Happy Thursday, Maharanis! We hope you are ready to join us into a story so romantic and beautiful that it seems to have come out of a fairy tale. You heard right! Dupal & Manoj's love story is reminiscent of one of the most beautiful fairy tales! It is full of incredible details, beautiful landscapes, and, above all, lots of love. So if you are ready, let's jump right into it! For this first installment, we will join our lovebirds in a First Look photo session that we are sure you'll love! Our blushing Maharani sneaked out to surprise her future husband wearing a traditional and stylish champagne lengha embellished with ruby and golden details! Undoubtedly, this Maharani looked radiant for this photo session! And this fabulous look that made her look like a princess was complemented by the fantastic work of Cinderella Bridez, who took care of her beauty needs. The elegant and traditional hairstyle, along with the nude makeup and lipstick, praised Dupal's natural beauty and took her final look to the next level. No wonder why our elegant and imposing Raja Manoj could not take his eyes off of his future wife! All this set of elegance, beauty, and love created such beautiful scenes that got captured thanks to the talented crew from Lightyear Studio. The way they took advantage of the natural environment to immortalize the most intimate moments of this couple before their big event is fantastic! But there is no surprise here since this photographic studio is well known for making dreamy photoshoots capable of exceeding all expectations come to real life. If you loved this photo session as much as we did, do not hesitate to visit our gallery to take a peek to more amazing shots! We are sure you will love it, so go check it out!
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How did you meet your Groom and when did you know he was "the one"?
I've known Manoj since 10th grade in High School! We immediately became best friends back then and stayed best friends throughout the years. After high school, he went off to college in Pittsburgh and I went to Rutgers. But that didn't stop us from keeping our friendship. After college, we both ended up with jobs in NYC. After many years I realized he was always the one and we ended up together.
Share the scoop on your Proposal Story!
He really blew me away with my proposal! I work in the film and tv industry and I always tell him that one day I want to be an actress, hahaha. That inspired him to come up with a very creative, clever, and elaborate proposal. He got in touch with some of the cameramen that have worked with me in the past and had them email me asking me if I would like to be an extra in a film they're making. I, of course, immediately accepted the offer and got super excited at the idea of being an extra! Manoj had already chosen a spot: Grounds for Sculpture, the time and date: 6/30/18, and let all my family and friends know it was happening. In the morning the day of, he picked me up from my house for us to go be filmed as extras in this film. Once we got to the grounds, we met up with the cameramen and they asked us to do a few poses and scenes. And during one of those scenes, he twirled me around, got down on one knee and popped the question! I was in utter shock and tears and didn't know what to do but of course, I said Yes! It was the perfect proposal and I couldn't have asked for a more creative and unique proposal that was so personal to me.
Tell us how you went about planning your wedding, and your overall experience with the Venues, Hair & Makeup, Outfits, Decor Theme, and all of the other important details.
Soon after we got engaged we started looking for venues. We visited countless number of venues and just didn't fall in love with anything. One weekend we ventured up to north Jersey and came across the Hilton Pearl River and Manoj immediately fell in love with it. It was secluded, classy, looked like a castle, and big enough for our guest count. We loved the staff there and decided that'd be our venue!
After the venue and date were finalized, we started looking for all the vendors. We worked with our planner Meghna, Bells N Rings Events. We loved DJ Insomnia (Premier Events) from another wedding he performed and booked him as soon as we could. Hair & Makeup was fairly straightforward to book. I went with Cinderella Bridez. For years, I had wanted LightYearStudio as my photo/video team and was really glad they were available to do our wedding. We shopped around for various decorators and Wedding Design was the only one that was able to create my dream aisle which is a glass top aisle with floating flowers underneath under a reasonable cost and they blew us away with their creativity and patience.
Our overall experience with all of our vendors was absolutely fantastic. We, of course, had some ups and downs throughout the planning process but we couldn't have asked for a smoother execution from all the vendors and the end result was stunning.
How did you select your bridal lengha or wedding dress? Did you have a favorite color in mind?
I always knew I wanted red and white. When I went to India, that color was hardly in style. It was all the modern colors- reds, pinks, blushes. I was super picky about it, and finally found what I thought I was the "perfect outfit". I constantly kept changing my mind even after I bought it, but soon after it started to grow on me and was happy with the choice.
What was the most enjoyable part of the planning process, and why?
The food tasting was definitely our favorite part of the planning process. That was the only thing that Manoj really looked forward. We went food tasting and various restaurants in NYC and NJ. Pradeep from Mantra Restaurant absolutely blew us away. The food was delicious, the presentation was authentic, and the entire experience of working with him was very pleasant. We received a lot of compliments from our guests from the food. Huge thanks to Pradeep and his team!
What did your guests particularly love about your Wedding?
Our guests brought a ton of hype and energy to the Baraat and our reception dance floor. The dance floor was packed all night and many of our guests didn't even leave the floor to go eat! The DJ did a phenomenal job with the music and kept everyone dancing the whole night.
Was there a really special moment in your wedding that constantly replays in your mind?
The walk down that aisle is definitely the one moment I cannot forget. As a girl, you always dream about what you walking down that aisle to your forever person, what song will you walk down to, who will walk you down. It was very emotional for me-the song (Hasi Ban Gaye- which had the perfect lyrics for me), my two mamas walking me, and knowing that I am going to be spending the rest of my life with my best friend forever.
Do you have any words of wisdom for Brides-To-Be?
Even before I was a bride, I had always told all the brides-to-be, to enjoy every minute of the planning because when the day comes it will go by in a blink of an eye. So to all the bride-to-be's, take it all in, embrace the ups and downs, because in the end your day will be your special day and it will be magical even if there are hiccups.
Anything else you want to tell us? We'd love to hear all about your other details! (jewelry, mehndi, venue, cake, bouquets, etc.)
I loved being able to be creative and putting things together with all the different aspects that was going on-from- integrating splashes of colors to my jewelry, combining different flowers and colors to make it perfectly match my bridesmaids outfit, coming up with the color combo and designs of my bridal party outfits to my bridal henna with some personal touches about us two.
More of this real-life fairytale is coming down the road, so stay close if you don't want to miss it out!
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