Welcome, sweeties, to a tale of romance and elegance at the Hard Rock Riviera Maya, where Aneri & Roshan's wedding unfolded like a dream come true. Aneri was enhanced by Dani Delgado's masterful hair and makeup artistry. Loto Mehndi added a traditional touch with intricate and stunning designs. Roses and Co. transformed the venue into a paradise, perfectly encapsulating the couple's vibrant yet sophisticated style. Liz Medina from JC Castillo's meticulous planning and design were evident in every detail. Amidst these enchanting details, Indian Destination Wedding, the travel concierge, played a pivotal role, ensuring that every guest's journey to this destination wedding was as seamless and memorable as the event itself. MVP DJs filled the air with beats that resonated with the couple's journey, turning the celebration into an unforgettable party. The joy, the dances, the laughter, and the love were captured exquisitely by Gareth Davies Photography, whose lens didn't miss a single moment of this enchanting day. Darlings, enjoy the incredible gallery we prepared!
How did you meet your Groom and when did you know he was "the one"?
It all began back in 2012, during their sophomore year of college. Roshan and Aneri were introduced to one another by a mutual friend and hung out several times during Aneri's 6 year stay in the Bay Area. Roshan did not know this at the time, but Aneri knew that if she was to ever date this man, he would become her husband one day.
Once Aneri moved to LA, she did not expect to see him ever again. However, she was unaware of the fact that Roshan too had moved to LA. They bumped into each other a few times while hanging out with their respective friends, and each time, Roshan tried his best to get a date with Aneri.
Fast forward to December 2019--during her trip with her cousins to Austin, TX, she was convinced to download Hinge (dating app). They helped her create her profile and that same night, guess who decided to shoot Aneri a message? It was Roshan! Man was he persistent.
After years of random run-ins, they finally reconnected. By January 2020 they were CONSTANTLY texting long messages, talking on the phone and Facetiming. Roshan took the initiative to come see Aneri during the pandemic lockdown and the rest is history.
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.
HAVE A DESTINATION WEDDING!!! My husband and I cannot stress enough how amazing our wedding planning experience was. Of course we hit bumps here and there and also had days where it was extremely stressful, but overall, we are proud of our decision of having a destination wedding. A huge reason why our experience was wonderful was because we had such an amazing team help us through this process. We are beyond grateful for them and all our vendors. Every single one of our vendors were an absolute delight to work with. They really did their best to get to know us as a couple (likes, dislikes, vision) and presented us with the options for our events.
How did you select your bridal lengha or wedding dress? Did you have a favorite color in mind?
I always knew I didn't want the traditional red bridal lengha. I really wanted something different, something similar in color to what my mom wore for her wedding. She wore ivory and gold with some hints of red in her sari. When I went to India, I knew I wanted to buy something within that color scheme (ivory), but when I tried on my bridal lengha at the store, both sets of parents and my sister were in awe and I knew that it was it. Surprisingly, my husband fell in love with his outfit which coincidentally matched my outfit perfectly. We both waited until our first look on the wedding day to see each other in our wedding outfits and it was truly the best moment.
Was there a really special moment in your wedding that constantly replays in your mind?
My husband's close family and my close family flew in several days prior to the wedding festivities. We stayed at the resort for a full week, which gave everyone plenty of time to bond and made the events that much more memorable with everyone mingling and celebrating us together. However, I'm sure all of our guests and vendors would probably agree that the most bitter/sweet special moment would have to be the morning of our wedding when our wedding mandap came crashing down due to extreme weather conditions.
Yes, it is true. Right before my husband was about to make his entrance down the isle, it started pouring rain and the extremely heavy winds destroyed our mandap. "It was out of a movie!" That is what I heard time and time over the rest of the weekend. I wasn't there to witness it, but was told how so many of our family members held down corners of the tents, tried to save the flowers/decor, and helped one another to safety. We were sure the wedding ceremony was going to be canceled or extremely delayed. But thanks to our family and friends who volunteered themselves to assist our planners and coordinators, we were able to have a ceremony indoors just 45 minutes after. It was such an emotion heavy experience, but seeing how both sides of the families came together to make our ceremony happen for us was such a beautiful thing to witness.
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.
All of our events and decor was absolutely beautiful. JC Castillo's team really brought our vision to life for each ceremony, including our wedding mandap, which we weren't able to get pictures with. Our themes varied across each event:
Mehndi/Welcome Night: The decor was a bohemian, minimal aesthetic with a rustic wooden swing set and 2 teepees overlooking the beautiful beach back drop. We had the guests dress more casual and comfortable mixing both Indian traditional and western styles.
Haldi/Pithi: Our only theme here was to have a blend of all spectrums of yellow and whites for the color scheme. We wanted this event to be more traditional in the sense that the Pithi is usually yellow and we wanted all of our guests to wear something within that range.
Sangeet/Garba: Bright and Vibrant with a variety of florals and colors. When I think of Garba, I think of colors and gorgeous traditional chanya cholis. I wanted the sangeet decor to represent that. Like the other events, this was outdoors and was on a rooftop. We had bright pink, blue and white flowers hanging on top of the dance floor, along with some umbrellas and twinkle lights, which is a popular garba decor item. The colors matched our outfits.
Reception: My vision for our reception was classic, modern and should scream elegance and the best 3 colors to portray that theme were black, white and gold. JC and the team went above and beyond with the decor for our reception. The hanging pieces on top of the stage were my favorite! I always knew I wanted to do that, but I wanted it to be different than having the usual flowers. We discussed potentially using golden geometric shapes and the team delivered exactly that. The reception style and decor was both of our favorite.
Darlings, keep an eye out for our upcoming posts. Until then, happy wedding planning, my friend!