Heading to the peach state today! Reema and Chandresh had a fun, festive, dance filled Gujarati wedding in Duluth, Georgia. Celebrating their love and partnership in sky blue and gold color palette with a traditional Hindu ceremony, these two are oodles of fun.
Reema shares with us all about her wedding.
Tell us about the wedding!
Our wedding was a traditional Gujarati Hindu wedding in Atlanta, Ga. Our colors for the wedding was sky blue and gold. Typically the bride is heavily involved in the wedding planning process, but I was not. Not because I did not have a say but I truly did not care and neither did Chandresh. I did pick out our decorations, mandap style and cake but I left everything else up to my parents. I told my dad I wanted sky blue and gold, good food and good alcohol and both my parents made it happen. We had about 350 guests total for the wedding and reception. We had our bridesmaids and groomsmen sit with us on the mandap as well :). It was perfect.
I wore my maternal grandmother’s anklets for the wedding as a good luck charm. Chandresh did not see me at all until the Antarpat was lowered when I got on the mandap. I know it’s super traditional but it symbolizes two separate souls and I was dead set in making sure I stayed true to that symbolism.
What was the inspiration for your wedding?
Honestly, I just wanted a fun wedding and reception with loads of laughters and smiles. I wanted a traditional wedding but with a modern twist.
What was the hardest part about wedding planning?
All the little details. You would think that finding vendors is the most stressful part but it is far from it. It’s all those tiny details that you do not think about until a few months before.
Did you do any DIY (do it yourself) or special projects/things at the wedding?
“Rather than having an actual wedding program, we decided to use a QR code that people could scan on their smartphone which would take them to the wedding program. We realized that spending hundreds of dollars on wedding programs was a waste of money since majority of them are thrown away or left behind so we decided to go an economical route. We also chose not to do table cards since they are left behind too. Instead, we did a poster board.
Another thing I did was I asked one of my best friends to write our song for our first dance. It made it much more personal and meaningful. As we were dancing away, we both were paying attention to the lyrics and it just made that dance even more sentimental. We asked our friend to save the draft so we could frame it. About 2 months before the wedding, I asked my friend as well to sing an acoustic version of Frank Sinatra’s “”The Way You Look Tonight”” for the father-daughter dance. Again, it was more sentimental and meaningful.
What was your favorite part of the wedding?
Everything. Seriously, it was everything. The whole wedding and reception was exactly what we wanted. We wanted everyone to have fun and enjoy and that’s exactly what they all did. I would not change anything about it. If I had to pick, it would have to be during the reception when almost everyone was up on the dance floor. Seriously, there were more empty seats and people were dancing off the dance floor since there was no space. I could not have asked for a better DJ to get people on their feet!
What 3 words of advice do you have for future brides/grooms-to-be?
1) While you’re on the mandap, stage, etc, take a quick moment and look out to the crowd and see who all came, near and far, to be there for your special day. It will make you appreciate your big day that much more.
2) DO NOT SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF. I cannot stress that enough. If the pillars to your mandap is wrong or the flowers are not big enough, nobody else will notice. The things you think people will notice, will not. Ask yourself this-“”will these things matter to me in about 10 years?””. I remember every moment of my wedding day because I did not care to stress about anything. All I cared about was marrying Chandresh. As long as that occurred, nothing else mattered to me.
3) You will never please everyone. There’s going to be someone who will find something negative about your wedding/reception and there will be someone who will get upset with you that you did not include so and so. At the end of the day, no matter how hard you try, someone will get upset or find criticism. Don’t let it get to you. Remember, this is the day to celebrate your love for each other and that’s it. As long as you and your partner are happy, that’s what matters the most. Don’t think about your parents, cousins, siblings and friends because this is YOUR day and not theirs.
Anything else you would like to add?
I want to talk about the father-daughter dance. As you may notice, my dad is physically handicap due to Polio at a young age. That did not stop me from wanting to have a father-daughter dance. My dad would always ask me “Oh, how are we going to do that?” to which I always said “I’ll just sit on your lap and you can wheel me around!” Both my dad and I love Frank Sinatra so it was only appropriate to have his song “The Way You Look Tonight” to be our song/dance.
I asked my best friend to sing an acoustic version to it, which he did. As my dad wheeled me around, my little cousin came up and pushed my dad’s wheelchair. When my cousin was younger, my dad used to tell him “You’re going to be hold me up so I can dance with my daughter at her wedding”. We never really brought it up to my cousin the day of the reception but he remembered it and surprised us both. There was no dry eye in sight as my dad held me in my arms and my cousin wheeled us around.
Reema, you got us in tears. Thank you sharing such a sweet and happy wedding! Congrats to you and family!
{Wedding Vendors}
Venue: Sonesta at Gwinnett Place // Photography/Videography: Zamana Lifestyles // Hair/Makeup: Payal Patel of 21InStyleBeauty // Mehndi: Manisha’s Mehndi Designs // DJ/Lighting: DJ Jaz & GTB Productions // Catering: S3 Catering //
Wedding Cake: Kelly’s Cakes Atlanta // Decorator: Natasha’s Decor