Welcome to Maharani Weddings

What really sets Mili Gosh, creative director of Memories in Motion, apart from the crowd of photographers and cinematographers is she captures moments.  The warm smile of a bride, hands softly touching, a delicate embrace….these are the emotional moments of a wedding that Memories in Motion has the talent to capture.  Not just simple frames and poses - images that make you feel like you are right there, living (or for the lucky bride - reliving) the beautiful wedding day.

We have an amazing sweetheart table, and a gi-normous wedding cake coming up today.  Stay tuned!

Today I have some very exciting news to share.  My dear friend, and the creative superstar of Memories in Motion, Mili Gosh, is going to be sharing her INSANE talents with brides-to-be in a whole new way.  Photography.  Mili brings her trademark, tear jerking cinematography style to photography, and I almost fell out of my chair when I saw our next featured wedding.  The shots are captivating, romantic, and Memories in Motion was the perfect fit to tell this gorgeous wedding story.

Sticky, gooey, magical emotional goodness! Sit tight, we have many more shots that will have you saying “oooo” and “ahhh!”

Passion is something that anyone great brings to their job.  A love, an appreciation, and a drive to be the best at what you do is really what sets anyone apart.  But, then, there are people who are so passionate about their jobs, they are borderline obsessed with it.  They are 100% committed to their craft, and nothing, I mean nothing, stops them. They breath it,  they sleep it, and they even dream it.  The first time I spoke with Saman, the owner of, 2Create Designs, I had a sneaky feeling that she was in this camp. But, after I saw the photographs from this next feature, I think that she might be President of the club!  Saman had this adorable welcome home party for her newborn Mini Maharani, Serene.  This party would make an incredible Mehndi, insane Sangeet, or an off the charts bridal shower.  I have no idea how you design & execute this type of detailed event with a newborn, unless you are truly obsessed with your job.

I just can't wait to feature Serene's Indian Wedding extravaganza! Even though it will be a few years, I know that if her mom has any say in it, it will be out of this world. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  So, I know that I will be seeing many Indian wedding versions of this party for a long time. Congrats to Saman and her family!

If you are joining us mid feature, we have one of the prettiest weddings I have ever seen today. This destination/cruise wedding to the Bahamas was planned flawlessly by Sonal J. Shah Events, and the magnificent florals were done by our Platinum Guide member, Suhaag Garden. 

Although their Mehndi and Sangeet were lovely, there was definitely one part of their wedding day that took the cake for me. I fell out of my chair when I saw this incredible red bridal lengha!  It is the ultimate ensemble for an Indian bride. It is just so, well……bridal. Seriously guys, I want to get married again and wearing the same one, or maybe just marry this gorgeous lengha instead.  It is modern, but done in a traditional color.  There is bling without being bedazzled.  And, our bride to be, Ekta, totally rocked it.  

Images by Robert Drago

This probably comes as no surprise, since I posted 4 pictures of it, but I am completely obsessed with this purple lengha.  Elegant embroidery, and that belt.  Oh, that belt! So, in usual Shawna fashion, I attempted to edit the bride’s details of her wedding, but failed miserably.  Get the scoop on all the fabulous deets straight from the source:

From the bride : We hired Sonal J. Shah, who I worked for previously. I had prior experience in event planning so I took charge of planning the wedding and the details with the help of Sonal who hooked us up with some of our vendors: decorator, photographer   

My family lives in Miami and Dino’s family lives in Daytona Beach so we knew that the wedding should be in the Florida area. Dino didn’t want to do Miami Beach because he knew that nobody would be at our events. Instead, they would be clubbing in South Beach. Therefore, we knew we had to get a venue where we could trap our guests in one place so that they had no choice but to get to know each other. My mom always said that when I get married (before I even met Dino) that she would get me married on a cruise and we always laughed at this idea. But when Dino’s mom suggested it, I decided to look into it. We almost gave up until Dino came across Cruisesplus’s advertisement in Desh Videsh Magazine. We found the perfect itinerary on the Carnival Imagination. When I was working at the Westin in St.Maarten as the Catering Manager, I recalled a couple that had got off their cruise and came to the hotel to get married. Using this same principle, we decided that we would get off in Nassau, Bahamas and get married at the Atlantis. Thursday night, we had the engagement and welcome party at The Rusty Pelican in Key Biscayne. We boarded Carnival Imagination on Friday afternoon and had the Mehendi and Sangeet that night on the ship. On Saturday, the ship stayed in Nassau overnight so we were able to get married at the Atlantis and party till the next morning at the nightclub called Aura and get back on the ship to continue with the festivities. And on Sunday evening, we had the formal Reception.

We decided to go with a deep purple and gold color theme after being inspired by a picture that we found online of a butterfly. These colors were reflected in our invitations, gift bags, website, welcome bags we placed in the cabins, our Sangeet night outfits and décor, wedding favors such as T-shirts and luggage tags, wedding brochures (containing itinerary and details of the wedding), table cards, mandap décor, and more.

With five different events, I was fortunate enough to be able to choose five different dresses. Of course, we had to go to the motherland and visited Bombay and Delhi. I got my bridal outfit from Delhi and had it made from scratch after seeing only one panel of the lengha made of Swarovski stones. I designed the top of my wedding bridal outfit. Dino and I were in India together at the same time so we were able to coordinate the colors of our outfits. We wanted to have a special theme especially for the Sangeet night so we decided that we would make all the men in our family wear ivory sherwanis with purple embroidery. All of Dino’s men wore the same outfits with one design and all of my men wore the same outfits with another design. Meanwhile I flipped the colors on my outfit and wore purple with silver and gold embroidery. For my mehendi outfit, I wanted particular colors I had seen in a magazine and was fortunate enough to find the exact lime color I had envisioned. My favorite part of that outfit were the large pink, yellow and blue feathered rhinestones.  My wedding reception outfit was inspired by a design I had seen in Monte Carlo, France and put a Desi twist to it with brocade and crystal stones. 

Can you believe this Mehndi and Sangeet was aboard a cruise ship? More amazing details, décor, and ideas coming up tomorrow – stay tuned!