Modern Meets Bollywood With This Multi-Faceted Wedding That You Have to See!
Multiple wardrobe changes, multiple decor changes, and a party at The London in West Hollywood, anyone would want to attend! For Brandon & Vikas, they wanted anything but traditional for their wedding day reception - from a Bollywood themed cocktail hour, to a reception with lounge furniture and ALL of the dancing, all planned by Jacqueline Hallgarth and envisioned by groom and groom! The Hidden Garden beautifully crafted multiple floral arrangements to fit the couple's multi-faceted day from ceremony to cocktail hour, to reception and Lucas Rossi Photography captured it all perfectly. Take a peek and consider having a different theme for every portion of your special day!
From the Couple...We did not want our wedding reception to in any way feel traditional, uncomfortable, formal, or awkward for our guests. Instead, we had a vision of a rooftop party in a lounge setting where guests were free to mingle with each other, move around easily, drink, dance, and be joyful. We wanted everyone to feel welcome, loved, and carefree. For the ceremony, we wanted bright, white, sunny, and clean. We envisioned some seating but mostly standing room only and the opportunity for our guests to meet each other before we arrived. And, for the cocktail hour between the ceremony and reception, we wanted full-scale Bollywood fun to honor Vikas’ heritage.We wanted everything to feel bright, modern, and effortless. For the ceremony, the vision was bright white with black and silver accents, and a pop of red for the officiant’s dress. We knew this simple color palette would work well with our white flowers and the green flooring at The London. For the cocktail hour, the more color the better for the Indian theme, but we wanted it to look purposeful and seamless. The reception was designed to be a night-time version of the ceremony, so we went with darker colors – black, grey, and pulled some of the white from the ceremony. The overall style and vision was simple but luxe.
We designed everything ourselves with some expert guidance from our fantastic wedding planner, Jacqueline. We chose all of the furniture, tenting, flowers, music, favors, our own attire, and all other details. It’s always challenging to design a venue with only an idea of what it might look like – especially in the relatively large spaces at The London – but we were more than pleased with the result. One specific element that was particularly important to us was the cake. We wanted to blend the themes of simple and modern with traditional Indian and this resulted in beautiful large mehndi design on the multi-tiered cake, including a heart and peacock to symbolize special moments on a recent vacation in India. Many guests thought the cake was a sculpture and were surprised when we started our cake-cutting moment! We could not have been happier with the cake designed by The Butter End. We also had a figurine made by Doob on Melrose – an eight-inch replica of us that was part of the cake display.
Our favorite moment of the wedding was undoubtedly the exchange of vows and being able to share our love with our friends and family on such a beautiful afternoon. Other favorite moments were the Bollywood dancers during our cocktail hour, our choreographed dance to open the wedding reception (Josh Groban’s “More of You” combined with Rihanna’s “We Found Love”), the combined mother-son dance, and the toasts provided by Vikas’ sister and Brandon’s brother.We chose flowers that reflected the style vision – simple but luxe. White flowers abounded – orchids, roses, and calla lilies – and we also added arrangements of succulents. We each wore five different ensembles to reflect the mood of each “chapter” of the wedding – ceremony (white tux jackets), cocktail hour (traditional Indian attire both us as well as the entire wedding party), reception (black tuxes), dancing (flashy jackets), and post-party (flashier jackets – ahem, sequins). For favors, we wanted to choose something classy, meaningful, and edible. We knew that macarons from Bottega Louie would be a hit and we were correct!
It’s important to put a great deal of thought and time into creating your vision for your wedding. It’s equally important to partner with a fantastic wedding planner and we were very lucky to find Jacqueline. As well as our brilliant photographer, Lucas Rossi. But once the planning is done and everything is set to go, it’s MOST important to step back, take a breath, and enjoy each and every moment. Weddings go by quickly but it’s so worth all the work to make your special day truly phenomenal.
Photography: Lucas Rossi Photography | Floral Design: The Hidden Garden | Cake: The Butter End Cakery | DJ: Unite Entertainment | Favors: Bottega Louie | Dancers: Haseen Dance Company | Lighting & Draping: Above The Top Party Rentals | Linens: La Tavola Fine Linen Rental | Planning: Jacqueline Hallgarth | Rentals: Town And Country Rentals | Venue & Catering: The London West Hollywood