Stunning Jaipur Wedding Which Shattered Stereotypes & The Internet!
BY Sakshi | 15 Apr, 2024 | 1898 views | 8 min read
Where do we start when it comes to describing this wedding? It was definitely beautiful, yes, but there was so much more to this union than just looking pretty. Madhura and Veer's wedding at the Jaibagh Palace has gone viral, and there are so many reasons for it. For one, the bride and groom broke away from patriarchal rituals and tweaked it to make their wedding gender-equal, which was commendable. Also, from the bridal entry to the bridal solos and even the decor- everything was beautiful, and the internet seems to agree! Take a look at @the.dream.mapper's gorgeous palace wedding that took place in Jaipur.
Meet Madhura and Veer
"We both are originally from Mumbai and moved to California for our masters, we met in the university - USC (University of Southern California) and fell in love", the bride tells us.
Yosemite Elopement
Mehendi
Haldi
Rehearsal Dinner
Sangeet
Wedding
The ceremony area was created midst of a whimsical garden in front of the palace, reminiscent of a fairytale! As we celebrated our wedding, we lovingly remembered and honored the cherished family members whose spirit is alive in our hearts. The aisle was field of white flowers created using the Shola flower - an eco-friendly and sustainable alternative to cut flowers, made from the renewable wood of a marshy plant. These are flowers that last a lifetime! The aisle gracefully leads to an imagined banyan tree. It was Madhura Veer’s wish to get maried under a Banyan Tree, and hence all elements of the wedding are inspired by Madhura Veer’s magical journey, blending elements of fantasy, grace, and heartfelt blessings.
Reception
From The Bride:
Our wedding took place on December 22, 2023. We both have been dreaming of our wedding day for what seemed like forever. We started as classmates in university in Los Angeles and finally fell in love with each other and decided to tie the knot. We started our adventure by getting engaged under the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris, followed it with an intimate mountain elopement in California, and opted for a grand finale - a celebration in a beautiful palace in Jaipur. Being a bollywood fan, I always wanted to get married in Rajasthan where all my friends and family from different parts of the world flew in to have a celebration and party of their lives. Our wedding decor was a unique combination of Indian and western influences, with elements from different parts of the world that have inspired us during our travel adventures, especially from France and Tulum.
It’s crazy how much particular I am about aesthetics but when it came to finally choosing my dream wedding lehenga, I literally tried this one bridal lehenga and finalized it the moment I tried it on. Much before wedding planning had started I had already set her mind on her this beautiful Seema Gujral couture lehenga, which was later customized for me with long trail and personal touches.
We had quite a unique Wedding ceremony! We opted to do rituals which are gender-equal and avoid/modify the ones which are patriarchal. Indian rituals and festivities are very culture rich and have deeper meaning behind them but few of them which are ancient and had certain aspects which are patriarchal. And Veer and I both strongly believe in equality so decided to start the change with our wedding. We had ritual cards printed and kept on guest’s seats so they understand what’s going on plus also added information about how we have made rituals gender equal. Here are few things which we have thought of doing differently as part of Hindu wedding rituals to make our wedding gender equal and truly ours!
- We had two female priestess for our wedding ceremony to break an age old patriarchy.
- We decided to not do kanyadaan - instead we conducted a ritual of both families uniting happily.
- We both tied a mangalsutra on each other, him around my neck and me tying it as a form of a bracelet to signify this is a marriage of equals and we will respect each other equally going forward.
- The groom put Sindoor on the bride, and the bride put a tikka on the groom.
- We have refrained from incorporating age old rituals of bride touching groom's feet, instead took blessings from elders together.
- We had no vidaai – instead we all partied together after the wedding.
- Last but not the least, our parents have kept both our names with so much love, so there’s no changing anyone’s first or last name post marriage!
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I used WedMeGood to search for vendors initially as I wasn't aware of Indian vendors since I live in the US. It helped me get good idea of costing, vendor details, venues and overall planning process.
Vendor Reviews
Venue: Jaibagh Palace, Jaipur
Venue was very aesthetic and beautiful as we had imagined for our wedding. It has a beautiful central courtyard which served as our mehendi venue. Front and back lawns have mesmerizing views of the palace and were perfect for our sundowner functions.
Makeup Artist: Tanvi Marathe
Tanvi was my first choice for makeup artist as I have been following her makeup recommendations on Instagram since years and I was super happy when she came onboard. She was literally dream to work with and everything was very smooth and easy with her. She is such a lovely person and was very helpful throughout. I gave her complete freedom and she made me look my best. I wanted very natural looks, wanted to look like myself and she understood the vibe and delivered the same. Hair artist Dablu was also exceptional, he did such an amazing job with all my hairstyles. Together they are just the best team to work with for your wedding.
Wedding Planning: Trellis Weddings
The first time we talked to Karan and Rhea from Trellis weddings, we had instant connection and got a feeling that we can completely rely on this team to manage our wedding. They put in a lot of effort and time and went above and beyond for making it a memorable event for us as well as for all our guests. Their experience in this industry and good networking in Jaipur area came in handy during the wedding as they were able to resolve any minor issues quickly. They are great communicators and very very friendly to work with, and made sure our families are also at ease throughout hectic days of back to back events. They made our dream wedding come true and we will always be grateful!
Decor: Sakhi Pol
Sakhi is someone I have been talking to on instagram and admiring her work even before Veer and I got engaged. Her work speaks for herself, she is exceptionally talented designer and puts a lot of details and personalization for the couple. She really became a part of our family while working on our wedding, we spent hours and hours on video calls conceptulizing, ideating and coming up with unique designs which reflect our personalities. She created a perfect blend of indian and modern designs for us and the decor was the most talked about topic of our wedding. Sakhi also took into consideration our budget and provided a beyond value for money experience, definitely recommend her!
Photography: House On The Clouds
Photographer is the first one we booked from the vendor list and we had only one choice in our list - HOTC. Us being photographers, photos were very important to us, but what was more important is someone who shares similar sense of artistic aesthetics. Siddharth, Vivek, Lonav, Royd, Humayun, Priyanka from HOTC team were some of the best folks to work with and they made us feel comfortable, captured pure and raw emotions and gave us memories for lifetime! No one, really no one else I could imagine shooting our special day.
Bride's Stylist : Rashi Kapur
She styled my wedding looks and she was so lovely to work with. She instantly understood my vibe, went above and beyond to know me, my preferences and helped me pick outfits which resonates with my personality. She is so easy to work with especially for brides who live aborad and wants to shop from India. She came with me to shopping, fittings, trials and made sure I have everything before my big day.
Vendors: Venue: Jaibagh Palace, Jaipur | Wedding Planning: Trellis Weddings | Makeup Artist: Tanvi Marathe | Decor: Sakhi Pol | Photography:House On The Clouds | Videographer: Play The Novel | Bride's stylist : Rashi Kapur | Bridal Outfits: Seema Gujral Design (Wedding), ShopDuara (Veil), Tarun Tahiliani (Rehearsal Dinner), Siddhartha Bansal (Mehendi), Eeksha (Haldi), Mrunalini Rao (Sangeet), Sabyasachi Mukherjee (Reception), @lace_and_liberty (Elopement) | Groomwear: Rahul Mishra | Jewellery: Meermankaa
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