Hi, ladies! Anmol & Indrajit's wedding is now live in our Platinum Guide Blog. Get ready to enjoy it!
How did you meet your Groom and when did you know he was "the one"?
We met on Tinder in 2015! We swiped right and we met on the corner of 42nd and Broadway. I had just finished having dinner with a friend and Indy had come from a happy hour. He tried to find a bar so we could grab a drink, but his phone ended up not catching data (he was using pay-per-MB data)! Our first date ended up being drinks at the Olive Garden bar in Times Square. From that first date, it was like fate. We talked as if we were old best friends that had just been out of touch for a couple years. It was strange how easy the conversation was. From that day, through numerous traveling adventures and the ups and downs of life, we've have been inseparable ever since.
Share the scoop on your Proposal Story!
Our proposal story started with a trip planned for our 4 year anniversary at a beautiful resort on the island of St. Lucia called Ladera. Indy had been planning this trip during my 2nd year of medical school in between 2 of my semesters during a break. Although I usually have most of the itinerary planned on most trips we go to, Indy had been planning the details of the actual anniversary day as a "surprise". He had the ring picked out and a photographer at St. Lucia who was supposed to take us to a remote dock by the beach where he would propose and capture the moment on a drone. The photographer captured the moment seamlessly while including the natural beauty of the island.
Indy’s cover story for us wearing matching outfits was that since this resort was a romantic couples getaway, it came with a package deal of a photoshoot that we would use on our anniversary. Then right between a few shots where the photographer had us facing away from one another, I turned around and Indy was on one knee! I was so shocked! I still can’t remember what he said and I froze! The photographer then took us to a few more locations including an abandoned coffee plantation and isolated beaches. Then we returned to the resort and were surprised with champagne, roses, chocolate cake and our entire suite and pool decorated with candles!
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.
Our main strategy when it came to planning was mostly divide and conquer. We started with choosing a venue and both narrowed down options in NJ. Indy took charge of negotiations and budgeting. As for the other vendors, Indy took charge of researching and finalizing our video/photo and DJ and I took charge of décor, cake, and color schemes for outfits. Buying wedding outfits was an obstacle for us since our flight to India was canceled due to COVID and we decided to get custom designed outfits locally from Nazraana at Oak Tree.
The hardest part for us was asking for an RSVP for our guest count since we were asking guests to respond right in the middle of COVID. To make sure we had an accurate count, we subdivided our list into 3 lists and were sending out invitations for approximately 3 months. We even added a COVID tab on our wedding website to describe our health precautions and ensure that all guests felt safe attending our wedding. Aside from that, we used numerous excel sheets and even created our own wedding programs, welcome bags, weekend itinerary, designed our own dance floor and even our photobooth backdrop. Indy and I (both super type A planners) took the smaller details into our own hands to make sure everything was perfect.
We also want to take a second to thank The Little Things by Arpita for helping us coordinate the wedding day and ensuring every second of our event was magical and exactly what we dreamed it would be! Arpita and her team were nothing but the best and would highly recommend her to anyone who hasn't decided on a day-of coordinator. She was one of our best decisions!
How did you select your bridal lengha or wedding dress? Did you have a favorite color in mind?
I personally did not have too much time to spend on picking out a wedding lengha since I was in the middle of interviews for residency but luckily I am extremely decisive. I was probably the 1% of brides out there that bought the first lengha I tried on! It was a very versatile and delicate piece that I knew I could creatively change with the dupattas I wore with it. I also hated the idea of wearing a heavy uncomfortable lengha all day long. I am definitely more of the “comfort” bride. My bridal lengha checked off all my boxes – simple, elegant, versatile and delicate. To my surprise, after seeing lenghas in person, I knew I wanted to do something different and out of the ordinary than the typical “red Indian bride”. Since our theme was Enchanted forest, I knew I wanted to choose more neutral colors to contrast the greens in the décor.
What was the most enjoyable part of the planning process, and why?
Food tasting and cake tasting (of course)!! So many favorite parts of this process, including picking decor, shopping for a venue, and doing our pre wedding photoshoot in California. I think every aspect of planning that helped make our dream wedding vision become a reality was enjoyable. However, our favorite part of the process was all of our family and friends meeting one another on the days leading up to the wedding!
What did your guests particularly love about your Wedding?
Our guests loved the heartfelt speeches given by my dad, Indy’s mom, the best man and the MOH/sister of the bride as well as the decor and dances at the reception. They were blown away by how accurately we followed our theme and how much effort everyone put in all the performances not only in the reception but also the Sangeet. The dance floor was full all night!
Was there a really special moment in your wedding that constantly replays in your mind?
Every moment of the entire wedding week was so special to the both of us. From graduating medical school, to Indy’s 30th birthday and each and every event that same week there was not one event more special than the next. We both put in so much energy and effort in making sure everything went perfectly. Ultimately, even with all the weather mishaps and changing our outdoor wedding to be indoors, we were blown away by the love, happiness and support we felt that entire week from family and vendors.
For events other than your ceremony, please tell us as much as you would like about the decor, style, dances, and all the special details.
We wanted to make our wedding theme an experience for the guests, so we including low lying fog as guests were entering the grand ballroom, dancing LED ballerinas and hanging greens that the guests would have to walk through to enter into the room. We made sure to stick to the theme even when hiring our live musician and we chose a Harpist to greet the guests during cocktail hour. From the save the dates to the dance floor, we even incorporated our wedding logo in every aspect of the wedding (on the save the dates, invites, dance floor wrap, photobooth printouts and more). We coordinated with our Décor team to incorporate our favorite greens like Eucalyptus on every table, hanging greens and a touch of gold in every event. For the ceremony we decided to incorporate a golden gate that would be the entrance of the aisle to give a magical feel to the mandap design.
Although we were upset that so many of our guests could not make it from India due to COVID, our family asked family in India to record a congrats message that we would play at the reception to surprise us! Instead of giving our guests wedding favors we chose to donate to the COVID fund for India in memory of our late grandparents.
Do you have any words of wisdom for Brides-To-Be?
Everything will work out in the end, don't get dragged down by the small details! Be decisive, move forward and always lean on each other for support during the wedding planning process. If you as a couple can survive wedding planning, especially during COVID, that’s a testament to your marriage!
Anything else you want to tell us? We'd love to hear all about your other details! (jewelry, mehndi, venue, cake, bouquets, etc.)
Mehndi- I graduated medical school the same morning as my mehendi. Luckily, I was able to attend my ceremony, hop into an Uber the second after the graduation ceremony ended and head straight to my mehendi event without missing a thing! Also to commemorate my graduation, I was able to get a small medical logo on my designs along with my graduation year "2021".
Wedding cake- We had our cake stand custom made by our decor vendor Partyland Sajawat to give it an enchanted forest vibe. It helped not only elevate the cake but because it was decorated in greens it looked like an edible part of the cake itself!
Wedding lehenga - Because of COVID, I was unfortunately unable to visit India for all my shopping but instead I was able to get a little more creative in making my lehenga unique. I chose an outfit that fit more of a reception look and created a double dupatta bridal look. I had 2 custom dupattas custom made in India that helped contrast the neutrals/rose gold tones in my lehenga with a peach and bold red, contributing to the whole whimsical, yet Indian bride vibe.
