly makes efforts to be a part of events, groups and organizations related to the industry. Keeping an eye on magazines and portals like Wed Me Good”, “Wedding Sutra”, etc, helps too.

The wedding industry is as challenging as any other. Every couple is unique and so is every wedding. To reflect the variety and difference in them it is essential to research, understand and develop new strategies, themes and ideas. Today’s generation is smarter and has access to everything at the click of a button. Hence, it is extremely crucial to bring out something new to the table as a wedding planner that will awestruck the client as well as generate new business. Neha takes these challenges in her stride, and Var Vadhu Wed- dings do deliver.

Neha believes that women today are shouldering more responsibilities and are more competitive. The wedding industry itself has some amazing women designers and planners who are working on fabu- lous projects. It is a matter of perspective, she says, but women can do anything and everything thrown at them.

Treating her employees as her family, and work- ing together as a team, Neha has made Var Vadhu a platform where everyone can work off each other’s strengths. In addition, equality allows space for cre- ativity and brainstorming at Var Vadhu.

“The women today are empowered and are empower- ing each other”, states Neha. Many women are now- adays breaking stereotypes and shouldering the re- sponsibilities of handling a business with ease. Neha emphasizes that women are taskmasters. Women are strong willed and everything they do is with an inten- sity that cannot be matched. For women, running a business is often similar to running their homes.

In the coming future, Var Vadhu aims at growing as a company and as an organization. They are taking steps to adapt to the changes. Be it rebranding them- selves, revamping the website or bringing something altogether new to the table, the team believes that to adapt to changes is the best foot forward to creat new opportunities.

Neha Arora trusts in the statement that the thing that matters the most is to be passionate about your work, and everything else falls in place.