A Bengali-Punjabi wedding? Why, yes please!
Sneha and Varun meet in high school and were best friends for many years. Soon that friendship evolved into love and just a few months ago, they were married in Allahabad, India.
I am so happy to share their wedding and Sneha’s story. You’ll find loads of inspiration with their wedding. Since I cannot pick a favorite part (though this photo of Varun’s pithi ceremony is one of my favs), I’ll let Sneha take over.
Tell us about the wedding!
We had our roka on 12-12-12. Our wedding witnessed the mixed of cultures. As Varun belongs from a Punjabi family, and me (the bride) belongs to a Rajput Family. My mother is Bengali as my parents had a love marriage. We decided to incorporate all the cultures in our wedding!
We started with our functions on 7th Dec with Bengali style Bachelorette party which is known as Aai Budo Bhaat. Aai Budo Bhaat is a Bengali tradition where bride eats her last lunch with her family as a bachelorette. A last chance to have lunch with your family as a little girl.
But we had a twist; Varun’s family joined us, as they being Punjabi wanted to witness a Bengali functions and its rituals. The blowing of the conch shell and ululation by all my aunts was my favourite part and is the characteristic of a Bengali marriage. Shehnai recital played by live musicians or else played over a music system adds to this symphony. The purpose is to draw the attention of all and sundry to the wedding and also to summon the invitees. It is also a kind of social declaration from the family to the rest of the society.
The menu for that day had Bengali specialities including special fish dishes. I dressed up as Bengali bride in traditional silk sari. My mom, my aunt’s, and Varun’s family fed the entire meal to both of us. And that made the ceremony really special for me. It brought back memories of me in pigtails and mom feeding me so that I wasn’t late for school. At that moment, I just wanted to go back in time and relive the carefree childhood days.
On the 8th, we had an orange and green coloured Bollywood sangeet. Varun wore a green sherwani with orange patiala from Diwan Saheb while I decided to go for a yellow anarkali.
On the same evening of 8th, we threw a Bachelor’s Party for our friends. For the bachelor’s night we had a masquerade bash so we decided to keep it as Retro Modern Theme. Our guests donned high ponytails and lot of polkas. Varun wore a black nehru suit and I choose a black sari with neon printed blouse. It was a fun party where Varun and our friends turned up to loose their feet and we partied all night.
On 9th morning we had the Kertan or Maata ki Chowki followed by our engagement ceremony and cocktail.
And finally, on December 10th, was our wedding day! I choose multicolored piece with ethnic red colour lehnaga by Anamika Khanna while the groom chose to stick to his favourite colour, cream.
What was the inspiration for your wedding?
The peacock – the symbol of majestic grace, style, beauty, pride, and joy. Our wedding invitation cards were purple while the chinaware was turquoise blue. The decor had peacock feathers with purple, green and gold colour coordinated theme of majestic elegance. Since we had low diwan style seating we incorporated multi-colour cushions and bolsters on kilim rugs. The orchids, marigolds, and tulips added exotic glamour to the wedding celebration.
The sagan had entirely different theme of blue and white. Soft lighting, hanging tea lights and wax diyas were dramatic and romantic! White canopy’s with crystal decorating completed the magic.
What was the hardest part about wedding planning?
The hardest part of wedding planning was to finalize the guest list and make arrangements for their personal pick ups and stays. Pulling that list together takes more time and effort than anything else.
The second thing is getting the right photographers. Whether you have lavish or simple wedding, the memories that will stay with you forever will be the photographs. Candid photographers are known for clicking natural moments and capture the beauty and flow of the functions. Book well in advance and meet them in person!
And lastly, the food, despite everything else, most people come to weddings for the food. We made sure to have a variety of food to match the taste buds of everyone. A wedding should be a feast, we discussed with our caterer and made sure of what was being served.
Did you do any DIY (do it yourself) or special projects/things at the wedding?
We believe every wedding mirrors the couples and their families inner self, their culture and represents a unique feature which make them call it their very own. So we decided to be planning every niche of our wedding.
With the help of the wedding planners’ elaborate ideas and planning, there are two things which we call our very own special project. We started by designing our wedsite for our friends and that can be visited on www.snehavarunforevertogether.com and the prewedding shoot, its theme and the place was our own idea.
What three words of advice do you have for future brides-to-be?
Don’t be paranoid; everything is gonna be perfect, it’s your day.
Don’t try too much makeup and facials before wedding, it can lead to skin problems. Still, take natural care of your skin for that extra shine and glow.
Before shopping for your wedding dress, you should know exactly the colour and style of lehanga you want. There are lots of wedding blogs out there, including this one, that show a variety of lehangas worn by real brides, and they can give you some idea along with places to shop for.
Be sure about the makeup artists you are hiring because they are the ones who will dress you up, and make you subtle, elegant and gorgeous. Try the artist before finalising them.
{Wedding Suppliers}
Photography: DKreate Photograhy – Medhavi Kotecha and Chandini Dua.
We had three wedding planners one from Allahabad and two from Lucknow.
