What could be better than a Bengali wedding or a South Indian wedding?
How about a Bengali – South Indian wedding?!
Today we have such an exciting wedding that blends Bengali and Kannada traditions. It is not often we have featured South Indian or Bengali weddings and this wedding with Tania and Kiran is such a treat! (and side note, we love all weddings so submit yours to us)
Tania and Kiran had their wedding in the music and culture capital of America, New Orleans. With all those colors and bands, this is the perfect city to bring Indian wedding festivities!
Tania shares all the exciting details of the wedding, along with those splendid wedding outfits.
Tell us about the wedding
We had a summer Indian wedding with a mixture of a Bengali and Kannada wedding ceremony in New Orleans, LA. It was at the Hyatt Regency, which was actually a beautiful location with some really unique design features, which lent itself to some great pictures. While the wedding and reception were both indoors due to the southern summer heat, we took the opportunity to take some great pics throughout the French Quarter and Irene did a great job of capturing the mixture of colors of the Quarter and our Indian outfits.
I wore a red/orange Benarasi silk saree for the ceremony which is the traditional Bengali outfit; my husband wore a sherwani, which is the typical groom’s outfit. For the reception, I wore a less traditional violet net saree and my husband wore a suit.
The reception was less traditional – dancing, dinner, photo booth, a DJ, cake, a grooms cake, some great food and some more dancing.
We had such a great time at our wedding, and while neither one of us are huge partiers, our DJ did a great job and kept almost all of our guests on the dance floor for most of the night.
We put coloring books at the tables that had little kids with their names on it. We also had a photo booth which was a great hit. All of the little tidbits – the photo stations, coloring books, photo booth, a good DJ, the way everything was set up, made the wedding really interactive and personal.
What was the inspiration for your wedding?
We just wanted a celebration that reflected on our lives and families, and a relaxed atmosphere where our friends and families could meet and have a good time.
What was the hardest part about wedding planning?
We live in Seattle and the wedding was in New Orleans, so the toughest part was the long distance planning. We only went to New Orleans once during the planning to pick the venue, do some taste-testing, and meet the DJ. While my mom and aunt live in New Orleans, even they were out of town for awhile, and it was really tough to plan everything.
Did you do any DIY (do it yourself) or special projects at the wedding?
We had quite a few DIY projects. We had a two hour cocktail reception in this great foyer area between the ceremony room and reception room. So we decorated the area with a bunch of stations – we had family photos, friends photos, photos of our trips, Ipads with photos, we displayed one of our travel photo books, we had a guest book station with the guest book our photographer had created with our engagement photos.
We had a table of handmade guest seating cards. We also made all of the favors – a bag of goodies from our hometowns and created handmade nametags for our guests; this table was decorated with some slate/chalk signs of the places we have lived and photos from these places.
We also made the table number signs, the wedding programs, and decorated the invitations ourselves. We didn’t hire any wedding planners or decorators, so other than what the hotel provided, we did it all ourselves.
What was your favorite part of the wedding?
Getting to spend a few days with so many of our family and friends in one place – people really came from all over the world – all over the country, Alaska, India, Amsterdam, Reunion (a small island off the coast of Africa) and it was incredibly heartwarming to feel that much love.
For our guests, they loved my entrance for the ceremony – I was carried in on a piri (a square pedestal-like chair).
I also wanted to give a surprise to my husband. His family are huge Broncos fans, so we got them a surprise groom’s cake! Seeing his face made me so happy.
What three words of advice do you have for future brides-to-be?
Enjoy the wedding day – you don’t get that many opportunities to have all of your friends and family in one place, and have such a great day.
Plan it all ahead of time, even the things you don’t think you need to plan. It makes the wedding day/weekend so much less stressful because there’s a plan for everything.
Pick trustworthy vendors, it makes all the difference.
Thank you Tania for sharing your wedding. We wish you both the best!
{Wedding Suppliers}
Photographer: IJ Photo
Hair Stylist: Niki Walker Salon
Favors & Gifts: Favors and Gifts
Reception Venue: Hyatt Regency
DJ: One2 Entertainment
Makeup: Flawless Bride
Hotel: Olivier House and Hotel
