There’s one thing that I’m definitely not wrong about, and that’s the fact that Samhita and Avi have exquisite taste. Together with myself and Paige at Yanni Designs, we created a spectacularly gorgeous, inspiring weekend that was one for the books and it was all captured by the fantastic Amanda Megan Miller Photography and Mirar Weddings.
Samhita and Avi were planning a traditional, South Indian wedding, and with that comes a lot of events, which brings along a lot of places to design and execute a colorful, thoughtful, regal experience. The first of four events was the Haldi ceremony which took place in their condo building. For those who don’t know, a Haldi ceremony is where the closest friends and family members come together to rub turmeric paste on the bride and groom as they wish them blessings before their wedding.
For this event, Samhita was inspired by the colors of marigolds, so a gorgeous backdrop of strung marigolds was created as an altar for Samhita and Avi to sit under as their guests wished them well. We used this color throughout the design in florals, pillows, and linens to create a gloriously bright explosion of marigold goodness.
Following this Haldi ceremony, as Samhita had a hair and makeup change by the talented Kate Johnson of the Bridal Beauty Team, guests made their way into the next room for lunch and leisure. This room was artfully designed in a pallet of pink and lavender and displayed another stunning altar for the bride and groom to sit at again for an additional ceremony with blessings and gifts from their family and friends.
The next day featured our second event, the mehndi party which took place at the Roof on the Wit. The mehndi party featured bright, jeweled tone colors from the entire rainbow with main décor elements of a fun patterned dance floor and an elaborate dancefloor backdrop made of colorful umbrellas and Moroccan lanterns. At this party, Asian Fusion food was served alongside large-format cocktails, great dance music, and Unnati Shah performing her artful skill of henna/mehndi for the ladies. The bride even got up on the dance floor with her bridesmaids to perform a killer dance routine for their guests, and she looked jaw-dropping thanks to Namrata Soni, her hair and makeup artist who flew in from Mumbai to glam our bride for the rest of the weekend.
Now at this point, I’m sure you’re wondering how there could possibly be more, and how the bride and groom hadn’t run out of energy yet, but I assure you, they went full steam ahead into the third and biggest day of the weekend – the wedding day!
The morning of this day was when our traditional Hindu ceremony took place in the Gold Coast Ballroom of the Drake Hotel. The mandap was made of golden pillars that were filled with candlelight, and the backdrop was a gigantic wall completely filled with blush and ivory floral. Overhead was lush, vertical floral suspended as the whipped cream cherry on top. The aisle was lined with lush floral pieces, high and low, and the chairs were thoughtfully draped with chiffon fabric to soften the look.
Once they were officially married, it was time to celebrate, and later that evening guests headed to the Adler Planetarium for the final show, and it did not disappoint! Elements of blush, white, silver, lucite, and mirror were plenty and used throughout the space intentionally to play into the modern aesthetic of the planetarium.
The tables were covered head to toe in mirror table toppers or luxe white linens from BBJ linen which were only the bases for the larger-than-life floral elements that filled the room, tabletop, and above, and everything was made complete with the mirror and white chairs provided by Ellie n Rose. The bars were lucite filled with candlelight, and the menus by Steracle Press shimmered with silver foil.
But the showstopper of the evening had to be the cake made by ECBG Cake Studio! It was a 6-tier mountainous showstopper made of silver marble and floral-filled lucite tiers that had the entire setup crew stopped in the tracks when it arrived and guests dropping their jaws as they entered the room!
The entire evening was filled with love and laughter, the way Samhita and Avi wanted it to be. They performed choreographed dances with each other and their wedding party, and DJ Krush kept the dance floor going into the wee hours of the night. I’m sure Samhita and Avi spent 3 days in bed after their marathon weekend as I did, but in the end, it was all worth it!
Watch their video trailer here:
Vendor Team
- LOLA Event Productions: Lavish LOLA Planning Package
- Amanda Megan Miller Photography
- Mirar Weddings
- Yanni Design Studio (Paige Graham)
- BBJ La Tavola
- Unnati Shah
- Styled by Swati
- Bridal Beauty Team (Kate Johnson)
- Hair by Jojo
- VIP Valet
- Roof on the Wit
- Papa Don’t Preach by Shubhika
- Tarun Tahiliani
- Namrata Soni
- Bianca Sansosti Artistry
- The Drake Chicago
- Shaadi Entertainment
- Jayanti Reddy
- Sabyasachi
- Adler Planetarium
- Food For Thought
- ECBG Studio
- Shutterbooth Chicago
- Falguni Shane Peacock
- Signature Transportation
