India is one of those countries that is well known for hosting Big Fat Weddings. With the essential belief that marriages in India are not merely the union of two individuals, but in fact a coming together of two families, the wedding soiree almost always comprises a long guest list with many friends, families, colleagues, relatives and extended family members participating in the same. Indians usually make sure to invite each and every individual that they have attended weddings of, to ensure a harmonious and long lasting relationship with their near and dear ones.
One of the biggest challenges faced by Indians due to Corona, was the limitations it imposed on big gatherings and carefree socializing. The Covid Era hit the wedding industry the hardest. With huge gatherings taking a back seat, the Covid protocols shattered the dreams of many couples who always wanted to host a Big Fat Indian Wedding. In the midst of all the mayhem and chaos caused by Corona, people have not stopped getting married. They have simply tried to make accommodations for this deadly disease, whilst still making sure that their wedding festivities are not hampered.
The team of Dulhaniyaa.com was approached by Akhil and Priyanka in the year 2020 , when Corona had just entered the country and was peaking in cases. While Akhil and Priyanka knew that they would have to make compromises to accommodate the wedding of their dreams if they chose to marry during the Covid Era, they had their hearts set to get married in 2020 itself. With the hope of having a memorable wedding experience, Akhil and Priyanka set out to plan their wedding with Dulhaniyaa.com.
Akhil and Priyanka had been in love for 7 years, and it was on their 7th anniversary that they decided to finally get married. Since it was the 7th year of their blossoming love, the couple wanted to commemorate the occasion by scheduling the wedding on the 7th of August. But due to unavailability of the date 7th, they postponed their wedding by a couple of months and the wedding was finalized for the 7th of December. This was a time when Covid was still on a high surge. While the couple wanted to get married in Delhi, the lockdown protocols imposed the restriction of keeping the number of guests to a minimum. At this point, when it was decided that the number of guests would have to be limited, the Dulhaniyaa.com team came forth with a creative solution, to make their pre-supposed grand event into a smaller but memorable experience. After going through the budget details, the team at Dulhaniyaa suggested that now that the guest list had to be cut short, the couple could indulge themselves in an intimate destination wedding at Goa, within the same budget, if each guest took care of their travel expenses by themselves. The couple was instantly convinced by this creative solution to turn their grand wedding into a destination wedding. Thus it was finalized that the wedding would be organized on the beachside with a total of 100 guests.
With the finalization of the location for the destination wedding ie. Goa, the couple set on a journey of various discussions and interactions with team Dulhaniyaa, for planning, ideation and execution of the wedding. Once the couple intimated their desired budget range to the Dulhaniya team, a dedicated manager was allotted to the couple for ensuring that each and every aspect of the wedding is exactly the way that it was imagined by the couple. After visiting several venues, the couple shortlisted Zuri White Sands Resort and Casino at Pedda, Varca Goa. Zuri White is located at the picturesque beach Varca, which was chosen as the backdrop for the sun downer wedding to be held on 7th December 2020. Over a 100 guests, who were invited for the wedding events, were accommodated across 50 rooms in the Resort itself. The team of managers and assistants from Dulhaniyaa.com ensured a smooth process of guest arrivals, checkin and room allocation.
The entire responsibility of wedding management and planning was borne by Dulhaniyaa.com. Once the couple and their family finalized their budget, we ensured that various vendors were provided by us. The photographers and the makeup artists were in-house personnel from team Dulhaniyaa which we took along with us from Delhi; and the venue, decorators, DJ, entertainment, wedding stationary, giveaway and hampers were all provided from a selected panel of vendors that have a longstanding hospitality association with Dulhaniyaa.com. While the couple used their own vendors for acquiring their wedding outfits and jewellery, every other aspect of the wedding was taken care of, by our team. We hired a local Henna artist from Goa itself, who created beautiful designs for the bride and the guests during the mehendi event. We also hired a singer duo to perform on the Mehendi night, and a local live band to perform at the wedding ceremony. The food for all the events was provided by the inhouse catering team of Zuri White Sands and included a wide range of multi cuisine specialities to satiate the palette of the esteemed guests.
Dulhaniyaa.com has an extremely professional and experienced team of in-house photographers and videographers. The Goa wedding consisted of various wedding shoots. The pre wedding shoot was conducted on the streets of Delhi, which was a combination of both candid and traditional photography.
Dulhaniyaa.com has an extremely professional and experienced team of in-house photographers and videographers. The Goa wedding consisted of various wedding shoots. The pre wedding shoot was conducted on the streets of Delhi, which was a combination of both candid and traditional photography.
Our team covered the full footage of the Mehendi ceremony, the Engagement ceremony, the haldi ceremony, the sangeet and cocktail ceremony, and finally the wedding ceremony and vidai. Our team offered three different forms of photography for the wedding events. A team comprising 3 photographers and 3 videographers were installed at various stations to simultaneously shoot traditional and portrait style photographs, Candid photographs, and cinematic videos. This was overseen by a shoot manager who made sure that the different needs of the wedding shoot were met, and the process of photography and videography went over smoothly.
On the day of the wedding a drone camera, operated by one photography professional, was used to capture an aerial view of the beachside wedding.
The two day event was a fun filled soiree with various entertainment packages and games organized by our team. At the Mehendi function, two local singers, one male and one female, were invited to sing and entertain the guests. This was followed by the Engagement function, where an Award Night was organized for the guests. During this event the family members were given various titles and awards based on their personality and character traits, which induced a lot of laughter and fun amongst the family members, who had the opportunity to tease one another through this session. This was followed by a fun dancing session on the DJ.
The next day, at the Haldi event, we invited local Dholis who played various Punjabi beats and created an atmosphere of revelry for the guests. An in-house Emcee was invited to host the following sangeet event, during which, the guests were made to play various couple games, to keep them entertained. Many family members also performed various solo and group performances and had a great time dancing with one another.
At the time of the wedding ceremony, a local Live Band was called upon to perform. The band included a lead singer and various instrumentalists who created a magical mood for the sundowner wedding by singing various bollywood songs and self composed songs.
The Couple and their family chose to pick outfits through their trusted designers. The jewellery worn by the bride was provided by the couple’s family jewellers.
For her Mehendi function Priyanka chose to wear an outfit that complemented the colour of the Henna. She wore a sequined Mehendi green lehenga choli, and made it pop by pairing it with beautiful pink and white dry flower jewellery. She left her hair open with a hint of natural curls and wore a tiara, earrings and big kada bangles made out of flowers and other ornamental embellishments, that went well with the backdrop of her seating place, which was a big,round, floral set up, with the same colour combination of flowers as the floral jewellery worn by Priyanka. Akhil’s outfit also complimented Priyanka’ ensemble, as he wore a dark mehendi and black coloured asymmetric bandh gala with a white pajama.
For the engagement function on the same evening, Priyanka opted for a fairytale voluminous gown in the shade of lilac, where in the gown was layered and ruffled and had extensive sequins work on it. She kept her hair tucked on one side, with soft curls at the bottom, giving her a contemporary look. She kept her appearance minimalistic as she used very natural hues of makeup, and wore delicate gemstone jewellery which consisted of a slim neck piece, a matching bracelet in one hand, few matching bangles in the other hand and small stud earrings. Since the embroidery work on her outfit was a combination of silver and gold, her jewellery too was a combination of hues of silver and gold. Akhil wore a contrasting yet complimentary outfit to that of Priyanka’s. He opted for a dark burgundy Three Piece suit, which went extremely well with the light shade of Priyanka’s outfit. He teamed it up with a bow tie and a pocket handkerchief. He completed his look by wearing tan brown shoes. Their outfits also complemented the backdrop of their engagement setup, which comprised ferry lights put up across a curtain of lilac shade, that hung behind the staging area on their engagement venue.
The next day was the Haldi event, for which, Priyanka wore a turquoise blue crop top with a light but voluminous yellow lehenga with layers of net. She paired her ensemble with bright yellow, dry flower jewellery that comprised earrings and bangles. She amped up her style quotient by teaming the attire with bluish- green shades and platform heels. Akhil’s outfit was an exact match to Priyanka’s outfit. He teamed a yellow kurta with white pajamas and topped it with a Nehru Jacket in the same design , colour and print as Priyanka’s crop top. He completed his ensemble by teaming it with a pair of black leather juttis. The couple’s ensemble went quite well with the genda phool backdrops and the overall yellow theme of the mehendi function.
For the final Wedding ceremony the couple went completely traditional. Priyanka wore a bright red heavily embellished, embroidered lehenga, with intricate zari gota work. The lehenga was a mix of multicoloured thread work done on the red backdrop. The embroidery was a mix of gold and silver, and so her jewellery too was in the same tint.
She opted for a heavy choker necklace, in shades of gold and silver and paired it with matching heavy and hanging, chandelier earrings. She completed her bridal look with golden maang tika that matched her heavy, golden kaleeras. She opted for a bold look, with a dark maroonish shade of lip colour and a golden shade of eye shadow. She also wore golden, stone studded haath phools along with matching kadas intermixed with her chooras. Akhil on the other hand looked dapper in his typical Indian avatar. He wore an off white Sherwani decked with sequined work, extensive and intricate embroidery , with hints of reddish pink thread work interwoven throughout the ensemble. He wore a red, beaded, layered necklace , along with one string of a stone studded necklace. He teamed up the entire look with a typical Indian off white pagdi, with heavy embellishments hanging from its sides and a kalgi brooch placed in the centre.
The two day wedding was jam packed with various events including the Mehendi, and Engagement on Day 1 and Haldi, Sangeet and Wedding Ceremony on Day 2.
The Mehendi event which was hosted during the day on the 6th of December, was kept at an outdoor venue which used Rajasthani style decor as the backdrop. Photo Booths with props like puppets, kites, wall hangings, and photo frames were created to give the guests and the bride and groom a place to get themselves photographed.
The Engagement event had a Bohemian theme with half of the setup, created inside a ballroom, where the stage was created across a backdrop of fairy lights, Lamps, bamboo backdrop frames, and floral decors that complimented the outfits of the couple.
The other half of the beautiful setup was created outside on the lawns, where small and cozy cabanas were created in the shape of tents, that were lit up with fairy lights, and added to the Bohemian vibe of the engagement event. After the engagement ceremony took place, the guests unwinded in these beautiful tent spaces for a night full of music and entertainment.
The next day was the Haldi event. It had yellow as its main theme. The event decor was full of yellow and orange genda phool hangings, at the backdrop of the seating place. The guests were given many props to create perfect photo opportunities with the bride and groom.
The event achieved a great pomp and show owing to the introduction of dhol walas into the mix. The Dholis created an atmosphere of fun and revelry for the guests who had gathered around to participate in the Haldi event for the bride and groom.
Additionally the family members of the bride and groom also took part in a dandiya dance session, as part of the following Sangeet event which was in tandem with the beats of the dhol. This added to the entertainment elements of the event.
The Wedding was a typical beachside destination event, with chairs spread across the beach, with the sea in the backdrop. A walking aisle was created between two rows of chairs stacked on either side, just like in a Christian wedding. The aisle led to the main pandal setup which was basically a canopy of pink, white and peach roses, hung across curtains of peach colour in the shape of a typical Hindu wedding mandap. The chairs were golden in colour and draped with peach colour cloth raps, to give them a contemporary look. Stacks of golden matkas were placed around the mandap setup to give it a touch of tradition.
The Groom made an entry in a vintage car, accompanied by a local band that was hired for the baraat procession. The vintage car added a royal element to the wedding event and also made for a great photography backdrop for other guests.
The bride made an entry under a phoolon ki chaadar that was held above her head by the male members of the family. To match the setup of the mandap, the phoolon ki chaadar was also made up of a combination of pink, white and peach roses that somewhat complemented the bright red lehenga of the bride.
The wedding ceremony was done through Hindu rituals, particularly Jain rituals, because the groom’s family belonged to the Jain community.
It was a particularly difficult task for the team to locate a Pandit for a Jain Wedding in Goa, though after a lot of networking, we were able to finally arrange one. All the typical Hindu traditions of a Jain wedding were followed and the wedding ended up with the vidai being the last ritual in the series of events.
