Wedding Design

Invitations

On July 22, 2017, I got married!  My wedding was great as I hired an Indian wedding planner and worked on it too.  Planning a wedding is a lot of hard work and part of that is design for elements like wedding and engagement outfits, invitations and thank-you cards, and reception ballroom decor.  Highlights of the day included cake cutting, exchanging rings, family portraits, speeches, our grand entrance, a kathak performance by my cousin, and a ride in a shuttle.  

I ordered invitations (and later matching thank you cards) in orange with silver trim.  I addressed them with a silver Sharpie marker - people loved it!  In each of the thank you cards, I placed a print of our wedding portrait.  

Our engagement shoot in Verona, NJ

Our portrait and guestbook
at the reception

We did an engagement shoot as I wanted to display an enlarged  photo of us at the reception and have a photo printed on the cover of our guest book.  The engagement shoot was taken at Verona Park in Verona, NJ, for which I wore a yellow sari with a sky blue border on it.  The sari was embellished with silver sequins and embroidered with flowers so it was the perfect complement to the garden setting!  I wore a set of matching glass bangles that I ordered from Bangle House in India.  I paired it with a complementary necklace & earring set that my father's sister got me when I visited India in 2009.  The sari was stitched with 3/4 sleeves as that is the trend nowadays.  I am still struggling to tie the sari properly after wearing them for about 19 years!

My glass bridal bangles and henna, with a
peacock and elephant drawn on my hands

Susrut meets his bride!

Me & Susrut in our wedding wear

Prior to the wedding, I experimented with different shades of makeup at Sephora to complement each of my wedding outfits and finalized a hair and makeup style with my artist so that there would be no delays on the big day.  I visited the florist to choose flowers for my hairstyles with each outfit  and my bouquet so I could order them and have them ready on the big day.  I also created a Pinterest board of henna designs so my henna artist would know what type of henna I like, including a specific request for a peacock and an elephant.

For the wedding day, I wore a traditional Banarasi silk lehenga in traditional Indian panetar bridal colors.  Panetar is normally red and white, but I opted for maroon and cream as these look better on me.  What I like most about the lehenga are the massive border on the skirt and the net fabric draped over the skirt, through which one could see the pearl embellishment on the skirt.  The borders are very regal.  I had a custom statement bridal jewelry set made by Art Karat, including a necklace, earrings, cocktail ring, and tikka (headpiece), and wore glass bangles from Bangle House.  Susrut got me a brilliant custom engagement ring from Kay Outlet that I also wore, with a 1-carat diamond on a plain, thin band.  I ordered red and white carnations for my hair and a red rose bouquet to hold; I got red and white flowers as opposed to matching maroon and cream flowers as to provide a fun pop of color as cream and maroon flowers can appear morbid.  I wore a simple bindi with red and white dots drawn above my eyebrows as the rest of my look was very fancy.

Seap bridal bangles with name bangles

Cocktail Hour Photoshoot 

For the cocktail hour, I wore another lehenga as even though it was repetitive, lehengas makes the bride stand out from others in saris.  The lehenga was a nice coral color and I paired it with Indian jhumka earrings and a seap bangle set, including name bangles, that I also wore for the reception. 

At my wedding reception in my
amazing lehenga

   For the reception, I chose the Sheraton Mahwah in Mahwah, NJ as the venue as I enjoy the mountain views from the ballroom.  For the ballroom decor, I chose raised floral centerpieces in blush pink tones and silver chiavari chairs; chiavari chairs make the ballroom look much nicer.  I also purchased markers as well as a container for the markers for the guestbook, and ordered a floral arrangement to place by the guestbook.  I wore a custom royal blue lehenga that I participated in designing with an Indian boutique.  I made a drawing for the blouse back cutout and went to a craft store to look at fabric colors best for me.  People were amazed!  The lehenga had mirrorwork that reflected the ballroom lights.  I wore it with a statement jewelry set from Art Karat and had the jewelry plating changed to silver to match the lehenga's trim.  I had red roses pinned in my hair to complement my maroon seap bangles. 

Centerpieces at Reception
and Chiavari chairs

One of the most special parts of our wedding was the photo slideshow played at our reception, for which I used old scanned photos of myself and my family as well as of Susrut and my inlaws, in addition to our engagement photos.  Susrut and I sent in our favorite songs to play at the reception.  I also went for a cake tasting at the bakery before the wedding to make sure that the cake served at our reception was delicious as cakes makes me happy!  I picked a vanilla cake with yellow bread, cappucino ganache, white icing, and pink flowers.  These memories - be they the sight, taste, or sound of wedding design will last forever.