This Travel Advisor Specializes in South Asian Weddings

For years, Roshini Balasundaram was a baker. She made custom cakes for children’s birthday parties and fancy fondant-adorned ones for adults. But a yet-to-be-diagnosed medical condition stopped her in 2022. Her pain was so pronounced that she had trouble walking some days.

Balasundaram’s medical care team diagnosed her with a rare form of endometriosis in 2023, the same year that her youngest son turned 1. As she was getting her health on track, her family decided to celebrate her son’s birthday in Mexico. A contact in a Facebook group for moms recommended Balasundaram connect with Travelmation travel advisor Katie Brown, a fellow Georgia resident, who ended up helping book the trip.

“When I saw Katie’s content and what she was doing for people, it interested me,” Balasundaram said. “I wanted to do something with my creativity.”

With support from her husband, Balasundaram joined Travelmation that same year. Business was slow at first. The people in her orbit weren’t booking pricey vacations.

“I’m an immigrant myself, and in the Indian community, we are not big on spending on holidays,” she said. “And I did not have a lot of American clientele. At the end of the year, around November, I thought maybe I should call it quits.”

She had booked about $50,000 in travel in six months; her peers told her that wasn’t bad, but she’d made more through baking. Then, Travelmation nominated her Rookie of the Year at its annual retreat. It was the shot of confidence Balasundaram needed to keep going. She renewed her contract, muscled through the first half of 2024, and saw momentum that summer. She was dedicating time and effort to her social media presence, and referrals were coming in.

“By September, I was a top producer, so I thought, ‘Maybe I should give it another year,’” she said.

Balasundaram describes herself as impatient. She wanted to sell more and to sell faster — to “go to the next level.” The idea of selling $1 million in travel spurred her on.

When she attended AIC Hotel Group’s Showstopper Awards as a friend’s plus-one that September, she noticed something: multiple Indian advisor attendees from other agencies, each one representing a successful business.

“I was thinking, ‘I belong to the same community, so what am I doing wrong?’” she said. “But when I spoke to them, they wouldn’t share their knowledge. So, I went to the people at AIC. They said [those advisors do] destination weddings.”

It was a welcome epiphany. Balasundaram knew that Indian weddings were often gigantic, with some guest counts nearing 1,000. She had that many attendees at her own wedding in India. But as she researched, she discovered a hurdle — most of the people booking these weddings were from the northern part of India, and she was from the southern part.

“India is like Europe — every state has a different language,” she said. “So, I was a little skeptical. How would I manage? But I was determined. I was at least going to try.”

RELATED: Adam Duckworth on Building Travelmation, Motivating Advisors and the Joy of Good Popcorn

By investing in marketing and talking to wedding planners, Balasundaram hoped she might make inroads with destination wedding professionals and clientele. Then an incredible referral chain occurred. Someone noticed her expertise in Moon Palace Cancun on social media, and Balasundaram helped that client orchestrate a 50th birthday celebration with 15 rooms at the resort. A month later, when Balasundaram sent an email to her client list about her foray into destination weddings, the same client replied and said that one of the guests had gotten engaged during their trip. She suggested that Balasundaram reach out to him.

A short email exchange revealed that the newly engaged couple hoped to be married at the same resort. When they learned that Balasundaram wouldn’t charge them extra to coordinate it and that her payment would come from the resort, they were all in. It ended up being a 98-room booking with an additional $140,000 wedding festivities budget. (South Asian weddings, or shaadi, are often multiday celebrations full of music, family, vibrant regalia, cultural ceremonies and symbolic rituals.) Serendipitously, a second client booked a South Asian wedding at the same resort on the same weekend through Balasundaram. She checked into the resort this past April to oversee both events.

The Ins and Outs of South Asian Weddings Now

Balasundaram says that Palace Resorts, Hard Rock Hotels and Palladium Hotel Group all-inclusive properties in Mexico are popular for South Asian weddings. According to her research, the uptick in these celebrations over the last decade is tied to immigration history.

In the late 1960s, Indian immigration to the states jumped exponentially as the result of The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Federal law closed the door on a discriminatory national-origins quota system the U.S. had followed for decades — one that had favored immigrants from Europe — and set the stage for an influx of professionals and skilled workers to the U.S. from Asia, Latin America and more. Flash forward to today, and the children of those immigrants are of marrying age.

And these first-generation Indian Americans are sticking to traditions in many ways. Namely, South American weddings take place across multiple days and include many cultural rituals. There’s the pre-ceremony haldi, for example, during which turmeric paste is applied to the couple by loved ones; this act blesses them with “purity and that gorgeous golden glow before the celebrations begin,” according to Balasundaram. During the mehndi portion of the event, the bride’s hands and feet are adorned with intricate henna designs that signify blessings of love and prosperity. The list goes on.

Balasundaram now understands the benefits of hosting these weddings at all-inclusive resorts in Mexico. Having all events take place in one location makes attendance easy for guests and for the team coordinating the wedding. It’s also cost effective, compared to having a wedding with hundreds of guests in the U.S. At an all-inclusive, guests pay for their rooms and dining is included in that rate. Should wedding couples want party upgrades, they can pay for them, from churro and popsicle carts to live dosa- and poori-making stations. (Custom Indian dishes such as mango dal can be planned, too.) Then, room blocks of a certain size come with venue space at no extra cost. Decor, photography and videography are among the remaining things to take care of.

Balasundaram applauds the effort these resorts put forth to make such weddings happen. Palace Resorts, for example, recently earned certification from the South Asian Wedding Institute, and resort chefs are trained in making authentic cultural dishes that will please guests.

What’s Next

With Travelmation’s support, Balasundaram operates as The Marigold Passport; the marigold is a flower commonly used in both Indian and Mexican celebrations. Balasundaram is thrilled with the niche she’s carved out for herself, and thankful for the mentorship of Adam Duckworth, Travelmation’s founder and president, and Katie Lynn Reynolds, lead destination weddings coordinator for the host agency.

“I love Travelmation, and I wanted to bring something that they did not already have,” Balasundaram said. “They did not have a single South Asian weddings advisor. I’m proud that I changed that.”

RELATED: Meet Gaynel Senka, Travelmation’s First-Ever $4 Million Travel Advisor

Balasundaram is grateful to her husband and his support of her business vision. Her health journey has brought additional challenges over the last few years, including surgeries, and through it all, her family has cheered her on.

This year, she is set to oversee three destination weddings (a fourth is in the quote stage), and one wedding is already on the books for 2027. She became a Gold producer for Travelmation just two weeks ago (that mark requires $650,000 of travel sold in a year), doubling her business in one year. Balasundaram’s next goal? To do 12 weddings a year, ideally spread out monthly so she can be present for each client. And she wants to be known as the advisor to call for a South Asian wedding.

“It's always been about, ‘How do I make a name for myself?’” she said. “How do I have people connect with me, and how do I have people know me? When someone says ‘Roshini,’ I want them to know what I can do. I've always worked toward that.”