A Gorgeous Modern Delhi Wedding Rooted In Tradition & Sustainability

Now here is a wedding that was so much more than just a wedding. Real Bride Jehana has taken Instagram by storm, but this wedding is so much more than just beautiful photos and outfits. Every aspect of this beautiful Delhi wedding had so much thought- steeped in tradition and personalisation- the perfect way to go about a modern wedding! Right from the ceremony itself to the small little things like decor- it all had a reason and a purpose. Read on to get inspired, enlightened and enchanted by this gorgeous union.

Meet Jehana and Kanishk

Home Mehendi

My Mehendi took place at my uncle’s home, Magnolia's DLF. I always knew I wanted to start my functions at home. Both Kanishk and I knew we wanted an intimate wedding, one with meaning so it was very important for me to start my wedding festivities with an intimate “welcome dinner”/home mehendi at home with my closest friends and family.  The theme for this event was 'In full bloom' (A bougainvillea dream).

For the home mehendi, we did a classic bougainvillea backdrop. Inspired by our wedding invite, which was a hand painted painting of the Lodhi garden in Delhi, which has gorgeous bougainvillea trees, I wanted to continue that story into my welcome dinner/home mehendi and use that as a backdrop for the home mehendi.

Mehendi Brunch

The next event was the Mehendi brunch. The Theme of the event was 'Color me green' (To new beginnings) and the location was Trident, Gurgaon. Most Mehendis are about a lot of colors and vibrancy! I knew I didn’t want that and to go for a more monotone decor palette, so we landed on a serene green color once we saw the venue. The open space at the Trident was a hidden oasis with luscious greens amidst the chaos of Gurgaon and tall skyscrapers! I wanted our guests to feel like they’ve been transported to a tranquil garden. 

The welcome dinner was a sundowner affair, followed by dinner with our favourite Delhi street food live counters set up at home, followed by lots of dancing and drinking. The brunch started with all kinds of chaat - golgappas to Delhi's famous paalak chaat. For the main course we decided to do North West frontier cuisine with unique dishes like the lotus stem biryani!

Cocktail

Once we finalized the beautiful venue, we knew we had to enhance the already beautiful space and elevate the natural surroundings. Given the foliage and beautiful flowers in the venue, we decided to pay homage to the name “bagh” i.e. garden and do our own bohemian spin on it with pintadas and foliage! Using the same color palette as Morbagh for the theme Pintadas and foliage, we did a burst of colors like pink, oranges, purples to contrast the tones of the Mehendi brunch earlier in the day.

We personalized our bar menus and our cocktail napkins! The napkins featured fun facts about us as a couple, how we first met, our first date etc, while the bar had our favourite cocktails. Mishiritas, we called it (Mishra is his last name, and his favourite cocktail is a classic Margarita), we had bloody mary or as we called it “Bloody Marry” “Brews before I do’s (chilled beer) was the popular choice with the sun shining down on us and some good old chilled rose and G&T’s!

Wedding

The theme for the wedding was 'Shaam E Sukoon'. I couldn’t ignore my love for neutrals. When I envisioned my wedding, I knew the color palette had to be cream/white and gold. White is my favourite color - it signifies peace and purity. I know traditionally in Indian customs, it's looked at as a color that's associated with mourning, but for me, it's one color that gives me peace and signifies true, pure love - which is what this wedding was about. As we embark on a new journey together, I wanted the space to feel the most peaceful and tranquil with just positive energy flowing through - and that’s what the color palette did. Inspired by the Taj Mahal, the Lodhi gardens, and the rich history that Delhi and Agra have with the Mughal Empire, we decided to pay homage to the city through its decor with some Mughal infused decor including the shamadans and paan daans and Mughal dome shaped cabanas. On each seat at the mandap and dining tables, we placed personalized thank you notes for our guests, written by Kanishk and I.

We also had a memorial table in honor of our family members whom we have lost. We used these beautiful vintage silver frames, and placed the table right beside the mandap so that we can have their blessings and honor them.

From The Bride:

I was very clear from the get go about our wedding - it's an Indian wedding. So I was clear that while designing the wedding, it is that one time I can and want to be traditional, so my themes had to match that - I didn’t want to go overboard with the “fusion” themed events and go for a more traditionally rooted format- mehendi, sangeet, wedding but have fun modernizing the decor and colors. 

• A marriage of equals: Our wedding was conducted by a female priest - the spirit of the wedding as my mom said in her welcome speech before my entrance was about universal love and stree shakti - to invoke the goddess’s blessings and about female divinity so naturally we had to have a priestess who set a few ground rules for our pheras - no kanyadan, in fact both families gave their child to each other - not just the daughter being given away per say. We both tied mangalsutra on each other - him around my neck and me tying it as a form of a bracelet to signify this is marriage of equals and we will respect each other equally going forward. Sindoor was put on me, and tika was put on him by me. There was no vidaai - instead my family threw a cocktail party post filled with lots of dancing and drinks until the wee hours of the morning! The pheras ended with the priestess thanking us for giving her the opportunity to tell our society that women too can be priestesses.
• Entertainment: Given the spirit of the wedding - stree shakti and universal love, for my bridal entrance, we chose to bring on Pandit Birju Maharaj’s granddaughter Shinjini Kulkarni and her troupe of classical kathak dancers for a soulful sufi performance. Sufi Kathak is about invoking the abstract presence of the Almighty. Sufi kathak is essentially based on “Nirguna Bhakti” which essentially stands for “God has no form”- it is truly about universal love. Historically, records of kathak have been extremely unfair - men pursuing the art form became pandits or ustaads but women were labeled “kotiwalis”. By bringing in Shinjini - we wanted to showcase that she, as a woman, is taking her grandfather’s legacy of Kathak forward, not a man. Kathak is also very personal to me as I grew up learning the dance form in my years in India. Post the pheras, as an ode to my Punjabi side, we hired a sufi punjabi folk band called The Frequency Project and danced the night away followed by DJ Sukhbir killing it for the youngsters at the after party.
• Food: We wanted to pay tribute to Delhi and Old Delhi! So we focused on landmark traditional north indian cuisine. Delhi is the food capital of India and given 250 of our guests had flown down internationally for the wedding, we wanted to focus on authentic and traditional food true to our food heritage - just as the wedding ceremony and decor was classic, the food was classic and traditional as well. In fact, my mother and I went on a chaat tasting tour all over delhi! We tried out 10+ chaat vendors and decided the vendor that my parents have been going to for 20+ years made the best chaat in Delhi - Prince chaat. 
• The first look and vow ceremony before the pheras - Kanishk and I did a “first look” and a vow ceremony before we left for the venue. Kanishk and I wanted to see each other, share a private moment, just the two of us as we wanted to exchange our vows. Kanishk is a very private person and for the both of us, as much as the pheras were important, we wanted to start our marriage with personalized vows to one another, away from everyone else, promises just for each other. It was the most special moment for the both of us as we got to share this beautiful moment and make meaningful promises to one another. It was also so nice to have a first look and really take in how we looked and felt as bride and groom for the first time before the craziness of the night took over.
• Bridal Entry: Choosing to walk in with my mother and father - Your father usually walks you down the aisle, but I chose to walk down the aisle with both my parents - both are equally important to me and having them both walk with me, was the most fulfilling and emotional part of the entire ceremony. My two rocks!
• We used local flowers only to reduce carbon footprint and the flowers were recycled into phool incense sticks. We had a phool incense stick counter where our guests could learn about the initiative and take home incense sticks. With customized cushion covers, earthen Indian pots made by local artisans and coconuts and fresh local flowers serving as the centerpiece - we checked all the boxes of local first, sustainable and personalized. 
• Giveaways: Indonesian batik fans and pocket squares! Given my parents reside in Indonesia, we thought of doing something different and highlighting Indonesian textile and design for our guests. It was an afternoon filled with sunshine so the Indonesian handheld fans came to good use and added color to our function while the men received vibrant batik pocket squares to take home. We also made gota laktan earrings - latkans is what you usually find at the end of your lehengas so we thought why not upscale these into earrings.
  

Vendor Reviews

Venue: Amaara Farms Chattarpur

Beautiful venue, lots of green space. 

Makeup Artist: Jasmeet Kapany

She is best makeup artist in India - makes you look like a better version of you! listens to what you want. Very comfortable and relaxed to work with, I love her.

Wedding Planning: The Shaadi Knot

They did the bride side's planning. The Shaadi knot team were true rockstars - my dream wedding planners/therapists turned friends whose attention to detail is amazing.

Photography: Naman Verma

Gave us the best gift for life, our photos! He's the best in the business. A true talent.

Decor:

I worked with young entrepreneurs who were incredibly focused and knew how to bring our vision to life. I consciously chose to work with young, upcoming talent and with two women entrepreneurs who led on the wedding design/decor for our formal mehendi, wedding and my chooda. All of us being the same age really helped as they could understand my vision and desire to be rooted in tradition and yet bring in my modern, personalized touches to every single decor.

Groomwear:

To match my color palette, yet stay true to his personality, Kanishk opted for this beautiful ivory and salmon floral printed bandi that is embroidered in ari and zardozi. Sabyasachi black sherwani with gold button accents to complement my heavily embroidered outfit - he went the classic, simplistic route. Sabyasachi ivory sherwani set and Safa, with an ivory and gold embroidered shawl. Jewelry - emerald strings - picking up the green tones from my lehenga. 

Vendors: Venue: Amaara Farms Chattarpur; Makeup Artist: Jasmeet Kapany Hair and Makeup★ 4.9 ;  Wedding Planning: The Shaadi Knot★ 5 ; Groom Side Planning:Sanya Mehdiratta ; Photography: Naman Verma Photography★ 4.9 ; Groomwear: Tarun Tahiliani★ 4.4 (Mehendi), Sabyasachi Mukherjee★ 4.9 (Sangeet and Wedding) Groom's Shoes:Artimen★ 4.8 ; Bridal Outfits: Mehendi and Wedding - Tarun Tahiliani★ 4.4 , Sangeet - Ritika Mirchandani ★ 3.5 ; Mehendi Artist: Kundan Mehandi Artist★ 5 ; Decor: Aroosi★ 5 (Mehendi Brunch, Chooda and Wedding), BAQAA Glamour Weddings & Events (Sangeet), Wishing Bells Decor (Home Mehendi)