We're back, Maharanis, and bride Kruti is peeking out the window of her suite as her Raja Asheesh makes his way down the promenade for the fabulous baraat! I love this pic from Damion Edwards Photography that shows the pure joy on her face! After getting all dolled up with the help of BridalGal, this beauty is ready to head to the alter where Elegant Affairs Inc has transformed the ceremony space at The Grove NJ into a peach and white wonderland. That glowing stage is super gorgeous! Three cheers to Rose Events Wedding Planners & Coordinators for ensuring that this event is a complete dream! Come join me in the gallery, lovelies, before the next round of wedding fun!
From the bride:
"We had a very special theme throughout the wedding day. I attempted to recreate our story through the seasons of our relationship. I wanted the guest to walk through all 4 seasons, in the same manner we dated and got engaged. So throughout the day the themes & colors changed as the rooms changed in the venue. I tried to take all of the details and customized them according to the season they were representing. I had incredible help from my family, Elegant Affair, Rose Events, Mogul Caterers, and AMR Catering to bring my theme to life.
Asheesh and I had our 1st date in the spring of May 2012 so the decor and snacks for the Baraat time were representing the Spring Theme colors of pink & white and the welcome gate was of lace with simple flower balls hanging. The welcome Ganesh statue was white & pink placed on top of a pink & white pearl tablecloth. The afternoon started off with soft and simple touch of spring with tea & snacks.
Summer was when our relationship really started blooming into something more and that was the theme for the wedding ceremony. We tried to create a summer garden mandap with green moss elephants with fresh flowers and pearl accents. Mango milk shakes with green vintage straws were passed around during the ceremony. We had an Ombre open Mandap, with pearl accents. When the ceremony ended and as we exited the ballroom, the guests where given rose petals to throw completing the summer wedding feel.
Fall was when we had our parents get together and meet and the cocktail hour had the fall decor of brown shaded table clothes with small pumpkins with hand-written love quotes. Apple Cider was one of the welcome drinks. The place cards were pumpkin-shaped cards. For our guest sign in book, we had a photo of a huge tree & asked the guests to 'leaf' a message on a leaf to put up on our tree. Next to this we had another bigger tree with branches coming out with hanging photos of our parents and grandparents with a sign that said 'Our Roots.'
Now we finally get to winter, my favorite season and the also the time when Asheesh had popped the big question on X-Mas morning in 2012, so obviously the reception’s theme was a winter wonderland. The colors were white, silver & a warm dark red with a room full of candles everywhere. The dinner & dessert menu were created with keeping the winter theme in mind. Moghul went out of there way to customize a sit down Jain dinner menu that went with the theme. For example, it was their 1st time making stuffed lychee kofta, which was to represent little snow balls, the guests loved the food. For dessert AMR Catering put together a table full of customized eggless pies, pastries, cookies all which carried out the colors & theme of winter wonderland. For our toast we asked the venue to frost the glasses with sugar rims & created a cranberry & pomegranate drink to bring in the color for the toast. Similar with the wedding cake it frosted sugar on the outside along with sliver candy balls around the white cake. The room looked picture perfect with tall centerpieces with white flowers, low centerpieces with red roses & other tables had candles. The room felt warm with the colors & we used lighting to create snowflakes on the ceiling, walls & dance floors.
Not only was the day magical for us, a lot of the guest commented that it all felt like a fairy tale wedding something every bride dreams about, right. At that point it felt like the year’s worth of planning & hard work paid off.
On her wedding cards and programs:
2 very special details in my eyes are: The Wedding Card & The Wedding Program
I wanted the wedding invitation to make a statement about me & my style and I also wanted them to remember it to be something unique and most of all useful. I really dislike the idea of people spending money on gifts/party favors that just sit & collect dust and no one uses. So I thought long what could I give out that would be used by others. I love bags like most girls do and so we got customized evening clutches to put the wedding card inside of. We got the inserts along with a customized box for the clutches made in India. This project took almost 3 months to put it all together clutches from the USA & printing in India along with putting them together to give out. My family played a huge role in this project and I couldn't have pulled this off without their help. There were times when I didn't think my clutch wedding card idea was going to work but my mom, dad, brother & sister-in-law supported me and stayed up with till 2am to put together these 250 invites. Along with that they specially went around to delivery the cards to the family members and close friends as a warm welcome to come to the wedding. Guest LOVED the Wedding card and many asked if we had extra clutches and many commented this could only be Kruti's idea - I was happy that my personal touch made it's stamp.
This is something that everyone is doing but often I see many of the uncle & aunties just pick-up and put on the side and they don't even read it. So at 1st I wasn't even going to create a wedding program but then I thought what about our non-Indian friends who might actually want to read it. Again I wanted to do something different but couldn't come up with an idea. Till I thought why not have a newspaper for our special day. Folks put their wedding announcement in the newspaper, so I thought why not make our own newspaper as the wedding program. This was a last minute idea and task I didn't think I could complete in time so I reached out to my friends and asked each of them to put together an article for this newspaper/wedding program. With their help we put together our story to share with the folks who might not know much about Asheesh and me. In the story we mentioned the seasons changing to help them understand the theme of the day and the wedding program was on the side of the paper as a chat between my baby nephew and his baby niece. There were also photos of the pre-wedding events we had on the other side (a pujan, the 2 day engagement celebration, the bridal shower & the proposal). Since it was a newspaper it had the special touches of a horoscope, cartoon, crossword puzzle about telling stories about Asheesh and me. We also used a section in the paper to say thank you to everyone. This was a time when you didn't see folks throw away the wedding program or not read it - they all took it home. I even heard that some of the family India saw it as well, I guess all of the last minute running around to get this printed 2 days before the wedding was worth it.
These 2 items to me felt like the most unique & special touch I put on the wedding along with the 4 seasons theme.
On her makeup:
Oh yes, I always knew what I wanted to look like on my wedding day. Thanks to the Bridal Gal team make-up artist Lilly Rivera and hair by Petra Olan. They created all 3 of the different looks I had requested. They made me feel and look a like a princess for the ceremony and then a celebrity for the reception.
For the Sangeet: I was going for the Paki look and asked for a heavier make-up look. My hair on the side with the jhoomer in hair.
For the Ceremony: I was going for the traditional Indian princess look.
For the reception I wanted a red carpet look with a touch of royalty walking down the red carpet. In my hair I two gold pins that mother-in-law wore for her wedding day."
Stay tuned for a behind-the-scenes look at the reception floral and decor!
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