An Elegant Mumbai Wedding With The Most Offbeat Bridal Outfits!
BY Aakanksha | 18 Feb, 2020 | 12528 views | 10 min read
When Tanya's mehendi look first hit the gram, we instantly fell in love with the unique colour and her ethereal look. As days went by, each and every look of her made us swoon! But it was not just Tanya's bridal looks that were amazing, it was also Neev, who looked at par with her! However, all credits do go to Tanya and her groom styling service, CLAD! It is an exclusive styling service for grooms and their families, catering to Indian weddings! Naman Verma Photography & House of Pixels captured all the details from this wedding splendidly and we bet you'll be as spellbound as us!
Meet Tanya & Neev
The groom, Neev, shares how they met and how they knew they were perfect for each other, "So the night I met Tanya, we were at my aunt and uncles anniversary dinner and my cousin, Veda, was bringing a friend. She mentioned the name Tanya, whom I vaguely remembered but didn’t pay much attention to, at that point my focus was getting my aunt to have that 3rd margarita. And then Tanya walked in, looking like everything I'd ever dreamed of. I knew at this moment, this is it, this is her. DON’T MESS IT UP. So in my attempt to not mess it up, I didn’t speak to her at all. But fortunately Veda wanted to party that night and I knew this was my chance. I somehow convinced Veda and Tanya to crash this wedding I was attending that my friend from Singapore was in town for. Tanya and I had our first conversation at this stranger’s wedding and it was like I’d known her my whole life, we just clicked, it was a feeling id never experienced before, it was practically magic. We both knew, from very early on, where we were headed. We wanted to spend our lives together, there was no question about it. So things progressed swiftly, we’d been together a year when I proposed to her and decided on a year long engagement before we got married early this year."
The Mehendi
The Sangeet
The Anand Karaj
The Wedding
From The Bride:
Bridal Outfits:
Gurudwara ceremony (Tarun Tahiliani)– For my Anand Karaj ceremony I knew what I was looking for from the very beginning. It had to be a nude/pastel tone since it was a morning ceremony and being a huge fan of chikankari work, the formidable Designer Tarun Tahilaiani came to mind. Initially I wanted a chikan sharara, but as soon as my mother walked into the store she stumbled upon this classic chikankari anarkali on the rack. The minute I tried it on, Tarun, mum and I knew that it was the one! He made a few changes to the silhouette, changed the colour to a nude pink and since I wanted to wear the duppatta over my head he suggested making a tulle veil with scalloped lace border. It was exactly what I was looking for, an exquisite yet weightless, traditional ensemble. I wore my mother’s exceptionally pretty long earrings with rubies and diamonds.
MEHENDI (Kshitij Jalori) – Since the tones I had picked for all the other functions were pastel/muted, for the mehendi ceremony I was looking for a colourful lehenga. I met with Designer Kshitij Jalori, whose work I admire. He showed me the most beautiful brocade samples and I was sold. However, I wanted to pick an unusual colour – after hours of looking at swatches we picked a spearmint brocade sari which he made into the lightest, best dancing lehenga ever! Matching the dupatta with it was task and we only finalized the colour a month before the function. After dying a number of swatches to different shades of pink we finally went with a Tranquebar jaal dupatta in Old rose colour made in real zari & then matched that with my jewellery. Jewellery for the outfit was a set by Roopa Vohra who also happens to be my aunt. It had the most delicate setting of rubies, uncut diamonds, emeralds & south sea pearls and was truly the highlight.
SANGEET (Gaurav Gupta) - For my Sangeet I didn’t want a conventional outfit, contemporary yet very functional. Going with Gaurav Gupta was a no brainer for me, I’ve known him a long time and have always been in awe of his work, which I feel is wearable art. The way his designs fit your body, the way it makes you feel is indescribable. We went with a white with hints of blush pink geometric waterfall lehenga – with the skirt clinching at the waist and extending into an asymmetric multi layered degrade bottom. Jewellery with this was a delicate diamond set by Begani jewels
WEDDING (Anamika Khanna) - For the wedding, again, I didn’t want to go completely traditional – it had to be a mix of traditional and yet have modern elements. I was always quite sure I’d go with Anamika Khanna for my bridal outfit. Her work is absolutely breathtaking – there’s magic in her designs! The moment I met Anamika & told her a few things I had in mind - like I didn’t want to go for conventional red colour etc, she instantly understood exactly what I was looking for. Each kali is meticulously hand-stitched, flawlessly detailed and a masterpiece of art. The blend of modernity and tradition works perfectly here. Flowers embroidered in French knots, interwoven with intricate zardozi, it was truly the most ethereal bridal lehenga. For the wedding jewellery I went with Raj Mahtani – Raj mahtani’s ‘game of thrones’ necklace (as he likes to call it) is edgy, modern yet classic. I love the fact that it can be dark and mysterious with an off shoulder blouson or bright and luminous with a wedding lehenga. Set in Lustrous rubilites and table cut diamonds to create sensational drama!
Groom Wear:
When it comes to Neev’s style, it has always been classic but with a twist. So going with Rajesh Pratap Singh and Kunal Rawal was the obvious choice here. Being a Mens fashion stylist, I honestly had the best time putting looks together for Neev. For the Gurudwara wedding since I was wearing a Chikankari Anarkali I was keen on Neev wearing Chikan as well, however I didn’t want it to be a typical chikankari kurta. While I was sitting with Rajesh pratap singh and going through swatches he showed me some of his chikankari embroideries on cotton and I knew instantly we had to go with that. It took him 4 months to develop it and give it to us in time for the wedding. Since it was a cotton kurta we decided to add a silk two toned crushed stole with it. Main wedding – Rajesh pratap singh is known for his beautiful fabrics and textiles. For the main wedding neev was sure he didn’t want a heavy embroidered sherwani but something more that resonates with his style and personality. We went with Rajesh’s Handloom linen silk weave sherwani with tiny gold zari thread embroidery spaced out all over. It was that little detail that lifted the outfit completely and of course the gorgeous gold theva buttons. My favourite part of the outfit however was the pink and gold hand block printed Safa, it looked so aesthetic! Mehendi and Sangeet – For the Mehendi we had picked up a couple of Kurtas that we thought we’d decide last minute and see. We didn’t plan on matching our outfits or anything since I had picked a very unusual colour for my mehendi outfit. Kunal was designing Neev’s sangeet outfit, so during his fittings he showed me some of his new swatches that he had developed. I was surprised to see that one of the prints was the exactly the same colour as my mehendi lehenga, so we instantly ordered it and ended up twinning at my mehendi! For the Sangeet look Rawal and I tried to push neev out of his comfort zone and try something new, fun and slightly edgy while still keeping his style and comfort in mind. Rawal designed him a deconstructed sherwani with dimensional threadwork in midnight blue that made him glimmer all night.
Vendor Reviews:
Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai -When we did finalise on bombay as our final wedding destination, we were very keen on the Taj Mahal palace. In addition to being a beautiful property, the Taj group’s hospitality is legendary. The chambers terrace being one of the major highlights of the hotel, we were very excited to be able to have our wedding overlooking the Gateway of India at sunset.
Hair & Makeup- My Hair & makeup was done by the exceptional Deepa Verma, simple yet gorgeous makeup on all the days, she didn’t even cover freckles on my skin and kept it looking very natural and dewy. From the way she draped the dupatta over my head to the delicate hairdos it was sheer magic. The best thing being that she kept me looking like myself yet the most special version. I felt confident, easy and simply on top of the world.
We used Naman Verma for our wedding Photos/ videos and Apeksha Maker from House of Pixels for our portraits. The reason we picked Naman was because we didn’t want cliché wedding photos and wedding video. We wanted something aesthetic and authentic, someone who captured the real moments. Naman’s style of photography is mix between Editorial and commercial which is what we loved about him the most. His team really went out of their way to make sure they captured every single moment so we could relive this magical week over and over. And House of Pixels for being ever so patient and giving us portraits for a lifetime!
Jehangir and Afreen Wedding Services are famous for their floral arrangements, however here they handled the end to end décor, from designing to production. We were quite sure that we didn’t want an entirely typical mandap. We wanted it to be modern yet have some traditional elements to it and Jehangir truly outdid himself. He created a mirrored dome structure covered in a beautiful arrangement of pastel flowers. It was nothing like we’d ever seen before & it really blew us away. He was going for simple elegance using peonies, ranunculus, hydrangeas and bourvardias in different shades of soft pinks with touches of fuchsia and baby lavender. The flowers were both domestic and international, originating from India, of course, and imported from Holland, South Africa, New Zealand and a select few flowers from Japan, which was a landmark since that has never been done before. In addition to creating the most beautiful décor, end to end, for the entire wedding and all the functions, Afreen Wedding Services also sent the unused flowers to be recycled and sent any of the leftover and richer flowers to old peoples homes and orphanages.
Vendors: Venue: Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai; Makeup Artist: Deepa Verma ; Photographer: Naman Verma Photography & House Of Pixels; Decor: Afreen Wedding Services ; Bridal Outfits: Mehendi - Kshitij Jalori, Sangeet - Gaurav Gupta , Anand Karaj - Tarun Tahiliani , Wedding - Anamika Khanna ; Mehendi Artist: Veena Nagda ; Groom Wear: Kunal Rawal , Rajesh Pratap Singh
