Huntington Beach, CA Bengali Wedding by Lin & Jirsa Photography

May 17, 2018 Posted by: Shawna Comments

I’m super excited to bring you the elite Indian wedding of Amrita and Kabir, it was indeed an extravagant experience for all who witnessed the union! Overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the Paséa Hotel & Spa offered a one-of-a-kind space to celebrate the many events of the couple's lavish affair. To begin with the excitement, a lovely Sangeet filled with dances, singing and color offered the guests a glimpse of what was about to come in the following day! The big day arrived and the beats of Fusion Sounds started to sound as Kabir rode a majestic white horse provided by Enchanted Carriages, he was joined by his cute Sarbala and his big side! The happy procession went towards the ocean lawn where two charming topiary elephants welcomed the guests and a breathtaking round mandap designed and created by Ethnic Essence Couture Events awaited at the end of the aisle. The lovely ceremony was framed by palm trees and the beautiful sounds of Ronobir Lahiri Music’s sitar resounded to give the ceremony a magical ambiance. Take a closer look at this fab and outlandish wedding in our full gallery by Lin & Jirsa Photography!

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How did you meet your Groom and when did you know he was "the one"?

Kabir and I met and started dating almost a decade ago in college when we were both starting our journey towards medical school. We knew almost immediately, but we were young- we’ve spent the last decade together, getting through school together! We ultimately have been through so many challenges and accomplishments together including completing med school together, and almost completed residency while living on opposite sides of the country and have still managed to still find time for each other!

Share the scoop on your Proposal Story!

Kabir and I live apart due to residency- however, I had planned to come to Michigan to visit one weekend and he mentioned that he had found a fun activity- hot air ballooning! However, this required us waking up super early (~5 am). We were supposed to go Saturday morning, but the morning of, it was too windy and so we were rescheduled to Sunday instead. The next morning, he played it cool, and jokingly asks if I want to sleep in instead, and offers that we can always go later. After a few yawns, we decide to go! We get up in the air and it is absolutely beautiful (and slightly terrifying, since we are both slightly afraid of heights!). I suddenly see a plane in the distance with a banner streaming "Amrita will you marry me?!" After we landed, both his parents and my parents, who had flown in, surprised us!! Our parents noted that Kabir was supposed to have proposed the previous morning, and they had planned all their festivities accordingly!! As soon as we landed, he sheepishly mentions that we have our Roka, with over a hundred of our family and friends, in a few hours and that I needed to get ready soon...and per his original plans, I should've had more than 45 mins notice!!

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.

Because Kabir and I are not originally from California but were hosting the wedding there, we really wanted to have a venue that emphasized the beauty of being near the ocean and being outdoors. We sought out venues that had a good indoor/outdoor space and fell in love with Huntington Beach's Pasea Hotel. All of our events were held at the hotel since we had so many out of town guests, and we loved that being outdoors and incorporating a fresh, fun bright sunny vibe into each of our events. We were able to utilize live sitar music outdoors, fireworks on the ocean lawn, and have cocktails outside during our mendhi with a beautiful Pacific Sunset and breeze backdrop- it was all absolutely perfect! For our reception, I envisioned a very tropical, "midsummer night's dream" wedding, something slightly whimsical, and it was brought to life better than I could've imagined by our designer, Ethnic Essence. Walking into our reception felt like we had been transported to a tropical paradise and left our guests awestruck!

How did you select your bridal lengha or wedding dress? Did you have a favorite color in mind?

Most of my outfit planning was done from afar, with lots of Instagramming and pintresting involved. I was unable to go to Indian due to my residency schedule, so my parents went to India instead (twice!) to do our wedding shopping. So many crucial decisions happened with 3 AM FaceTiming!! I decided to go for a bit more of a traditional Bengali bride look with a modernized red Banarasi Sari, and for the evening wanted something a bit more dramatic and bold! Ultimately, I trusted my mother completely with my outfits- she knew exactly the type of look I wanted and surprised me with outfits that were stunning!!

What was the most enjoyable part of the planning process, and why?

I had never really thought about what my wedding would look like until I started planning, and was floored by how many styles and ideas were out there. Pinterest has so many creative and unique looks!! I found the decorating and designing process of coming up with my vision for our Mandap would look as well as reception theme was so much fun, especially seeing how spectacularly things came to life from paper!!

What did your guests particularly love about your Wedding?

Our guests loved the location of our wedding- Huntington Beach! Having the backdrop of a beautiful Pacific sunset and breeze for all our events added such a fresh, fun vibe!

We also had a live Sitar player, Ronobir, who has such an amazing talent of fusing popular music with traditional Indian vibes on the sitar; he played at our cocktail hour and our guests kept raving how transfixed they were by the music!

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 guests feel welcome and comfortable at our weddings, especially since all of our friends and family had made such an effort to come to celebrate us and many were coming from great distances! We tried incorporating small details throughout including paper umbrellas during the ceremony to shield from the sun, flip flops for dancing during the reception, guest bags with snacks, water, and hangover meds, bottles of wine in each hotel room, and making sure our guests were very well fed!! For our friends, we held an afterparty at the hotel which went well into the early morning, with a Taco Bell and In'N'Out spread for late night munchies!

Do you have any words of wisdom for Brides-To-Be?

Well fed wedding guests= happy wedding guests!

Once it all starts, let someone else worry about if the details will come together, and enjoy the moments ahead- it will go by far too fast!!!

Can’t wait to reveal the star-studded reception!