Once the bride and groom families decide on the marriage they consult their respective family priests to look for an auspicious day for Nichayadhaartham Ritual (Gounder Engagement Rituals). On the selected day, the bridegroom’s family, relatives, and friends go to the bride’s house. During this function, both parties sit opposite to each other and discuss details of the marriage. A plate with flowers mostly strands of jasmine, fruits mostly two bananas with their stem attached, areca nut, and betel leaves are placed between them to start the discussion. 

Procedure for Nichayadhaartham in Tamil Gounder Wedding 
The elders in the groom's family or his parents request the bride’s family to accept the marriage proposal and the bride’s parents give their consent. Once the oral acceptance is done, both the families exchange plates containing fruits, betel leaves and areca nut as confirmation of the Nichayadhaartham in a Tamil wedding. 

The groom’s family presents the bride a saree. The bride takes the blessings of the groom’s parents, accepts the saree and changes into the Nichayadhaartham saree. Once in the new saree, the bride takes the blessings of all the elders present. The parents of both the bride and groom sit together and fix an auspicious date, time and venue for the marriage after consulting with the priest. The bride’s family will then host a lavish feast known as the ‘parupanchotru virundhu’ (dhal rice feast) for the groom’s party. 

Due to any reason, if the marriage is not confirmed and the date is not fixed, the groom’s family will not accept the food. The groom’s family by enjoying the feast confirm their consent to the marriage.