This week’s Throwback Thursday wedding is about luxury and unabated beauty. Causing controversy when the wedding video hit the internet early last year, most people wondered about the extravagant spending, $9 million dollars, and the sheer opulence of the wedding.
While Avnie and Pankaj’s Indian wedding didn’t reach the level of either of the Mittal weddings or any celebrity Bollywood wedding, the festivities struck a cord with the Indian audience in the US and in the homeland.
No matter what you think of the wedding personally, you cannot deny that it was on an epic scale with some of the best South Asian wedding professionals making it happen. Mili Ghosh, Prashe Decor, AA Cinematography, and the list goes on.
About the wedding: From Mili’s interview with Harper’s Bazaar.
On day one of the wedding festivities, Malani’s baraat arrived in Las Vegas on a chartered aircraft with 165 guests on board, dancing their way down the steps after landing. A high-powered sangeet was held at the pool deck of the Cosmopolitan hotel the same evening.
The wedding itself—complete with an elephant for the groom—was held the next afternoon at the Bellagio; according to some reports, a crowd of 5,000 passers-by gathered to watch the flamboyant festivities.
This was followed by a grand reception the same evening. On the last morning, a farewell brunch was held at the Bellagio for the 570 guests who had attended the wedding from all over the world.
Prashe of Prashe Decor discusses the wedding decoration:
Words can’t describe how beautiful the ceremony of Pankaj and Avnie turned out. The Malani’s chose to have the event outdoors by the Bellagio poolside, which painted the landscape for this garden inspired one of a kind Mandap. Our team meticulously custom welded and pieced together the argyle rose pattern pillars, as well as the intricate floral filled patterns that connected the pillars together.
A pair of hand made moss elephants were created, with carefully placed jewels to resemble the traditional rajastani elephant.
Specialty gold urns adorned with crystals and pearls made the aisle way one of the most stunning bridal entrances.
I just love the different shades of pinks complementing the greens.
A charter jet flew in 200 of the 600 guests into town from Houston. That’s a way to get the party started!
The floral arrangements alone for the poolside wedding ceremony came to about $150,000.
You probably recognize this beautiful elephant. This is Tai, the most famous elephant in all of Hollywood and Indian weddings in the US. She comes with a $10,000 price tag from Have Trunk Will Travel. Because she was the first elephant to ever the Bellagio (and the Las Vegas strip!), the engineers had to run a stability survey to ensure the driveway and entrance of the hotel could handle her weight!
Everyone has this wedding cake in the shape of a temple. 10-tiers tall, the wedding cake was created by Bellagio pastry chef Jeanette Droegmoeller and required two weeks to construct.
And the wedding video…yea, you’ll need a cup of chai to watch this!
Epic AA Indian Wedding Film of Pankaj and Avnie Malani from A&A Video Productions.
Now that you’ve finished the video, check out the couple shots that were taken a few months before wedding. Pankaj brought out his love for poker for sure!
{Wedding Vendors}
Ensembles: Sabyasachi Mukherjee (for Avnie) and Shantanu & Nikhil (for Pankaj)
Wedding planner: Tory L Cooper
Cake: Jeanette Droegmoeller and Sylvain Bortolini at the Bellagio, Las Vegas
Photography: Memories in Motion / Mili Ghosh Photography
Floral arrangements: MGM Resort events
Wedding décor: Prashe Décor