A Traditional Bangalore Wedding With The Bride In A Bright Pink Kanjeevaram

Anusha & Sandeep got married in an intimate ceremony in Bangalore and the celebrations were truly about love and family. From a total at home haldi and mehendi to a glam sangeet and a traditional wedding, they had it all. To say Anusha looked like a dream at her wedding would be an understatement. Shining in a bright pink kanjeevaram, Anusha looked like the perfect South Indian bride. Sandeep also complimented her well in a traditional dhoti kurta and the couple looked made for each other. LightBucket Productions★ 4.9 's happy candid shots were like the cherry on top of this beautiful wedding! 

Meet Anusha & Sandeep 

Anusha & Sandeep's love story is a one totally in tune with the current times! "It was the summer of 2014 when Sandeep was at one of his friend's birthday party. He was among his friends and saw a girl arrive at the party and thought, "Wow, she looks amazing!". And that was it. Years later, in early 2018, he came across a profile in a dating website. He knew the picture in the profile looks very familiar. It was Anusha's profile. They went on a first date, and he immediately recognized her that she was the one he saw at his friend's birthday party back in 2014. Later they realized that not only that one single friend is common among them but they have many other mutual friends. Small world indeed. Several dates followed and it felt like they had known each other for ever! And now after 2 years comprising of many more dates, laughter, craziness, many more friends and lots of vacations later they feel so lucky to have found each other and have never been more happier!" 

The Sangeet 

The Wedding 

From The Bride: 

I always wanted a small intimate wedding with close family and friends. Luckily Sandeep shared the same thought and so did our parents. My idea of the wedding I wanted was keeping it minimalist as well as elegant in terms of decor, ceremonies, and attire while incorporating the south Indian charm into it. The only other thing I always wanted was to get married in Tamarind Tree (wedding venue in Bangalore) - I remember seeing this place online back in 2012 at which time it was hardly known to people. This place had all the charm of a south indian wedding venue with an old vintage beautiful stone mantap - it made for the perfect wedding venue! I wanted to keep the decor very vintage and traditional and not make it over-powering that the beautiful venue gets hidden behind the decorations. For this reason I chose orange and yellow marigold flowers with a touch of Jasmine flowers. The mantap is a beautiful old wooden structure - and to keep that charm - the best was to use only marigold flowers and nothing else. My idea was that it had to look simple and elegant and keep to the style of the venue. My mom and me also decided to give food as wedding favors as that is one thing people enjoy most vs giving a gift article which some people might not like. I got custom bridesmaids/groomsmen gifts made from Pastels and Pop as well as a thank you to all our close friends who came from far and near to be with us for the wedding. We dint want to have a traditional reception where the bride and groom stand on stage whole night and greet guests. Instead we transformed that idea into something different. Since we also wanted to have a sangeet night filled with dances and toasts, and also since traditionally most south Indian weddings don't have a sangeet night concept we decided to combine the idea of sangeet and reception - where in we had comfortable chairs and round tables for guests to sit and eat and place to walk around and get some cocktails and mocktails, while we (bride and groom) spent maybe the 1st 1.5 hours from the start of the event to welcome and talk to guests, following which we had the sangeet - which included dances and toasts from close family and friends. This way we avoided the stage and the never ending line of guests. I planned the dances and speeches such that between every dance, there would be a speech which was given by our parents, our close friends and our siblings. My cousin who is uber talented was the MC for the entire night! Having a close family member who knows the bride and groom do the MC made it more closer to our hearts and much more fun! One thing I made sure was that the mantap had only the priests, the parents of the bride and groom and the bride and groom themselves - and no one else. This was so that everyone seated can view what is happening and the mantap is not crowded with people as it happens in most weddings. My aunts cousins helped make sure everyone remains seated. We had also asked the priest to translate everything into english so that everyone including us would understand what is being said. I wanted everything taken care of before hand so that at the wedding - everyone including close family and the bride and groom are actually enjoying the ceremonies, the traditions, the events - everything whole heartedly instead of worrying about things, or being stressed out or tired. I had always heard from everyone, all my friends who are married that the bride and groom never enjoy their own wedding. I can now confidently say I proved them all wrong - as with all the planning that was done to make sure everything was in place and after delegating the work as much as possible so that we get help from friends and family as well - really helped Sandeep and me to truly enjoy the wedding in all its entirety. I can definitely say the wedding turned out to be if not more exactly as how I had imagined it to be! The most beautiful moment for me was when the bride and groom see each other for the first time (the cloth called anthatpatta that is held between us is taken down and we saw each other and smiled knowing we both are so happy to be there celebrating our love for each other)! 

A note to all new couples
Something Sandeep and me would like to add: To all the couples out there - try to enjoy the wedding prep together as much as you can and not get sucked into arguments over minor things with each other or with family! The reason it is important to enjoy each and every moment prior to the wedding and all the wedding prep is that the actual wedding itself will go buy so fast you will not believe it - but definitely make an effort to enjoy pre wedding too as much as the actual wedding itself ! Get a candid video shot for the wedding - this will be the memory you can relive any time! And smile and enjoy every moment! Another thing i think is very important is for the couple to take at least a few days off if not a longer vacation to anywhere - even if its staycation its ok - but take time off after the wedding together and recuperate yourselves as this is very important for you to stay in the happy marriage zone even when life comes back to normalcy!

A little something about my mom - the super wedding planner!
We didn't hire any wedding planner because I had my mom! She managed so much of my wedding preps and more, independently while I was communicating with her from across the world! I couldn't have done it without her and she was nothing short of a wedding planner to me :)

Vendor Reviews: 

Venue: Tamarind Tree, Bangalore
This place had all the charm of a south Indian wedding venue without being enclosed between 4 walls. The old vintage beautifully decorated villa, the stone mandap and the pond - all made it the perfect wedding venue that would incorporate the beauty of old world, vintage style wedding. The folks managing the venue also are very helpful and very good at their job.

Makeup Artist: Ralph Daniels
I wanted a simple & natural look - and who else better to do this than Ralph! He was amazing - from the time I first met him and told him what I envisioned my look to be, to discussing every little detail with me and to executing it perfectly - he was perfect! He did such a flawless and natural make up and his hair style was truly magical giving me the look exactly how I wanted! I can't tell you how many compliments the make up and hair style got and all this is thanks to his magical and perfect work!

Photographer: Lightbucket Productions
Super friendly and amazingly talented group. They took some of the amazing candid pictured of our wedding. The wedding video looks nothing short of a feature film. We never realized when they came so close to take some of the video shots as they were very seamless in their work, without interrupting the wedding and blocking the view for the guests. We could not have been more happier with our choice in the photographers! They are truly the best team to work with!

Decor: Sathyanarayan (In house decorator for Tamarind Tree)
I met with the decorator who is the in-house decorator for Tamarind Tree and I told him each and every detail of decorations that I wanted on each and every pillar, corner, mantap, entryway. He understood everything I envisioned and he was so meticulous in bringing it to life - and I could not have had it any other way. He and his team were on point with each and every detail and were amazing!

Invites: Supriya Kaushik
She helped design the most quirky personalized invitation for us! I worked with her over a period of 3 months and she was so good at discussing all the ideas and would not settle until I was happy with the outcome - she was a delight to work with!

The groom wore the band gala suit from Manyavar for the Sangeet - Manyavar has some great wedding collection and they helped make sure the outfit was perfectly fitting as well! For the wedding - he wore a traditional dhoti with a kurta all in a cream color and a gold border. His juttis were also custom made for both the Sangeet and Wedding by Pastels and Pop - they are such an amazing team to work with and will go to any extent to make your dream outfits come to life!

Bridal Outfits: 

Haldi: I wore my mom's yellow saree and kept the jewelry to a simple necklace and earings (also my mom's) - basically wanted to wear things that belonged to my mom for that event!
Mehendi: I worked with Pastels and Pop, who are one of the top designers for juttis in India, to get my mehendi outfit. I wanted the outfit to be playful and bright, yet comfortable! The team at Pastels and Pop designed a gorgeous pink palazzo pants with an embroidered crop top which I wore with kundan jewelry.
Sangeet: I wore a lehenga by Jayanti Reddy - I ordered this lehenga from a store here in California called The Grand Trunk - who are the official retailers for the designers such as Sabyasachi, Anushree Reddy, Jayanti Reddy, Anamika Khanna, to name a few. They were very professional and helped with everything from the ordering to the delivery and fitting. For all the brides in California , I would totally recommend them! Now for Jayanti Reddy - she has such a gorgeous collection of Lehengas in the most beautiful colors. The moment I saw her signature purple colored lehenga - I was head over heals for it. I contacted Jayanti Reddy herself and she was super helpful even thru whats-app. She was able to suggest and help me make some minor changes with regards to the style of the blouse. She was very approachable and very easy to work with and also hear team works super well with Grand Trunk which made things so easy for me! Her lehengas are super comfortable and so well designed that I am so glad I picked her for my wedding lehenga outfit! I accompanied this with diamond jewelry - necklace , earings and bangles that we got made specifically for this night.
Wedding: I wore a traditional kancheevaram saree - in a beautiful pink color. This was the color i always wanted to wear and I was lucky when my mom found the exact color I was looking for in Vijayalakshmi Silks in Bangalore. This store has some amazing collections of wedding sarees! For the wedding saree blouse - I wanted the design to be traditional without the entire blouse being covered with over done embroidery - which is why I handed this task over to Pastels and Pop - and they did such an amazing job of doing exactly what I wanted - keeping the blouse with a minimal embroidery work just on the sleeves and along the neckline. They also created a custom set of juttis for me and Sandeep to match our outfits! For the jewelry - I love temple jewelry - you cant have a south Indian wedding without temple jewelry !! I wore one short and one long temple jewelry style necklace, with traditional jumkas an arm cuff as well along with pink bangles mixed with gold temple jewelry style bangles. For the maang tikka I wore a antique green stone pendant that belongs to my mom - we decided to re purpose the the green stone antique pendant as maang tikka since that green stone one my forehead really brings out the color of the pink saree! My jewelry was bought from Navrathan Jewellers, VBJ, Ganesh Jewelers

Vendors: Venue: Tamarind Tree, Bangalore; Makeup Artist: Ralph Daniels★ 4.3 ; Photographer:LightBucket Productions★ 4.9 ; Decor: Sathyanarayan (In house decorator for Tamarind Tree); Invites: Supriya Kaushik; Bridal Outfits: Haldi - Mom's saree, Mehendi - Pastels and Pop★ 5 , Sangeet - Jayanti Reddy★ 4.6 from Grand Trunk Official, Wedding - Saree from Vijayalaxmi Silks★ 5 , Blouse from Pastels and Pop★ 5 ; Bridal Jewellery: Navrathan Jewellers, VBJ, Sri Ganesh Diamonds & Jewellery★ 4.8 ; Bridal & Groom Shoes: Pastels and Pop★ 5 ; Groom Wear: Sangeet - Manyavar★ 4.7