Two seemingly conflicting wedding styles, North Indian and South Indian, are brought together seamlessly in this gorgeous affair. Add to it a much-in-love couple and you get a bright, happy and vibrant wedding that certainly invoved many lehenga/Sari changes! Girish Lone Photography and a team of talented vendors made the events extra special….
Our dashing bride Pallavi takes it ahead for us from here:
Bride & Groom: Pallavi and Hemant
How we met: Seven years ago, both of us landed somewhere in Gujarat for our MBA degrees. He was a quiet, sci-fi reading nerd from southern India while I was a typical – chatty and boisterous, north Indian from Lucknow. I asked him out. We would have loved to elope but our parents were surprisingly happy about the match and thus took away the opportunity of what could have been a great story to tell our future grandchildren.
My Wedding dress: There were going to be two weddings for us – North Indian wedding and Telugu wedding. After having spent considerable amount of time looking for a lehenga for the North Indian wedding in Delhi, I ended up buying one from Kushal’s boutique in Kanpur. They custom made my lehenga in the colors I wanted, used semi precious stones and the zardozi work I asked for. I was sure I didn’t want a single, block color lehenga but something in contrast. I decided to stick to the traditional dark red and bright green with dull coppery gold as the base color. I considered other colors too but none looked as eye-catching and ‘bride-worthy’ as the red and green combinations. I also got a custom made, stone work, bright red saree for the engagement ceremony from Kushal’s boutique. For the Telugu wedding, I got a green with golden work kanchivaram saree and the traditional off white with red and green border silk saree from Sai Kanchi in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad. Finally, for the reception in Visakhapatnam, I wore a red kanchivaram saree with sunset yellow border and golden work.
Venue: We wanted the wedding to not be just a tedious ceremony but a small get together, bit like a holiday for everyone. I certainly didn’t want it to be in a marriage hall in the middle of a crowded city market. However, I also didn’t want the whole affair to be as exorbitant as a destination wedding. So we decided to book Chinmay Resorts located on the outskirts of Lucknow for three days of ceremonies – tilak, engagement, mehendi, sangeet and both the weddings. Both the bride’s and the groom’s side stayed in the resort and the resort management was super helpful and friendly!
Wedding vendors: We didn’t want to hire any wedding planner because we knew it is easier for us to explain our expectations to the vendors directly than tell a planner and have them convey it. We already had ideas about what we wanted. While not everything turned out to be exactly as we expected, the sum of it all turned out great! (the lights were not bright enough on the stage on day one, the drapes were light purple and not the medium purple we wanted… is there ever an end to it !?!). The best thing was our choice of caterers. After 14 tasting sessions with different caterers all over Lucknow, we finalized Tawa caterers and I strongly recommend them to anyone looking to organize events in Lucknow. I booked my makeup at Lakme (Gomtinagar branch). If I could go back and redo it, I won’t book it at Lakme. While their hairstylist was great, their makeup is rather loud and poor quality. They didn’t have maroon nail paint or long lasting/ no-smudge lipstick which was quite a bummer! As far as the mehendi artists are concerned, we had over a 100 women who wanted their mehendi done so we booked the local street mehendiwalas who can finish a hand in under 5 mins! We booked one of them for bridal too and it turned out just fine (and much cheaper!).
Best Part of the ceremony: The best thing about our wedding was that all of us stayed in one resort, had lots of fun and got to know each other’s family. There was no running around trying to get things from one location to another.
Advice to other brides-to-be: Before the wedding, try to learn to do some light makeup on your own for smaller events during and after the wedding. It might not be a good idea to rush to the parlor for party makeup at the drop of a hat. The makeup done in parlors, however light they say it will be, usually turns out to be louder than you want.
All of us have some idea about the kind of things we want or do not want in our wedding. However, that makes it very easy for the bride to lose sight of things and try to micro-manage everything and end up being discontent/unhappy, (especially if you are a control freak like me :)). Make a small list of non-negotiable things in your mind that you absolutely want done your way. Convey it to your parents, wedding planners and anyone else helping in the management of your wedding. Apart from that, let go of everything else. It is such a big event that some things are bound to go wrong, take a different course from what you wanted or just not happen at all. Let them be and enjoy being the center of attention. You and everyone else will only remember the good parts in the end.
weddingsOnlineIndia wishes Pallavi and Hemant a very happy married life!
All images courtesy Girish Lone Photography…
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