Perfect Partner Blog

This new year, we would like to highlight and post some of our readers letters to us:

Reader’s Letters

Dear Matchmakers

I was very impressed with the Ash Rai Summer magazine with so much of interesting features and reading the property market articles, made me realise how much is really happening in market place in investing. I made some enquiries also in GOA and was surprised to learn how fast it is growing in India. Though I am looking for a partner and subscribe the magazine to search for one, I now look forward to the various write ups also and please keep up the hard work as I know how much you are doing for the community also. God Bless. Raju

Dear Raju…Thanks for your comments and I am pleased to know you are enjoying receiving the magazine and hope you find your partner soon. I hope you find the Diwali issue equally interesting as we aim to bring variety but we need support from both the Business community and matrimonial market to produce a quality publication of its kind which benefits everybody. Bharat

Dear Harsha

Thanks for helping me out on the website searches. I am gradually finding serious people who intend to settle down rather than those on other sites who are not serious and waste time. The magazine has also been very useful for me to make contact directly by phone and I am so grateful to you for all the support you are providing to me over the phone. Many thanks. Trupti

Success Stories

Dear Harshaben

We are indebted to you to find a match for our daughter after trying so hard elsewhere. It has been a pleasure to have spoken to you many times on the phone and you have been so wonderful and after many months of worrying, Sangita has finally found someone she can settle down with now. As parents, we are always worried for our children who are growing up so fast in a modern and busy society these days and we always want what is best for them which sometime does not work out. We ourselves could not do anything to find a suitable person for her but you have done all the sourcing for us to find matches and persevering to convince my daughter to keep meeting all the introductions you provided since otherwise it is difficult to find your true match. She may have had to make some compromises but in life we never get all things perfect and have to adjust ourselves from time to time. Please continue to send me your lovely magazine and may god bless you and Bharatbhai for really trying to help us and keep up the good work as our community needs people like you for we know how hard it can be. Mr & Mrs P.Lakhani

Dear Perfect-Partner.com

Who says love is not on the Net? I joined your site and found the love of my dreams after a series of email exchanges leading to finally meeting the right partner. Wow –your site certainly did help to net my partner! -Dipesh

Wishing all our readers at MIL Matchmaker Magazine & members of Perfect Partner a Very Happy & Prosperous New Year!

Step1

Will You Have The Attention of a Professional DJ? – With the popularity of digital music, almost anyone can call themselves a DJ. So where do you start looking?

The Diwali edition of MIL MATCHMAKER has put together some of the best DJ’s around which narrows down your searches. However, readers must check out the various services offered. So here are some tips which might be useful during the search.

Be sure to confirm the experience of the exact person who will be at your event (not just the company) and have them put their name into the contract. You don’t want your once-in-a-lifetime event to turn into an on-the-job training classroom!

Step2

What Kind Of Equipment Will Your DJ Use? – Is it nothing more than a laptop and a couple of big Radio Shack speakers? Professional DJ’s use professional gear. A wireless microphone is a must … especially for wedding toasts and announcements.

What if the unthinkable happens and a speaker blows? Confirm that your DJ will have backup gear on-site or on call if you don’t want your event to come to a screeching halt.

Is dance floor lighting something you desire? For weddings and receptions, this can sometimes turn a classy venue into a cheap disco. But for dances and parties, lighting can really enhance the mood. Some DJ’s will include lighting in their packages, some have an additional charge. You don’t have to go full-on “Saturday Night Fever”. Sometimes one or two effects like an ambient colour spotlight or a classic mirror ball can add excitement to your event and encourage people to dance.

Step3

Is Your DJ Familiar With All Types of Music? – A DJ’s biggest challenge is blending music to please a wide variety of age groups. Your DJ should have the maturity, knowledge and experience to “read” your crowd and blend the music all your guests will respond to best… not just the DJ’s personal favourites.

Be careful! Many DJ’s who advertise you a choice of “thousands” of songs might really only bring a few hundred to your event.

If you have special requests such as wedding first dance songs, provide that to your DJ at least 2 weeks in advance.

Don’t hand your DJ a laundry list of song titles to play; instead, guide them as to the GENRES of music you prefer. And of course tell the DJ any songs or types of music you DON’T want played.

Confirm that your DJ will be playing clean “radio versions” of popular songs with offensive words edited out. You don’t want to offend any of your guests!

Keep in mind you are playing songs for EVERYONE’S enjoyment. Guests respond best to familiar music. Just because you might like a certain group or type of music doesn’t mean everyone will. Have confidence in your DJ to pick the right music mix for everyone.

Step4

How Interactive Do You Want Your DJ To Be? – A tasteful level of interactivity and emcee skills complement most events and keep up the energy level of the crowd. Certainly for events like weddings, you want someone with a strong voice for your grand entrance, champagne toast, first dance and other announcements.

Depending on the type of event (bar mitzvahs, picnics, and corporate events) you might consider incorporating some kind of interactive ice-breaker games into your program.

No one wants an overbearing cheesy DJ. You want YOU and YOUR GUESTS to be the real “stars” of the show, not your DJ. Be candid about your “vision” for the event. A professional DJ will honour your request to create the mood YOU have in mind.

Step5

Get It In Writing! – Every professional DJ works via signed contracts. Be sure it spells out the date, time, amount to be paid and the name of the DJ talent who will be at your event. Confirm that they have liability insurance; some venues require a “Certificate of Insurance” for all vendors.

Also note any special needs of the DJ (setup table, electrical requirements, time needed for setup) and coordinate that with your venue.

Most DJ’s will require a deposit of 25-50% when the contract is signed, with the balance due 2 weeks before the event or you can agree the terms as appropriate to both parties.

From the time a little girl used to play with her dolls, she has always dreamed of her own marriage, where she would be the focus of all eyes, and looking glamorous in her bridal attire and makeup. Bridal makeup plays an integral part in making the bride feel on top of the world on the occasion of her marriage. The Indian bride is the epitome of colour and glitter what with red, fuschia and yellow silks saris draped all over along with fabulous jewellery made of gold. And the bridal makeup further enhances the regal effect.

To imagine an Indian wedding without jewelleries is completely impossible as the marriage ceremony and ornament go side by side that communicate with an unspoken language presenting symbolisms and various meanings. Intricately designed along with mesmerizing patterns and great colours, the gamut of bridal jewellery trousseau consists of Maangtika, Earrings, Rings, Necklaces, Bangles, Anklets bring special effects to the bride’s gorgeous look.

To make the occasion perfect, wedding ladies love to beautify themselves from head to toe with Bridal wear and jewellery that, in fact, complements her attire and personality along with graceful looking.

Indian women have always been encouraged to make the most of their looks. For having the perfect bridal makeup, would- be brides should understand the difference between everyday makeup and the type of application that will enhance their beauty in wedding photos.

Wedding is one of the most important occasions for any Indian girl, and she wants to make it the most memorable one. And wedding trousseau is a thing that helps make her wedding a special event. But as happens with all brides, they do not know what is hot and what is not; should they go for traditional or modern. Such and other issues haunt them during the pre-wedding preparation.

Brides, first and foremost your wedding dress has to be graceful as well as chic, it needs to be unique and still should fit into your budget. Then comes the style. Would you like to go for modern or traditional? Which style suits to your figure and occasion? You can decide this on your own or you can seek advice of a Bridal artist. Professional guidance can help you a lot.

What is hot Today

Selection of bridal wear eats up a hell lot of time as bridal ensemble is going to play an important part on that crucial day. This is the reason brides today turn to Bridal artists and fashion designers who are in great demand when the wedding season is in full swing.

Many designers combine the look of the modern world and the traditional Indian wedding dress designs. The result is some cool designs which look Indian but show some western influence. These designers select colours like red, rust, maroon in the winters and pink, cream, and gold in the hotter weather. These Indian bridal wedding dresses are now widespread. It can be seen that the combination only emphasizes the beauty and the elegance that the wedding dress projects.

Given today’s wedding, it is advisable that brides should consult an artist for their wedding ensemble; even if they go for traditional dressings, a bridal make up artist can help her in all manners.

The bridal package that I offer includes hair, make up and dressing. My bridal packages include helping the bride to get dressed i.e. putting on her sari or outfit, putting on jewellery and making sure that the bride gets full treatment so she does not have to worry about a thing on the day.

Register today with Perfect Partner UK

The collapse of Northern Rock and fears for other institutions have raised questions over bank safety, but should you be worried about your building society as well?

While the difference in the way building societies operate and fund themselves, compared to banks, means concerns over failure are not as heightened, some have seen their credit ratings cut.

So how safe is your building society?

Funding mortgage lending

Building societies do not fund themselves in the same way that a bank such as Northern Rock did, in that they raise the majority of their cash via retail savings as opposed to borrowing off the money markets.

But mutuals have not been immune to the issues that have gripped the UK’s high street banks – they too have seen a drop in their ability to lend.

Larger societies are more likely to have gone to the money markets to raise funding, with the biggest mutuals having around an 80% to 20% split of retail funding to money market funding.

Without shareholder pressure to expand their business however, building societies are better placed to rise out the storm than banks, which have seen share prices plummet over the past year.

Savings compensation

One of the advantages building societies have is that there is no confusion over who owns what – there are 59 building societies in the UK and almost all of them are their own separate business entities.

There is one recent notable exception however. Nationwide announced recently that it is to acquire Cheshire and Derbyshire building societies and subsume them under its own compensation authorisation; the deal is expected to complete in December 2008, so it is best to pare back your total savings within these three institutions to £35,000 before then.

In addition, Chelsea Building Society covers savings compensation for London & Country savings, while Newcastle Building Society does the same for BMW savings. However Nationwide is the only case where several building society brands are grouped together under one authorisation.

This is in contrast to the banking sector, where many banks have a number of sub-brands both major and minor sub-brands – Royal Bank of Scotland owns Natwest, HSBC is the parent company of First Direct and Halifax Bank of Scotland owns Birmingham Midshires.

This is a factor which becomes very important when it comes to compensation if your savings institution goes bust. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) will only compensate savers up to a maximum of £35,000 (due to rise to £50,000) in any one institution.

In other words, if you had £70,000 in savings split evenly between Halifax and Birmingham Midshires – if the parent group, HBOS, went bust you would only be compensated for 50% of your savings. But if you had £35,000 with HBOS and £35,000 with Barclays you would be compensated in full.

Source: Philip Scott http://www.thisismoney.co.uk

In India, the Matrimonial Ad is an effective way to find a perfect match. Personal Ad is the latest trend in the western world, especially in an Internet world This article provides a brief overview of the trends with specific emphasis on the UK and seeing how this is reflected through advertising with a few tips along the way, so if you find this interesting, then read on…

MATRIMONIAL ads have always reflected what is going on in society. In India these type of ads are very common, mostly initiated by elders, at least that’s how they are worded; even a 40 year old is termed a boy/girl.

It’s largely a scenario of an arranged marriage. Surely arranged marriages have some important points in their favour. Parents take an enormous amount of trouble to assess compatibility. And they are often best equipped to calculate the complex web of factors that will contribute to long-term compatibility; they are led by the head, not the heart.         

PERSONAL ads on the other hand, rarely mention the word “marriage”, though it is often the eventual intention. They talk of commitment or long term relationship before entering into a marriage. These are now the latest trend in the western world, especially in the US. The basic idea is to experiment with a relationship before entering into marriage by presenting more of personality traits, making a more interesting reading than the usual run of matrimonial ads with their emphasis on tangible factors like looks, education, money, job, and family. One reason why matrimonial ads sound so solemn; any attempt at humour would be deemed flippant.

In the UK, we have a mixture of both. However, this is only reflected in very few publications

such as the M.I.L MatchMaker Magazine, or Eastern Eye Newspaper Column. One reason for the reluctance to advertise more freely in UK compared to the more commonly as in India or the US is the fact that a significant proportion of the Asian population in the UK still hold to their old traditional cultures and prefer to strike their own matchmaking through their own social circles and this is getting increasingly difficult for them.

As a result we see greater freedom from the 2^nd and 3^rd generations where their own choice is of paramount importance than that of their parents, and they are much more flexible nowadays blending with the Eastern and Western culture.

Many individuals are now starting to take an active interest and taking to “personal matrimonial ads” as the way forward in search for their partners either online or offline. A large number of advertisers are in their thirties and forties and that many of them have been divorced. Some don’t find the time in their busy schedules for a social life that could yield them a partner. Cut off from one’s community is an urban jungle, it can be a very lonely life. These professional people see personal ads as a way of starting relationships on their terms, at their pace.

Advertisers are apt to draw a flattering picture of themselves sometimes to draw attention. The point is to recreate oneself as one would like to be, or, better yet, as how one thinks other people would like you to be. In today’s culture of advertisement, where a bottle of coke can be shown as sexy, to glamorise oneself does not become difficult. To a certain extent there is an art involved in writing ads, the most effective one’s suggest a uniqueness of personality, a sense of humour, perhaps a touch of humility. But one must not try and seek of what is not possible at all to try and get ten out of ten points right.

For women “warm” attracts attention. For men, the magic words are “financially secure” and

“athletic”. The most trying element in personal/matrimonial ads is the first blind meeting – there is no manual yet to handle such a situation. Even a drink with someone whom you instantly dislike can look like hell.

“You have to kiss a few frogs to land a prince” concedes one lady who’s now happily engaged as a result of her ads in MatchMaker. But you must persevere on to get somewhere she said.

Some women advertisers also find that a person whom they dropped after their first introduction keeps on pestering them with telephone calls and gifts.

The matrimonial or personal ads scene in the UK is not static though -it’s changing over time. The word “status” is replacing “respectable”. The prospect of a bride having to live abroad is rather welcoming than cause for parental worry. Ads from divorced one’s are on the increase with more older persons also advertising.

Some things, however, seem to be holding fast: concern for the girl’s complexion, her being slim, “homely”, and above all, beautiful.

Whilst the bulk of the matrimonial ads soldier on with the standard format, you now come across quite a few where the personal element is in greater evidence. Words like “dynamic” and “down-to-earth” are creeping in. In M.I.L. MatchMaker Magazine advertisers explain at some length what they are and what sort of partner is wanted. A man says -“I am amicable, understanding and sensitive by nature”, or a woman wanting someone “caring, optimistic, independent or professional, broad-minded with a zest for living”.

Our society in United Kingdom, especially within 2^nd and 3^rd generations and upper strata, is undergoing fairly rapid attitudinal and behavioural changes in matters of marriage. That could mean many more of personal ads, even the standard of matrimonial ads could see a certain shift towards the style of personal ads.

By Bharat Raithatha

Honeymoon bliss is more fable than fact. Sulks are as common as smiles, even a few bridely tears and sobs. Yet the myth survives strong. Expectations are high; it’s the “trip” of her life. Your groomly task, no doubt, is delicate if not daunting. Advice from friends and relations will be forthcoming freely. Still a few hints won’t go a miss so take notes…

The chances are –yours is essentially a semi-arranged marriage (of course, you were consulted), or perhaps through a friend, relative, an Introductions agency or a dating website where you and your would be wife met, possibly half a dozen times but that intimacy is still yet unknown despite all the meetings.

If you have the budget, the exotic locations for honeymooning are the in-thing for you. Travel agents or Internet sites willingly sort out the bookings for you with the best ones in Goa, Malaysia, Caribbean Islands etc all spring to mind. But your envisaged role is of an unerring guide, not a wide-eyed tourist lost in the wonderment of skyscrapers and supermarkets. The novelty of a different setting and the novelty of a marriage less than one week old can be at times too heady a mix.

Better avoid places, more so in the early phase of the honeymoon, where English is not spoken at all. Nothing is as destructive of male vanity as the apparent helplessness to communicate around, to sort out things when one has lost the way or the bride her handbag, The blushing bride in her bright silk sari may attract unwelcome attention together with her expensive jewellery!

Leisurely walking amongst cheerful crowds in elegant streets will rarely amuse your mate. And also dragging her along to picture galleries and museums –there will come a time for that as well. Excellent public parks and entertainment places are the thing for you.

In India, hill stations are a favourite honeymoon spot. Honeymooners streaming into hill station hotels. “All going to do the same thing”, the lobby clerk and the bellboy both know that!

Better stay at the best hotel, even if you have to raise a loan for it. Besides comfort and privacy, you are required to display style, possible your last independent chance of doing so. So be generous with tips. Get a little cheated; at this stage, brides often find this quality rather endearing.

Seaside resorts are another gaining popularity. Goa has much to recommend itself in this. Yet the stay can have a setback. Newly married brides are often too shy to bare themselves more so in the open, to take full advantage of sun and sand. Prolonged train or road journeys are not the best way to occupy the first few days with the hassle of packing and unpacking. The first marital quarrel is often about some item that gets misplaced or left behind.

One rule of thumb is to plan every trip and programme allowing a wide margin of time. Your pushing or hurrying could be frightening to your bride who is unused to your ways since she may need more time to get ready.

Better also stick to standard and tried food and drink. Roadside “chaats” and uncertain food stuff is not for you. Imagine a scenario of an upsetting rumbling stomach emitting embarrassing sounds if nothing worse. Probably the word “honeymoon” comes from olden practice of feeding the groom on honey –the strongest energy wise and the lightest digestion wise.

A handy bottle of whisky or brandy may pep you up. But to get drunk on a honeymoon, or to create a nuisance or pass out, is an unforgivable sin, next only to going off with another woman!

Also this is not an occasion to dilate on the facts of life. “She is all yours”, but do not rush things. Despite folklore of the wedding night, “doing it” is not something obligatory, or a must for future love and happiness.

No use recalling wistfully your bachelor days. Most women do not have the remotest notion of bachelor evenings. Your best bet is to talk of the future –joint hopes and joint wishes –than of each other’s past.

Happy Honeymooning!

Welcome to Perfect Partner – M.I.L. Matchmaker an Asian matrimonial contact Introductions print magazine published in UK.

→ UK Matrimonials since 1995
→ Reaching homes & outlets via print magazine
→ Personalised confidential matchmaking service
→ Unlimited number of quality Introductions
→ Direct contact by telephone & email support

Register Here Now!