Hello Maharanis! Friday has arrived with a romantic story starring Alana & Kevin. Our charming couple had an intimate ceremony at home, followed by a grand reception to celebrate with their loved ones at the Starlight Pavilion. This location has a particular shine to it, alluring all visitors with spacious and elegant areas, flawless to commemorate special occasions. This luxurious venue served as the lovebirds' paradise on earth while they relished in the warm summer sun surrounded by friends and family. The party went on with the beautiful couple glowing as they started a new chapter in their lives. The adoration and devotion Alana & Kevin have for each other are crystal clear for everyone to see! Their love is like no other, and neither were their stylish attires. Combining traditions from two different backgrounds, our Maharani was a wonder with her marvelous lengha. Alana also dazzled all her guests with a divine white dress for the event. She was a queen from head to toes, glistening alongside her soulmate. The handsome groom didn't stay behind with his polished tuxedo. Together, they were the golden couple of New York! Their enthralling wedding day was a memorable event that no one will let go of for years to come. For our couple, this day will forever hold a special place close to their hearts as they continue to explore their bond. Virdee Films Photo & Cinema made sure to give the sweethearts a token of their love by freezing the highlights of the wedding in an enchanting set of pictures. We have all these fantastic photos in a radiant gallery. So, darlings, go ahead to get elated by this fascinating event! Each shot is a work of art!
How did you meet your Groom and when did you know he was "the one"?
We met while he was out with his friend who at the time was dating my friend! We were both NOT looking for relationships but as we got to know each other more, the world had different plans for us! Hmmm…I knew he was the one when basically my whole world was against me and he said he didn’t care, he stayed by my side through each battle near and far from the beginning and that’s when I knew.
Share the scoop on your Proposal Story!
He took me on a Soca cruise around NYC and as we took a romantic (SUPER LONG) walk on the pier, we made the corner and all of my closest family, friends and pup were there to watch him get down on one knee whilst holding will you marry me signs!! If that wasn’t enough, when we got back to my house, my backyard was set up by my mom, my big sister and my best friend with pictures of us everywhere, cake and our closest family members! It was really special 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.
We were one of those “COVID” couples who had to reorganize, postpone, and basically replan our entire wedding. We decided to have an intimate Muslim ceremony in 2020 and continued to plan to our bigger even ration for 2021. As an Indo-Caribbean Dancer in the community and my husband, who provides special effects for events we were lucky to work with a lot of our friends who are AMAZING vendors! Planning the smaller details was actually the easiest part! *we were lucky in that aspect*
How did you select your bridal lengha or wedding dress? Did you have a favorite color in mind?
I really wasn’t too picky about our bridal outfits which sounds kind of crazy lol! However, my husband was and he wanted to incorporate blue and white. Of course I wanted just a tad bit of red to be a traditional Hindu bride for our families so one of our very best friends from Bolly Couture custom designed our RED WHITE AND BLUE coordinated bridal outfits to fit perfectly with our 4th of July Wedding Weekend!
What was the most enjoyable part of the planning process, and why?
The most enjoyable part about planning was probably listening to husband. LOL, weird right? I say this because planning our entire wedding ourselves, to having it canceled to postponing to changing the dates to making sure vendors were available, etc..it becomes pretty overwhelming added with the stress of our everyday lives. My husband was so good at making sure we kept our cool and basically taking over when I was OVER it for lack of better words! It definitely made us stronger as a couple!
What did your guests particularly love about your Wedding?
Oh man, I can definitely say our food and our photography/videography. Those were two things we were VERY specific about. We are MAJOR foodies of every culture and we LOVE having pictures and videos for memories. I think our guests were happy with both of those categories throughout all 5 days of events! We had the most amazing food which we catered from our favorite restaurants as well as family cooked home style and we had the best photography and videography team for all of our events (ADESIGNPHOTOGRAPHY & VIRDEE FILMS!)
Was there a really special moment in your wedding that constantly replays in your mind?
A special moment that replays for me isn’t really ONE moment but a set of moments where I’d be watching my husband enjoy all the hard work we put into our wedding. It 100% takes a village to successfully celebrate and pull off a 5 day postponed Hindu wedding but none of it would have possible without my husband taking initiative and physically making things happen. He told me the same about me when we spoke about what we remember most!
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.
Decor for everyday other than the Hindu Wedding Ceremony and our Reception were 100% done by us! I drew out what I wanted and we built backdrops, packaged all the small things, ordered like everything on Amazon and got some decor from our friends, got on our ladders, our hands and knees, and brought my vision to life! Our Hindu Wedding decor was done by Royal Touch Design and our Reception Decor was done by Floral Explosions! Both located in Richmond Hill, Queens. As a dancer who performs for multiple Indian wedding events I really didn’t want it to be about ME and my dancing. I wanted this long awaited celebration to be about people celebrating the love between Kevin and I. However, we had a small mehendi night item that I did with my bridesmaids and fun bridal party performance at our reception choreographed by me. It was more for fun than anything else!
Do you have any words of wisdom for Brides-To-Be?
Please please please do NOT stress the day of so assign small tasks to your bridal party or family members! We were so keen on not bothering anyone and doing everything ourselves (which was a little bit of a mistake on our part) but all of it ended up coming out pretty good LOL. However a few stressful moments on the wedding days could’ve been avoided! That’s my honest and best advice!
Anything else you want to tell us? We'd love to hear all about your other details! (jewelry, mehndi, venue, cake, bouquets, etc.)
For venues, we kept it very intimate and celebrated every event besides our reception in my husband’s childhood home backyard! We like to CELEBRATE and be happy on occasions like this (aka our family likes to party nonstop) so we felt it right to keep it at home! Our music, sound set up, special effects for everyday were provided by our families and probably bias to say but the best, Revel Event Productions, 113 Sound Crew, & Euphoria Vibes. My family and I had our mehendi done by none other than my friend Yukti Grover. My Jewlery by Kirni Designs. Mehendi Night Hair/Makeup done by my other good friend, MakeupByVani. My Hindu Wedding Ceremony Hair/Makeup by BeautyByTamanna and Reception Hair/Makeup SassyHairbyVanessa and Kim K Sharma. ALL of our outfits were by the amazing BollyCouture.
I hope you are feeling imaginative, queens. I'll see you tomorrow with another happily ever after!