Happy Friday lovebirds! Today we return to one of my favorite wedding venues in New Jersey - the Addison Park. Lovebirds Neha and Vaibhav are masters in the art of medicine, however when it came to wedding planning they knew they had to bring on the experts. Aura Events and Entertainment spearheaded the task of executing the multiple wedding events flawlessly. KC Makeup by Karuna Chani was in charge of organizing the beauty squad to ensure that Neha looked and felt like a Queen for her big day. This stellar makeup artist did not disappoint; the bride looked immaculate! Having an outdoor venue was important to both the bride and groom and although it was a very hot day in Jersey, the bride ensured that guests remained cool with handmade paper fans. The baraat ceremony was one part of the wedding that the bride was sad not to be part of! Led by DJ Raj Entertainment & Event Lighting, the party started even before guests got into the venue! Abhisek Decorators envisioned the perfect decor and executed their creative visions into the venue. One of my favorite mandaps of the year has to be Neha’s purple and white, Ganesh inspired design. Guests were blown away by the traditional gujarati food served by Bukhara Grill and decadent treats by Chocal8kiss. The night ended with guests breaking loose on the dance floor with DJ Raj Entertainment and Event Lighting churning out the latest hits with Art Varga capturing all the live action that you can see for yourself simply by hitting play on the film below! After you are done, scroll down below for the deets from the bride herself.
How did you meet your Groom and when did you know he was "the one"?
Vaibhav actually messaged me first on Match.com. However, he was slightly too shy and didn't ask me out right away. I found a mutual friend to find out what his deal was. My friend dropped what she was doing to call me right away just to tell me how amazing, nice, and smart he was. "He's a gujurati boy that works out and is one of the nicest and smartest guys I know...what more could you want?" That was enough for me to become more aggressive (which I always initially refused to do) and drop him my number. He called me the very next day and asked me out on our first date!
Actually, I think my friends knew he was "the one" before I did. My two best friends came down to visit me for a weekend a few months into us dating. Because of his call schedule, he couldn't meet us while they were around. But, on the day they were leaving, he decided to stay up after his 24 hour call and take us all out to brunch so he could meet them. I could tell he was so tired but he refused to show it. He was so great with my friends. After he left to go home and finally take a well-deserved nap, the first thing my girlfriends did was turn to me and say "So. Whens the wedding?" I don't think I stopped smiling that whole day.
Share the scoop on your Proposal Story!
On July 3rd, I came home from a very difficult 30 hour trauma call at 10 AM. Vaibhav had made plans to enjoy the day outside at our favorite winery. I could barley keep my eyes open, so I decided to sleep for a couple hours before we left. 2 hours was definitely not enough when Vaibhav came over to wake me up to get ready to go. Luckily, the thought of being outside in the sun all day was enough for me to roll out of bed. Now looking back, I'm just thankful I had the energy to shower that day! We got to the winery in the afternoon and the weather was perfect. Vaibhav tried to walk through the vineyard but the area had just been sprayed for pesticide. I couldn't understand why something so little could upset him so much when he's usually the relaxed one. But resiliently, he found another quiet area of the vineyard to walk through. Five minutes later, I noticed he was breathing a little quick and starting to get fidgety. But I was still too much in a post-call lack-of-sleep haze to figure out what was going on. So when he, all of a sudden, got down onto one knee, with a BEAUTIFUL ring in hand, asking me to marry him, it took me all of two seconds to burst into tears and scream yes!! If that wasn't surprise enough, a few seconds later, a photographer popped out of nowhere who had captured every unforgettable tear-ridden moment.
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.
I actually used Maharani Weddings quite a bit to figure out some of the things I wanted on my own wedding day. I knew that I definitely wanted my wedding outside, which I knew was risky. So we had to design our primary outside ceremony, and a backup inside ceremony. We had heard about Addison Park because it was 10 minutes away from our house. When we saw their outside venue and their grand staircase and hall inside, we were all blown away. There was no contest there with what we had envisioned for our ceremony. We wanted to keep our theme simple but elegant. We didn't want anything too flashy, and wanted to highlight a romantic tone.
We went to multiple wedding decorators, but Abhishek Decor (specifically Mihir) was really the only one who pinpointed exactly what we wanted and remained in our budget. Other decorators were more intent on using their own vision rather than ours. Execution was absolutely on point the day of the wedding.
Music was also really important to me. I had to been a couple other weddings where everything was so beautiful but then when it came to the reception, the DJ was lackluster. I went through several DJs and felt that DJ Raj had not only the best mixes, but a strong reputation on keeping everybody on the dance floor all night. I wanted to make sure that after all the help that we had received from everyone during the planning of our wedding, they all got to enjoy it as much as we did. Their lighting was also so beautiful.
How did you select your bridal lengha or wedding dress? Did you have a favorite color in mind?
I knew I wanted a red bridal dress. It was so classic. When I went to the multiple stores throughout Mumbai, I quickly got overwhelmed with the number of dresses, and the number of different shades of red! We finally got to Raas, where the store owner knew my mom and my mom's sister. I think he noticed my face of confusion because the first thing he and the salesperson did was sit us all down, go right outside, pick us up chai and sandwiches and made us eat. Finally relaxing a little, he brought out a dress that he knew would be the most perfect red for me. He was right! The colors were absolutely stunning as was all the work, which had obviously been done by hand.
The more surprising part of my selection was the reception dress. I went to India knowing I wanted a stunning beaded gold gown. But at the same shop, the salesperson brought out a blue reception lengha. I was not looking for blue, but he said I had to absolutely try it on. After coming back out the dressing room, I swear I have never had an experience like that one. It felt like everyone that was shopping at the store stopped what they were doing to stare at me. Two other fathers came up to the salesperson saying they wanted the dress next for their daughters. Before I even said a word, my father said "Nope, we are taking this. This is the one." I loved my bridal dress, but I felt like complete royalty in my reception dress.
Do you have any words of wisdom for Brides-To-Be?
Everybody said it to me but I didn't believe any of them, so I'm not sure if other Brides-to-be will. Everything really does work out on your wedding day. You're so caught up with marrying the love of your life that nothing else ends up mattering. And your family and friends will take care of the rest.
Anything else you want to tell us? We'd love to hear all about your other details! (jewelry, mehndi, venue, cake, bouquets, etc.)
My mom found a local henna artist who actually face paints as her main art. She doesn't do much bridal henna mostly because of time, but when my mom saw her work, she knew right away we couldn't use anybody else. Neha Memon has a true gift for henna. I knew I wanted images done and she was able to draw exactly what I wanted just by looking at a picture of it on her phone. She did my entire bridal henna in a few hours and it looked like days of work was put into it. I have yet to find any other artist in the states that can do the type of beautiful work she can.
Ron Soliman Photojournalism captured all the wedding magic with our feature that you can read here! See you tomorrow lovebirds.
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