LiveHeart Events | Expert in Event Planning & Event Services in Ahmedabad.
LiveHeart Events | Expert in Event Planning & Event Services in Ahmedabad.
Every planner remembers their “firsts.” For us at LiveHeart Events, one of those firsts was our first roce ceremony organised right here in Ahmedabad, and it came from someone within our own church community.
We’d heard of roce ceremonies before it’s a well-known part of Goan and Mangalorean Christian wedding tradition but we’d never actually organised one ourselves. So when a member of our church community reached out with a design in mind for their roce, we said yes, and then got to work doing what we always do before taking on something new: research, and a lot of it. We wanted to understand not just the broad tradition, but the specific way this family carrying their own Goan and Mangalorean roots wanted it done, right down to the smallest ritual detail.
For anyone unfamiliar, a roce is a joyful pre-wedding ceremony rooted in Goan and Mangalorean Christian tradition, built around a blessing ritual before the wedding itself. In the ceremony we organised, the groom’s sister opened the ritual, pouring coconut milk over her brother and blessing him first followed by his parents, then the rest of the family and friends, each taking their turn to pour and bless in sequence. Watching that order unfold sister first, then parents, then the wider circle of loved ones was one of the most moving parts of the evening for us. It’s warm, communal, and far less formal than the wedding day itself.
Once the blessing portion was complete, the mood shifted entirely into games, entertainment, and a shared dinner. That contrast is part of what makes a roce so special: a ceremony that moves from something quietly sacred into something joyfully social, all in one evening.
Because this was our first time organising a roce, getting the traditions right mattered enormously to us not just logistically, but out of respect for the family and the Goan and Mangalorean community it came from. We made sure every element followed proper custom: who opens the blessing, the exact order in which family and friends follow, and the flow from ritual into celebration. Nothing about it was generic or improvised; it was built around what this family and their tradition actually called for.
Taking on a ceremony we’d never organised before pushed us to do something we now consider a core part of how we work: research thoroughly, and design around the specific family’s version of a tradition rather than a generic template. It paid off everything about the ceremony came together the way it was meant to, true to proper tradition and true to the family who trusted us with it.
Since that first roce, it’s become one of the ceremonies we’re proud to say we understand deeply not because we assumed we knew it was going in, but because we took the time to learn it properly the first time.
If you’re planning a roce ceremony in Ahmedabad and want it organised with real care for the tradition behind it, we’d love to be part of it.