Planning a big fat Indian wedding is stressful but imaging planning one when the couple does not live in India! All of the details of this gorgeous ceremony were arranged on WhatsApp! Check out this marvelous wedding planned by Designer Events Inc.
Full names of bride and groom
Davaish and Katherine Jain
We met…
We met at a friends party and got talking. He was dressed as a Scooby-Doo and I was Alice in Wonderland. I took his number because I didn’t want to give mine! The next day I texted him and the rest is history as we know it. We met again and spent an entire night talking. It was like finding an old friend/lover from another time. We both knew this was it. It was a soul to soul connection. To this day, six years later, 20+ countries, a dog, a cat, and a home – we both are still madly in love. It’s a dream love story to experience first hand. The years together, the countless miles travelled, the laughter, the triumphs, the love, it only gets sweeter with each passing day. We are both believers of destiny. Our official anniversary is 26th October 2012, and 26th October is also Kaveri Vij’s (owner of Designer Events Inc.) birthday. Designer Events Inc had recently done an event at the Haveli and this seemed to be like a play of cards of Destiny to bring us together. On connecting these dots, I wanted no one except Designer Events for this wedding. And now when we look back it was the most memorable day of our lives. It was our Serendipity wedding!
Our wedding theme…
We wanted a non-traditional, smaller ceremony which had a lot of rituals in it. A large banquet hall didn’t appeal to us and we wanted the venue to have a story just like ours. We also wanted flowers to speak our story at every corner of the venue. Our goal was to plan the entire day in such a way that the guests would not be bored at any point and would always be involved in something or the other.
My dress and his suit
We didn’t have time to physically pick out our outfits, and given that we would land in India just one week before our event, we weren’t sure how to pick out our outfits. Luckily our wonderful brothers Sonu and Rinku went on our behalf and showed us options for our ceremony via WhatsApp while we were in South Africa.
Our ceremony…
We video chatted with Kaveri, who was our guide and savior through the whole process. We gave her an outline of how we envisioned the ceremony, including pre-ceremony snacks/drinks, the Baraat, ceremony, and reception. It started very much as a loose collection of ideas and desires. Not having visited the space, it was difficult to envision the optimal way to set everything up. Thanks to Kaveri’s knowledge of the space as well as the willingness to go back and evaluate the space on her own, we were able to create a timetable and setup that worked out perfectly!
When you think planning an international wedding in three months while traveling full-time, what might come to mind is: how did you do it? It was all thanks to a remarkable team of people, and the most hardworking, dedicated and flexible wedding planner imaginable! Kaveri went above and beyond for us: being available at odd times, making suggestions, giving us options, finding us a caterer when we could not taste test, finding and booking all of our entertainment, taking our ideas (that we had no clue how to translate into reality) and materializing them.
There were many challenges while planning the wedding over WhatsApp, but luckily we had Kaveri and the Designer Events team working diligently to make our dreams come true. After giving them our initial vision, Katya shared pictures from her Instagram and we emailed photos to show various components we wanted through our event, including pots flowing with flowers, hanging strings of flowers throughout the house and on the trees, a mandap covered in flowers, and photos of us during our travels.
After getting an initial design and setup with Kaveri and team, Kaveri actually visited the Haveli for us and ensured that all of our plans would work out as planned. She made everything come together, from finding a place to set up the dining area, to the location for the mandap and stage. Speaking of stages – we knew from the start that we wanted live performers for the event. We didn’t have time to see or meet the performers in person. Luckily, Kaveri was able to send us dozens of options – from singers to dancers! We narrowed down our options from there.
One of the biggest uncertainties we had was picking a caterer without actually tasting the food. We had our thoughts for how the dishes should look but had no time to taste the food nor see the actual setup. We put full faith in Kaveri’s recommendation for a caterer she knew and trusted. He and his team came through with flying colors – the food was some of the best Indian food we’ve ever had, the service was top-notch, and everyone left full and happy. In addition, the setup was perfect.
We chose our wedding coordinator because
We couldn’t have done this without Kaveri and the Designer Events, Inc- the team truly transformed a hundred-year-old heritage space into our dream venue while dealing with a ton of unique challenges. The only thing I can say is that dreams are just that – grand ideas and hopes – but Kaveri and her team made our dreams a reality. In three months, she booked and planned everything for us. Without her loving energy and dedication, and the amazing Designer Events Inc. team, our dream of a floral-filled intimate wedding ceremony in a unique heritage house would have remained simply that – a dream. There is no better or hardworking group of humans to recommend for any event. Every piece of advice offered, the effort made, and second spent executing this dream ceremony was more than anyone could ever hope for. I found my dreams could be a reality and shared one of the biggest days of my life with a newfound lifelong friend in the process. Dreams and Kaveri are unanimous.
Kaveri and the Designer Events, Inc team truly transformed a hundred-year-old heritage space into our dream venue while dealing with a ton of unique challenges. She helped organize massive and numerous florals, fixed my Sabyasachi top, which I ordered without seeing, the day before the wedding, fed me food throughout the day, helped me get my shoes on, took on last-minute additions without question or hesitation, and constantly reminded us it would all work out, even when it seemed impossible at times. The only thing I can say is that dreams are just that – grand ideas and hopes – but Kaveri and her team made our dreams a reality. In three months, she booked and planned everything for us.
Did I mention, on top of everything else, it was done over Diwali weekend? Kaveri stayed up until twilight hours to chat with us after we got back from a safari in Africa, in a completely different time zone. She was patient and understanding with all of our desires and hopes, and there truly was no obstacle she wasn’t willing to tackle for us. Without her loving energy and dedication, and the amazing Designer Events Inc. team, our dream of a floral-filled intimate wedding ceremony in a unique heritage house would have remained simply that – a dream. There is no better or hardworking group of humans to recommend for any event. Every piece of advice offered, the effort made, and second spent executing this dream ceremony was more than anyone could ever hope for. I found my dreams could be a reality and shared one of the biggest days of my life with a newfound lifelong friend in the process. Dreams and Kaveri are unanimous.
We chose our venue because…
We wanted a non-traditional, smaller ceremony which had a lot of rituals. A large banquet hall didn’t appeal to us – we didn’t care to have hundreds of people in a generic hotel! We wanted the property to have a story of its own. We wanted flowers to fill up every nook of the location. We also wanted it to be an event compared to a ceremony, full of good food, entertainment, and things to look forward to.
The venue we chose was full of tradition, being a 100+-year-old manor just south of Delhi. It was beautiful on its own, and we knew with some additional touches it would fit our vision perfectly. Coincidentally enough, Designer Events had just had an event there weeks before we had reached out to them to plan the event, and their owner Kaveri’s birthday was on October 26th – the same day we met. Serendipity all around!
Our menu…
The most critical part of any wedding, it was very difficult to lock this one. We wanted Jain food and a good variety of the same. We had a specially curated menu for this day – with all our favourite dishes as a part of the menu. We put a twist to Indian food – like east meets west. All the food was prepared with no onion and no garlic. There were dishes like mushrooms and paneer which guests couldn’t believe were prepared without onion and garlic!
My favourite part of the wedding day…
There were so many beautiful details in the wedding; from our first look, the massive in size and quantity floral displays, live music, bhangra dancers, fire performers, the photographer, the extremely attentive staff, to releasing lanterns at the end of the night; everything went flawlessly. Choosing the moment that stands out the most is easy to choose: our intimate vows to each other, and my surprise vows to Mama and Papa Jain. We had set apart time for an intimate reading of vows to each other with simply us, the parents, our sisters and my now second family – the wedding team.
Davaish and I both had tears of joy and even giggled through our vows to one another. Harder still and just as important, were my vows to mom and dad. I almost couldn’t speak reading my vows to my new parents, through all the tears of my love and admiration for them. The emotions felt in those quiet loving and personal moments together will forever illuminate my life. Sharing tears of love with all of my family reinforced how blessed I am to have found all of them, and how blessed my life as a Jain daughter has and will continue to be.
Congratulations to the beautiful couple! We wish them a happy married life ahead! Submit your wedding photos to us for a chance to be featured on our blog and social media-email the details at [email protected]
