Congratulations to our 'Bride of the Month" for June. She shares with us the experience of having a grand wedding. A wedding fit for Indian Royalty!
Bhavna’s Big Fat Indian Wedding
Like most girls, I’ve always dreamed of a grand wedding – the kind that involves elephants and fireworks, you name it. This vision changed as I grew older and I told myself that I’d prefer keep things simple when the time come, but everyone knows that Indian weddings are far from that! The journey towards my Big Fat Indian Wedding began when CP proposed to me a year ago. Within minutes, the news spread and I received well wishes from my relatives, friends, friends of friends…and friends of friends of friends – basically I was slightly overwhelmed from the get go!
Soon after, a date was set for our engagement and ROM in Singapore – 19 August 2012 – and the planning began. Having a couple of friends in the wedding business, I raised my hand to take charge of some key areas including décor, photography, cake as well as my hair and makeup. The Singapore Indian Brides website was one of my first references in the research process and it was very useful to read about other brides’ experiences!
For décor, the key task was to decorate an existing outdoor tent at the Katong Gurdwara, and even though there were many options to choose from, hardly any fit the budget or had experience with Indian functions. I then came across KM Wedding, which proved to be perfect! They were very professional, reliable and flexible. My main contact was the owner, Mrs Kumar and she immediately understood what I had in mind – Indian royalty/palace theme – from our first meeting!
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For photography, it was crucial that I engaged someone who had genuine interest in weddings and –as cheesy as it may sound – believes in love. I didn’t spend too much time on this because I already had an idea – Yixin from PicsCanFly. She might not have had the opportunity to shoot many Indian weddings but she has the passion and it definitely reflects in her pictures. My best friend also previously hired her and the photos really do speak for themselves. This was probably the best decision I made for the engagement and everyone was very pleased with the result! For the cake, it was a no-brainer because a good friend of mine – Hinna Belani from Diamond Chefs – recently started her own cake business and is awesome at what she does. Like Mrs Kumar, Hinna picked up the theme easily and came up with a rough sketch in no time. The final design and actual cake turned out amazing – it was everything I had dreamt of…and more!
Finally, my hair and make-up – just like the choice of photographer, I decided not to go with the usual suspects who traditionally do Indian weddings. Instead, I went with an up and coming artist, Kazumi Jasmine. After some research and help from friends, I found that Jasmine had just the style I was looking for – natural with attention to detail. Despite not having as much experience as others, she did a great job and it was one of the things I got complimented on the most!
Alongside these preparations, my parents worked on the venue, priest and F&B. We decided to go with one of our favourite Indian restaurants – Moghul Mahal – and they did not fail to deliver! Instead of having a usual buffet set-up, we arranged for stalls where certain food items were made on the spot (for example, pasta and chaat). So that sums up my experience with the engagement – I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the story!
The main wedding occasions were held in Varanasi, India (where CP’s family is originally from) last February, but CP and I did not get very involved, aside from outfits and giving overall direction for the theme (just like the engagement – Indian royalty/ place). Do get in touch if you’re interested to find out more – meanwhile, here are some photos from the week-long celebrations!
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