Wedding in Wisconsin

In late May our whole team traveled to Wisconsin for the cross-cultural wedding of Seema Gandhi and Ryan Grimm. The festivities began with The garba, a night of dancing and celebration before the wedding on May 24 in Brookfield, Wisconsin. She looked amazing to say the least in her coral and pearl outfit. It is by far one of the nicest outfits I have seen.




The bride gave out cute scarves as favors for the ladies at the Mehendi. I loved the personal touch with the labels that said “SR Seema and Ryan”.

I loved Seema’s mehendi.. She wore traditional Indian gold bangles given to her by her mother.

The wedding was held the next day at the Milwaukee Art Museum… soon becoming one of my favorite venues that we have worked out of.

The Milwaukee Art Museum was such a great location for the wedding and reception. The architecture is gorgeous. I could not believe my eyes when the wing parts actually went up to the entire museum. I had to go take a photo.






We also had one challenge on our hands. Our team had to transform the area of the mandap into a complete dining area for 260 guests. With linens, centerpieces and table numbers and limited time (only one hour) this is quite difficult. Of course, without fail, the reception turned out beautiful. I loved seeing the white, white, white art museum go to lovely shades of hot pink.

Mission Accomplished.. another happily married couple!! Yeah!!

Great Ideas From Virginia!

Personalization and price are two factors a wedding is planned around. Little details can make the event memorable but expensive. In our recent wedding in Richmond, Virginia we found some great ways to personalize the details without breaking the bank!

For Nishma's centerpieces we cut 50 oranges, submerged them in water and floated a candle on top.

It looked great and was very inexpensive.

Nishma also personalized her dandiya sticks by attaching ribbons with their names on them.

All the kids looked adorable at the garba, and they had so much fun joining in the raas with everyone.

Wedding Season 2008 Is In Full Swing

Well, the traveling for wedding season has started. Two weeks ago, our entire team went to Richmond, VA for the wedding of Nishma Patel and Neerav Jadeja. We had been planning that wedding for over 9 months and it was so exciting to see the entire event come together. With a guest list of 700, we took our team of 6 staff members (and myself, of course) to organize their garba, wedding and reception. Everyone was so nice and the bride and groom looked amazing.
The centerpieces were a new twist for us... CARNATIONS... yes, the forbidden wedding flower, carnations are back in style... It was great. We did a sky blue and crisp white color scheme for the bride.

I am at the airport in Philly right now waiting for my flight to our next wedding... Milwaukee, WI. I would never even think to go to Milwaukee if it was not for this wonderful wedding for Seema and Ryan. I can't wait to meet her entire family and get his family ready for the baraat and traditional Indian customs. The space, The Milwaukee Art Museum is so great and I cannot wait to see her colors, chocolate brown, turquoise and hot pink all come together in the all white Art Museum. Stay tuned for the photos.. Oh, I got a new camera as well.. actually, my wonderful husband, Jay, got me a brand new camera for this wedding season.. he is so sweet.

Cake Cake Cake

It was a week full of cake tastings with brides last week. It is always so much fun.
Gone are the days that brides just walk into a grocery store and order a cake.
Cakes are as important to a wedding as the flowers. It really makes a statement
and represents the bride and the groom (let's not forget the groom).
We had one of our brides who did her cake tasting recently.
The cake maker let me hold one of these delicate flowers... I was so amazed at how real these sugar flowers look! Check it out.

Also, I went in this week to meet one of my favorite cake makers in New York.... Mrs. Silvia Weinstock. I just love her.. so cute she is with those fun glasses. Her cakes not only are a work of art but they TASTE SO WONDERFUL. There is so much to choose from white cake, yellow cake, chocolate cake; so many flavors- blood orange, coffee, raspberry, mocha, apricot, and on and on and on.

I really tell our brides not to forget the groom on this one. We have more and more bride's doing a groom's cake. This is really a Southern Traditon but now our Indian Brides are doing this as well (my husband, Jay, loves the Yankees, I would probably do a Yankees hat since this really would show off a team he loves).

All My Trips This Month

I feel like I have been everywhere in the last few weeks. In March, I went to Birmingham, AL to meet Sheetal and her family who are planning an Indian/American Wedding at the Marriott Ross Bridge. This was my first time in Birmingham and all I have to say is, "It is not NYC for sure!". I was really not knowing what to expect but Sheetal and her family was so wonderful and so gracious. It was as if I had known them for so long. What an extravaganza that is going to be; 500 guests for all over the world. We have a Mehendi event where we a converting a regular into a Moroccan Tent. Then the Garba full of color and then the wedding and reception the next day. I love the three and four day events but soooo much work.. each event has to be diff and unique. You have to put your creativity hat on. The funny part is that Sheetal and Ryan live in L.A., I live in NYC and the parents are in Birmingham, AL. I have never had and Indian Bride with a Southern Accent.. so cool!

After that trip, I was on to Dallas, TX to meet Vani and her lovely parents. She is getting married at the beautiful Fairmont Hotel in Downtown Dallas. Again, both her and I live in NYC but the wedding and parents are there. She is so super cute. I was there for 2 days and every two hours we had appointments. We got so much covered from Photo, Video, DJ, Hair & Makeup, Florist and that was just Saturday. On Sunday, we did the rehearsal dinner location and lighting. We hit on all the major topics.

Then I was on my way to Upstate NY... Utica... to be exact where I met with Mrs. Mani. We are planning her daughter's wedding in Utica. We finalized her flowers and actually had the florist do the mock centers so Mrs. Mani and her daughter (who lives in San Fran) can actually see them.. I took photos to send to the bride.

Finally, it was on to Washington D.C. for two table showings and a tasting at my fav place the Ronald Reagan ITC.

What a month! Thank goodness for all the help I have from our great team of Katherine, Neeti, Camille, Beth and Ellen who always are there to help me when I am traveling all over the place. Also, I can't forget my husband, Jay, who calls me every morning and every night to say Good Morning and Good Night.

Which is what I should be saying... GOOD NIGHT!

My favorite venue in Manhattan

I met Ann today for lunch and she is one of our new brides.

We don't like to waste any time when we first sign the couple. During our very first meeting, we went to the venue, met with a potential florist and saw a photographer. How much fun is that in just one afternoon!

I am so lucky because I get to work out of such great venues. Ann's venue is Gotham Hall http://gothamhallevents.com/ . This is one of the most unique venues in New York City. It was a bank back in the day. It is hugh!!! Such high ceiling.. it will be so nice to plan the lighting and flowers here.

We met with Ayesha from Floral Accent. She is a great florist I work with upstate. She was nice enough to come to the venue to meet with Ann and I.

Next, we went to one of my favorite photographers.... Jay Seth. He has so much energy and is just such a fun personality to be around. He has done about a million Indian Weddings and all his work is so amazing. There are only a few photogaphers that have a real eye for the camera. This is probably why we only recommend so few photographers.

This was a very productive day and Ann is so sweet. I am so happy to help her plan her event.

Our search for good Invitations

So many of our brides are looking for good places for invitations. Most of us normally opt to go to India for Indian Invitations but you can find invitation places in your town that can give you invitations with an Indian look and feel.

One of our brides (Deepika) is looking to do just that. We found her The Papery in Philly http://www.paperyofphilly.com/ They have such a wonderful array of invitations from budget all the way to Vera Wang. We went in and looked through several catologs and they were so helpful in assisting us with a save the date card for her. We were both so impressed by Diane's level of knowledge and expertise in how to create not only the save the date cards but also the inserts and pockets to make her final wedding invitation.

It was really an education in how the invitation industry works and how you don't have to fly all the way to India to get an ethnic yet contemporary invitation.