Good morning, beautiful Maharanis! There is no better way to start this Thursday than getting an extra boost of inspiration from Akriti & Vishal's big fusion wedding celebration coming to us from Surat, India. You read right! We are taking you on a visual journey to India, to enjoy this multicultural wedding bash that got us sighing. From the fun-loving Sangeet held at The Grand Bhagwati and the gorgeous wedding ceremony officiated at The Royal Celebration, to the grand reception party celebrated inside the halls of the Balaji Party Plot, this wedding was a dream come true! There was so much beauty and finary to admire, that we found ourselves lost of words to describe such a remarkable and unique event. Thankfully, the good fiends from Destination Photographers were there to capture photos from every angle in such a fabulous way that we get to feel just as if we were there. Ladies, if you are looking for inspiration to start preparing your ultimate bridal look, take a moment to admire the ravishing looks of our gorgeous Maharani Akriti. She donned different attires, hairstyles, and makeup looks, but the common factor was always the same: Unconmessurable beauty! So kudos to Sejal Savaliya for taking such good care of this lovely Maharani's beauty needs. They absolutely nailed every look and endowed her with tons of elegance and flair that we cannot stress how much we loved it! If you want to take a closer look at two different backgrounds and traditions become a single unity through love, don't miss today's jaw-dropping and colorful gallery. We are sure that you are going to love it as much as we did, not to mention that you will get tons of inspiration!
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.
5 MAKEUP trails. Yes, you got it right I have a very special experience with the Hair & makeup artist, I have never been on makeup, I barely use it in daily life. I was so concerned about my D Day look that I went for 5 makeup trials with 5 different makeup artist and must have spoken to more than 15 of them. I didnt want them to change my features or the base of my skin tone. I was proud of being a brown skin dusky bride. And my fiance was very concerned too. At the end he started speaking to makeup artist just so that they understnad what we were asking them for. In surat, a makeup artist typically tries to create a fairer baseof the brides skin tone which makes the bride look not who she is. and this was the toughest thing to be booked. I was in Mumbai during planning of my wedding. I must have spoke to 15 artist in mumbai before speaking to the ones in Surat. Ms. Sejals studio is like the dream destination for brides to be, I got her reference from a to be bride friend and she was just way to confident about her. Ms. Sejals studio was 30 minutes away from the venue and would have taken just 1 hour to travel. and my parents got all finiky as to why do I have to travel so much to just get ready. but that was my last resort and that was the best decision i made.
We have another deep story with the venue, like I have been a very traditional girl at heart but at the same time very modern with my thoughts. I so wanted my wedding to happen at my home. but My father had already booked a 5 star resort property in Daman, and wanted a full fledged destination wedding. After numerous discussions and convincing sessions, the families agreed to do a wedding in surat ( my home town) , with the pheere happening at my uncles place because we could easily fit in all the guest in that location and have the reception in his apartment garden. but this was not it, on 2nd of february, when the d day was 20 days apart, the wedding venue changes to a wedding lawn( a garden area) with the pheere in the garden. this is not how i wanted, i never thought of getting married in a fancy place, for my a home is the most auspicious place from where the girl should be married. I cried, I opened my heart to my mom and my fiance to do something, I so wanted to get married from my own home. and finally after all the rona dhona and drama, on 15th february, my father finally decided that the pheere, will be at my home only the brides home . the feeling of bidai from brides own home, is what i wanted and i really was lucky to get it.
How did you select your bridal lengha or wedding dress? Did you have a favorite color in mind?
I selected more than 5000 bridal images from various online platforms in a span of 1 year to understand the best lengha look. I visted all designer studios in mumbai to just understand and see what I like. I finally went ahead to self design the lehenga . I must have tried 10 varittes of the pink i wanted. even after finallizing one shade, I rejected it after 1 month because i found abetter shade of pink. My fiance, Vishal is a beliver in lord Shiva, and my lehenga had the banaras ka ghat ( where lord shiva was first welcomed by lord vishnu) as its designs. The Banaras ghat and Shiva are very integral to the indian mythology. My lehenga also had his name at various spots, my nickanmes in the latkans and my dupata had 'Om' and 'Shree' as a part of its designs.
What was the most enjoyable part of the planning process, and why?
The most enjoyable part was doing everything on own. I had been following most of the prominent wedding portals and magazines since the day my father was searching for a potential life partner. I wanted the wedding in my own way, and i was sure about my decisions because I had planned 2 of my brothers weddings previously. I had a folder in my phone( i still have it) with more than 20,000 inspirational pictures of lehenga, decor, jewellery and event ideas gathered in a span of 1-1.5 year. I was so particular about every detail that the journey will be in my minds forever. the most enjoyable rather tough part was fixing our photographer. I had requested for quotes from more than 50 top photogrpahers from india, starting the process from August but hadnot been able to book the photographer until end of December, just because to me the memories of my wedding were very very important and we couldnot zero down to one good photographer. For a lot of people photography is the last thing they would like to book, but for me it was the first thing that i wanted to book and spend a good amount of money on creating memories.Finally we got whom we wanted and the pictures have been just mesmerizing
What did your guests particularly love about your Wedding?
Our Haldi!!!Our haldi was a never ending event. It started with the traditional route to rituals but ended in the most fun way possible. I as a bride was loaded in haldi, with flower petals on me throughout the event, there were more than 15 kgs of rose petal,and marigold ( 3 colours) in the event. this was being showered on the bride groom and family. and there was a marwadi singer at the background who created the essence of dance, fun and immiginable memories. It is definitely a good decision to have some fun in your haldi, with flowers( like they call it pholo ki haldi) and have fun. Moreover, I as a bride was wearing a self designed flower Lehenga, which created a altogether different look as a bride to be and the family members were so interested & awed by it that they wanted to be with me throughout and the look was just too much. When my mother saw me the first time in this look, she almost had a drop of tear in her eyes:(
Was there a really special moment in your wedding that constantly replays in your mind?
Yes, there were quite a few. the first and the most important being the runaway bridal no makeup photoshoot. I was running late becuase of all the other functions and rituals. I had an makeup appointment booked for 1:30 pm,and i had to be at the venue by 6:30 pm. my photogrpaher was keen on clicking bridal solos in daylight and we had left for the makeupartist salon only at 4:30pm. Despite being late, we cooked up a story with the makeup artist to visit the temple before the dawn and left her studio at 4:30 promising her that we return in 15 minutes and eventually went for a photoshoot. I think this was the best moment of the day, where I went beyond the convetional ways of photoshoot, where the bride gets all decked up to be clicked, we just wore the lehenga in the studio, got jeweled up in the car and there we were shooting the 10 best solo images of my weddding day and yes without any makeup on me.
The another special moment which I am being mesmerized till date is the time when I walked the aisle with my parents on my side and my brothers holding the pholo ki chaadar. it was this walk of life where i saw my whole life transition and this walk is very very special to me. as i had my full family with me. After this walk, when both of parents handed my hand to Vishal, was the time i realizeed that okay now done , I am no more their Lado, I am now Vishals Akriti.
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.
So, I had a very special moment that I wanted to create in my wedding, and that was the sangeet, I have been dancing since I was 5 and have loved it. be it my brothers sangeet or my own sangeet I was very interested in adding a lot of creativity to the event. For my own sangeet I had this dream of dancing with my brothers, since I listened to this song "My desi girl" by Priyanka chopra, i also danced with my mother on 'Maiye ne Maiye ' and with my father on Dilbarao from Raazii. It was really the thing I enjoyed the most.
The other most special detail I would like to mention is the bridal entry song that was played, we had listened to 100 songs on youtube to finalize on this particular traack. We came down to songs where I could exemplify each of my family relationship. The first song being "Teri Khushiyann" - it is a brother sister song, Laadki and ungli pakad ke.
Do you have any words of wisdom for Brides-To-Be?
Definitely many !!!
The first thing a bride should focus on is her 'D Day Look', it is important to picture this and go ahead planning this. The very important point in deciding the look is to select between a traditional and a modern look, and whether or not to add that bit of touch of each other into the final look. Yes, I choose a very traditional look (like the color being typicall fusica pink and not red) but twisted it with modern stuff ( like pairing green jewellery). It is important because you will be bride only once.
The next word of wisdom is to be very careful with the blouse, the stitching the fit , the depth. Because only if the blouse is perfect will your jewelry pop out and your duppata will create that grace. Please do select your jewellery before your lehenga, because the matching has to be perfect. A diamond necklace might not blend the best with a jardosi work or ari tari, but a black polished gold jewellery goes so well with these. similarly, a diamond goes really well with all pastel coloured looks and sequence work. The third most important thing is to add variety in bridal dress for all the events. This creates a lot of pictures in different attires and also the more variety you wear you will love your bridal look more . ( the significance of wearing a lehenga only on wedding day will be awed by bringing variety to other events)
Anything else you want to tell us? We'd love to hear all about your other details! (jewelry, mehndi, venue, cake, bouquets, etc.)
I had written Vishals Name in 10 different Language on my 10 fingers on my mehendi.
My lehenga had my nicknames in latkans ( like all the names that my friends addressed me with, my family and definitely Vishal's love name also)
The Flower haldi Lehenga
the Jewelry was self desinged - i had visited more than 10 stores in surat to choose what I wanted but found no where, I spend 4 hourss to get my bridal bangles matching. I wanted to wear the mathapati but my mom was so skeptical on the look of it that I almost fought with her on this decision and finally on my makeup trial with the studio i had fixed the hair artist actually showed me book the looks and we finally decided the mathapati look.
I have also decked up myself with variety of vintage jewellery throughout in pre wedding functions. Most of them have been from my mothers wedding or my grand mothers wedding.
I have also re-worn my mothers bridal lehenga as a part of one of the Pre wedding functions. ( which was specifically for my mothers side of the family).
We are still blown away by all the beauty surrounding today's featured wedding that we need a moment to catch our breath. But make sure to join us tomorrow for more. You will be amazed!
Sangeet Venue: The Grand Bhagwati |
Ceremony Venue: The Royal Celebration |
Reception Venue: Balaji Party Plot |
Hair & Makeup: Sejal Savaliya |
Photography: Destination Photographers
