Tuesday is here, and with it, a remarkable story comes to enlighten your day! Kushani & Mahavir had a wedding full of vibrant colors, delicate flowers, and the most significant detail, love. This event was hosted at an elegant venue, The Westin Cape Coral Resort at Marina Village. Maharanis, you know how important it's to choose a venue that makes your soul fall in love even more! Thanks to Mint To Be Events, all the wishes our couple had, came true. Every part of this wedding was beyond perfect! The Wedding Design team offers inspiring ideas and elegant designs, and this reception wasn't the exception. They decorated the salon with flowers, lights, and a palette that every guest will remember forever. The music played by Platinum Roadshow during this big day was exceptional; everyone danced and felt good. Happiness was all over the place! It's time to mention how gorgeous Kushani looked! Glam by Hitesha pampered our Maharani with delicate makeup! Lady Cakes Bakery prepared the most exquisite treats, and our couple couldn't leave them behind. Memories Studio captured the most incredible emotions and transferred them into a wonderful gallery we've put together for you.
How did you meet your Groom and when did you know he was "the one"?
I met him through mutual friends in 2010. We became really good friends through high school and then started dating in college. I knew he was "the one" immediately once we started dating.
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 originally planned our wedding in Boston since this is where our love story began however covid had other plans for us. Although looking back now I am glad things turned out the way they did because it ended up being a smaller destination wedding with all of our closest friends and families present. However, given the pandemic, our planning process was quite stressful. After postponing the initial 2020 wedding to 2021 we had to wait 3-4 months before the wedding date to finalize the location due to the ongoing fluctuation gathering restrictions. Luckily all our vendors, other than the venue remained the same and we had an excellent team. Picking the venue was harder. We cut down our guests by more than half and made a list of people who we knew had to be there. We then started to reach out to all the venues on the east coast, starting from Maine all the way down to Florida that were available during our already decided new wedding date July 25 2021, and could accommodate our guest count. We also constantly checked the gathering restrictions for each state and regularly used this as a major factor in helping us decide our venue. Ultimately, this is how we came to a decision on keeping our wedding in Florida given it was the least restrictive. Then we wanted to select a venue that could feel more like a destination wedding and steered away from Orlando because my husband's sister also went through a similar process as us and got married a few months prior to us in Orlando. Then ultimately we narrowed down 2 venues we loved on paper in Cape Coral and made a day trip with both our parents to Cape Coral to see both venues and loved the overall package of Westin Cape Coral more.
Selecting our other vendors was the easiest part. We loved our entire team and would recommend them to anyone. In particular, I loved my photo/video team due to their constant communication with me, even a year after the wedding. In terms of decor, we did have an overall royal theme vision for the wedding day and wanted to use all red flowers knowing I will not be wearing the traditional red color to bring that color out. For the other events, we based the decor and changed them after picking our wedding outfits.
How did you select your bridal lengha or wedding dress? Did you have a favorite color in mind?
I knew I did not want to wear red on my wedding day and wanted to wear all gold/champagne, which was something I had never seen before. Similarly, I wanted to incorporate the traditional red color of an Indian bride somehow and decided it would be the perfect bold and classy look for a reception. I did not have any color restrictions for my Garba/sangeet and just knew I wanted to wear a different color to each wedding event. This made it easy when wedding shopping. I picked all 3 of my main wedding outfits on the second day of shopping. Once I selected this, it did make picking my Haldi, Mehndi, and Grah Shanti a little harder since I had already picked many of the more traditional colors. However, all my outfits were from designers based in Delhi India.
What was the most enjoyable part of the planning process, and why?
The most enjoyable part of the planning process was definitely doing our wedding photo shoot with our photo/video team in Iceland. Wedding shopping in India was also fun since we were able to go for 1 month and we had enough time to explore and enjoy good food.
What did your guests particularly love about your Wedding?
The guests loved the overall hospitality throughout the entire wedding weekend. For example, we received multiple comments about the myriad of delicious food options available throughout the day (breakfast, lunch, dinner).
Was there a really special moment in your wedding that constantly replays in your mind?
The overall weekend was very special, but one moment I still can remember is the Haldi event. The Haldi was the first combined wedding event (we each had our own mehndi and grah shanties locally in Boston). During this, when we first came together and our family was applying the paste on us it finally hit me that this was finally all happening. Also, It had a vision of wanting to play Holi at Haldi and did not know if everyone will actually play but it was really fun to see everyone get into it and have a great time.
Another special moment I constantly replay is the mangalsutra and sindoor moment. Being a huge Bollywood fan, this was something I had always thought about, and having my own moment with the man I loved was very special.
Do you have any words of wisdom for Brides-To-Be?
It is important to go over the logistics of the overall wedding vision with before you start planning with your partner and any other family members involved. Also, keep the people involved in planning small and the only people you trust so you are not getting confused. Most importantly it is important to know you will never please everyone, somebody may not like something about the way you did something or who you invite so ultimately you need to remember who it is that is important to you and just worry about those individuals. For example, for me, my husband and I knew we just wanted to make sure, our parent's wishes were respected.
Anything else you want to tell us? We'd love to hear all about your other details! (jewelry, mehndi, venue, cake, bouquets, etc.)
We had custom hotel key cards with our photos on them, which was something I had never seen done before and was a new idea we wanted to incorporate. We did a Holi-themed Haldi which was unique and a lot of fun. We had a live firework show at the end of our raas&garba night as a finale before the wedding day. We also had a live painter present during our wedding ceremony and now have the physical painting with us in our bedroom.
Maharanis, that is all for today! Come back tomorrow for more romantic stories and incredible tips!