Privacy Policy

Introduction

Empire Events (“Empire Event”, “we”, “us”) is an event planning and design studio operating from Someshwar Square, Opp. Someshwar Enclave, Near Aagam Bungalow, Vesu, Surat – 395007, Gujarat, India, and online at empireevent.org. The registered entity behind this business is [Registered entity name — to be inserted], holding [GSTIN — to be inserted].

Planning a wedding or a corporate gathering is an unusually personal exercise. To do it well we are trusted with guest lists, family preferences, budgets, travel plans and photographs of some of the most private moments in a family’s life. This policy explains, without legal theatre, exactly what we hold, why we hold it and what you can ask us to do with it.

Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (the “DPDP Act”), Empire Events acts as a Data Fiduciary — the party that decides why and how your personal data is processed. You, whether you are a client, an enquirer, a guest or a website visitor, are the Data Principal. We also follow the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011 for the handling and protection of sensitive personal data, and the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 for grievance redressal.

This policy applies to our website, our WhatsApp and telephone enquiry lines, our studio consultations and every event we execute in Surat, across Gujarat, elsewhere in India and at international destinations.

Data We Collect

We collect only what a planning engagement genuinely requires. Most of it comes directly from you — typed into an enquiry form, spoken in a consultation, or shared over WhatsApp. Some of it, such as guest details, reaches us through the person coordinating the event on the family’s behalf.

We do not collect card numbers, CVVs, net-banking passwords or UPI PINs. We never ask for them by phone, email or WhatsApp, and any message that appears to do so in our name should be reported to us immediately.

How We Use Your Data

Your information is used for the following purposes and no others:

• Responding to enquiries, preparing design concepts, mood boards, budgets and proposals.
• Planning and executing your event, including venue liaison, vendor briefing, logistics, rehearsals and on-the-day coordination.
• Issuing quotations, invoices and receipts, and maintaining statutory books of account.
• Sending you service communications about your own event — schedules, payment reminders, timelines and site-visit confirmations.
• Improving our craft, through internal review of what worked and what we would refine next time.
• Keeping our website secure, and detecting misuse or fraudulent enquiries.
• Marketing our services, strictly within the limits described in the photography and consent sections below.

We do not sell, rent or trade personal data. We do not build advertising profiles, and we do not share your contact details with unrelated businesses for their own marketing.

Lawful Basis & Consent

The DPDP Act permits processing only for a lawful purpose, and only with your consent or for a recognised legitimate use. Before we take your data we give you notice, in clear language, of what we are collecting and why — on the enquiry form, in your proposal document and in this policy.

Our bases are:

• Your consent, which is free, specific, informed and unambiguous, given by a clear affirmative action such as submitting an enquiry form or signing a planning agreement.
• Performance of our contract with you, where the data is necessary to deliver the event you have engaged us for.
• Compliance with law, including tax, GST and accounting requirements, and any lawful order of a court or government authority.

Withdrawing consent. You may withdraw consent at any time by writing to hello@empireevent.org. It is as easy to withdraw as it was to give. On withdrawal we stop the relevant processing and, unless we are required by law to keep the record, we erase it. Please note that withdrawing consent for data that is essential to an event already in progress may make it impossible for us to continue delivering that event, and does not undo processing already lawfully carried out.

Event Photography & Film

Photographs deserve their own section, because they are the part of our work families care most about.

Almost every event we design is photographed or filmed — usually by a photographer you have appointed, sometimes by our own team for design records. These images inevitably include hosts, families and guests. We treat them as personal data.

What we do by default

• We keep a design archive of decor, floral, stage and lighting imagery for our internal reference.
• We share images with you and, where you have asked us to, with your photographer or videographer.

What we do only with your permission

• Publishing images on our portfolio pages, in printed presentations, or on Instagram and other social channels.
• Naming a family, a couple or a company alongside the images.
• Submitting work to publications, directories or industry awards.

Portfolio and social-media use is covered by a separate, clearly worded clause in your planning agreement. You may decline it without any effect on price or service. Corporate clients may equally require a full confidentiality arrangement for product launches, exhibitions and internal events, and we are glad to work that way.

Guests and opting out

Guests are usually photographed under the host’s arrangements. If you are a guest and you would rather not appear in anything we publish, write to hello@empireevent.org with the event name, date and a description or link to the image. We will remove it from our website and our own social accounts within seven working days. Where an image has already been reshared by others, we will remove our copy and ask, in good faith, that reposts be taken down — though we cannot control third-party accounts.

Images of celebrations that predate a specific consent record are used only in a non-identifying way, focused on decor rather than faces.

Sharing With Vendors

An event of any scale is delivered by many hands. To do our job we pass the minimum necessary information to:

• Venues, hotels and banquet teams — names, dates, guest numbers, room lists and access requirements.
• Caterers — guest counts, menu choices and dietary or allergy information.
• Photographers and videographers — schedules, family shot lists and key contacts.
• Decor, floral, lighting and production partners — site details, timings and technical briefs.
• Artists, performers and anchors — run sheets and names required for announcements.
• Travel and hospitality partners — for destination weddings, the passenger and stay details needed for bookings.
• Professional advisers and authorities — our accountants, auditors and insurers, and any regulator, court or enforcement agency where the law requires disclosure.

Every partner we appoint is engaged on terms requiring them to use the data only for your event, to protect it, and to return or delete it afterwards. Where you appoint a vendor directly, that vendor is responsible for its own handling of your data under its own policy.

For destination events outside India — in Dubai, Bali, Thailand or elsewhere — the details necessary for bookings are shared with local venues and suppliers in that country. The DPDP Act permits such transfers except to territories the Central Government may restrict, and we will comply with any such restriction as and when it is notified.

Data Security

We follow reasonable security practices and procedures of the kind contemplated by the IT (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011, proportionate to the size of our studio and the sensitivity of what we hold:

• Access to client files is restricted to the planners actually working on that event.
• Our website is served over HTTPS, so information you send through it is encrypted in transit.
• Business accounts are protected by strong, unique passwords and two-factor authentication where the platform supports it.
• Team members and freelance partners are bound to confidentiality, and their access is revoked when an engagement ends.
• Physical documents at our Vesu studio are kept in locked storage and shredded when no longer required.

No system is perfectly secure, and we will not claim otherwise. If a personal data breach occurs, we will notify each affected Data Principal and the Data Protection Board of India as required under Section 8(6) of the DPDP Act, and tell you plainly what happened and what we are doing about it.

How Long We Keep Data

We erase personal data once the purpose for collecting it is served, unless a law requires us to keep it longer.

• Enquiries that do not become bookings — retained for up to 24 months, in case you return to us, then deleted.
• Client planning files — retained for 24 months after the event, so we can help with anniversaries, follow-on celebrations and any post-event query.
• Invoices, contracts and accounting records — retained for up to eight years from the end of the relevant financial year, as required under Indian tax, GST and company law.
• Photographs and film — retained in our design archive indefinitely unless you ask for erasure; published images are removed on request as described above.
• Website logs — retained for a short technical period and then discarded.

Your Rights

As a Data Principal under the DPDP Act you have the following rights, and exercising them costs nothing:

• Right to access — a summary of the personal data we hold about you, how we are processing it, and the identities of those with whom we have shared it.
• Right to correction and completion — to have inaccurate or misleading data corrected and incomplete data completed or updated.
• Right to erasure — to have your data deleted once its purpose is served, subject to our legal retention duties.
• Right to withdraw consent — at any time, as easily as it was given.
• Right to grievance redressal — to complain to us first, through the officer named below.
• Right to nominate — to appoint another individual who may exercise these rights on your behalf in the event of your death or incapacity.

To exercise any right, email hello@empireevent.org from the address you shared with us, or call +91 92650 08264. We may ask a question or two to confirm your identity before acting, purely to make sure we do not disclose one client’s details to another. We respond within 15 days.

You also have duties under Section 15 of the DPDP Act — chiefly, to give authentic information and not to raise false or frivolous complaints.

Cookies & Analytics

We will be straightforward here. This website currently uses only essential cookies — the small technical files needed for pages to load correctly, for security, and to remember basic preferences during your visit. We do not run advertising trackers, retargeting pixels or cross-site profiling scripts, and we do not sell audience data.

Some embedded content, such as a Google Map showing our Vesu studio or an Instagram feed, is served by those companies and may set cookies of its own under their policies. You can block or delete cookies through your browser settings; essential cookies apart, nothing on this site depends on them.

Full details, including any change to this position, are set out in our Cookie Policy.

Children’s Data

The DPDP Act treats anyone under 18 as a child and imposes strict limits. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children through this website, and our services are directed at adults arranging events.

Where a celebration involves children — a birthday, a naming ceremony, a family wedding — any personal data about them is provided to us by a parent or lawful guardian, who gives verifiable consent through the planning agreement. In line with the Act, we do not undertake tracking or behavioural monitoring of children and we do not direct advertising at them.

Photographs of children are published only where a parent or guardian has specifically agreed. If you believe we hold a child’s data without proper consent, write to us and we will delete it promptly.

Third-Party Links

Our website links to services we use to talk to you and to show our work — WhatsApp, Instagram, Google Maps and Google Business Profile, among others. Once you follow such a link, or contact us through those platforms, your information is also handled under that platform’s own privacy policy, which we neither control nor endorse.

We also link to venues, hotels and partner websites for your convenience. Please read their policies before sharing personal data with them.

Grievance Redressal

In accordance with the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the DPDP Act, we have appointed a Grievance Officer to address privacy concerns and consumer complaints.

Grievance Officer: Komal Patel, Founder & Creative Director
Email: hello@empireevent.org
Phone: +91 92650 08264
WhatsApp: wa.me/919265008264
Address: Empire Events, Someshwar Square, Opp. Someshwar Enclave, Near Aagam Bungalow, Vesu, Surat – 395007, Gujarat, India
Hours: Monday to Saturday, 10:00 to 19:00 IST

We acknowledge every complaint within 24 hours of receipt and resolve it within 15 days. Please include your name, contact details, the event or enquiry concerned and a clear description of the issue, so that we can investigate properly the first time.

If our response does not satisfy you, you may escalate the matter to the Data Protection Board of India under the DPDP Act, or to the appropriate consumer forum under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

Changes to This Policy

We review this policy periodically and update it when our practices change, when we adopt a new tool, or when the law moves — including as the rules under the DPDP Act are brought fully into force. The current version is always published on this page with the revision date shown alongside.

Where a change materially affects how we handle your personal data, we will tell active clients directly by email or WhatsApp and, where the law requires it, seek fresh consent. Continuing to use this website or our services after an update means you accept the revised policy.

This policy is published for transparency, not as a formality. If any part of it is unclear, or if you would like to know precisely what we hold about you, please contact our Grievance Officer — we would much rather answer the question than have you wonder.