Devika Narain

Aditi and I had an instant connection from the day we first spoke ( I suppose the fact that we shared our birthday had something to do with it!). A journey that began with a phone call that led to a very long drive from Ahmadabad to Baroda culminated in this beautiful wedding in Udaipur.

Aditi and Shubham are childhood sweethearts(They met at a coaching institute in tenth grade) and have all the makings of a power couple- they have launched multiple businesses together, including a popular fashion retail website. Aditi had always wanted a wedding in Udaipur and Shubham decided to fulfill her dream. Their 150 guest wedding took place at The Leela Palace over two super fun days.

Aditi wanted something minimal and dramatic. Inspired from the Guava gardens in The Leela Palace, we chose elements that are commonly seen in the gardens- parrots, guavas, white flowers and pomegranates.

The décor and the seating was a mix of white and gold with a burst of pink! We organised lots of fun activities like kite flying, hair braiding, parrot reading, caricaturist and mehendi. White carts with white baskets displayed color blocked bangles, parandis and lehariya dupattas for the guests to pick and wear!

The Sangeet happened in the Leela ballroom and terrace. The ballroom has these stunning chandelier and mirror panels – so we created something that didn’t feel too palace like yet enhanced the existing space. We worked with lots of gold sequins and deep tones of burgundy and purple. The décor had a print inspired from the wedding card- a raja and rani sitting on a horse.

The outer courtyard or rangmanch is one of the most spectacular venues in Udaipur- it has the entire Pichola lake as a backdrop and has stellar views of the Lake Palace, City Palace and Jagmandir. This is where the wedding took place. Not wanting to create something that will take away the beauty of the space, we added splashes of marsala red into the space. The mandap was in the centre of the waterbody, draped in red and the entire ceiling was covered with rajnigandha.

The cabanas were specially hand embroidered. Zarzodi chandowas dotted the lawns with customised coffee tables made to look like bells.

We filled the entire water body with roses and floating pattals with diyas.

The décor for the Reception was classic, simple and elegant at the Guava Gardens. Five thousand candles were hung from the trees of the garden at varying heights.