We are headed to beautiful Gujarat for today’s wedding! A classic arranged marriage cum love story, our sweet couple spent a year planning their Hindu wedding.
With a burgundy velvet Sabyasachi wedding lehenga, Anju Modi, you’re in for a treat of this couture bride! Vanisha tells us all about the wedding.
How did you meet?
We had a typical arranged marriage. My dad’s best friends are childhood friends with Shivam’s dad and one day struck them to play the cupid.
They asked us to meet each other, as he was in Atlanta and I in India. We spoke for three months before he paid a visit to India and just in the first meet at his Sister’s place I knew he was the one.
How did he or you propose?
Initially neither of us proposed, we were so happy and so sure about each other that our parents noticed and decided to make it official. After a year we planned on getting married and we had our pre-wedding cocktail in Fatehgarh palace, Udaipur. At the party with family and friends around, Shivam got on his knees. He had been planning this with his cousins and my friends for a quiet some time. It was dreamy, surprising and just too perfect. A memory for life time.
What were the wedding preparations like?
Being a bride, preps are more stressful but I am so lucky to have amazing parents, a brother and family and friends who did almost everything for me. My father and mother planned the whole wedding while my brother planned the whole Udaipur cocktail party, while my large joint family helped with the details to make the wedding a grand success.
Shivam is a doctor in Columbus, Georgia, he just started with his Residency and he wouldn’t get off from work for more than three weeks so he was only coming two weeks prior to the wedding. All the preparation had to be done by his parents.
We kept our fingers crossed wishing he would like it all, especially his clothing and fittings! I admit that I was sad he couldn’t be more part of the process and we couldn’t go to all venue visits, tastings, and fittings together. But that’s a small price to pay for where we are now!
We live in a joint family, since we have had weddings before, we have a couple of trusted vendors we stuck with. I am from a small town in Nadiad so the one of the best place is Grand Chetak and Shivam’s family decided to keep it there.
I am very particular about my outfits and I traveled far and wide to find exactly what I was looking for. With the wedding dress I always wanted to wear a Sabyasachi. I had two Mehndi function one for just the family and close friends where I was wearing Payal Singhal and the other mehendi outfit was from Anju Modi. For the Sangeet, my outfit was by Dolly J and the reception was by Anamika Khanna. I had South Indian saree for my pithi. Essentially I traveled to Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata for all the wedding outfits!
With 2500 guests, we had the wedding at the Laxmi Villas Palace in Vadodara Gujarat.
My photography was Dreamgrapher from Ahmedabad. They photographed my best friend’s wedding and I couldn’t be happier with their service and photos!
It took a lot of time with selecting my make up artist, I wanted someone who could make me look who I am and not overdo it. My cousin helped a lot and finally I found Urmi Kaur from Mumbai. Trust me she knows what to do with your face; she would spend extra half an hour to prep my skin by applying all home made creams to hydrate and glow my skin. Every function we had different look. Together with hairstylist Smita Patel, they were a great team. I felt like a maharani every time I was being prepped by them.
Tell us about the wedding day!
The D day was just like a how I wanted. My dad made my dream wedding come true from every small details to everything other thing that had to be considered, there was nothing that was missing.
I felt like the luckiest girl in the whole world, I was given everything even without being asked for. It was a fantasy all the functions.. I had jitters when I put on my wedding dress but when I saw my friends before the varmala I was better.
The whole day I had mixed feelings I was sad that I had to leave my family and move to another Country but so happy and excited to spend the rest of my life with the perfect match.
{Wedding Credits}
Wedding decor: Poojan Décor // Event manager: Event Tadka // Bridal Jewelry: Rambhajo’s http://www.rambhajo.com/ // Caters : Jaival Parikh, me@jaivalparikh.com //. Make up artist: Urmi kaur urminderkw@gmail.com // Hair stylist : Smita Patel //
Photographers : Dreamgrapher, sr@dreamgrapher.com