Marigold Events – Indian Wedding Inspirations

Happy New Year you all! We are going to kick off the new year with inspiration boards for Color of the Year 2012.

Pantone Color Institute has announced Tangerine Tango as the Color of the Year 2012. A vivacious and spirited reddish orange, dubbed as “Tangerine Tango”, will be in fashion this year. Wedding, Home, and Fashion websites/ blogs are already buzzing about this new color.

How will this color come into play in your wedding? Here are some inspiration boards using shades close to Pantone Color Palette for this year. Hope you enjoy!

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High school sweethearts, Jasmine and Gautam, met (and were eventually engaged!) on a tennis court. Their beautiful wedding took place at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington DC.

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A wedding planner once told me, “Your wedding invitation is the first impression of your wedding.” That thought has stuck with me, and I truly believe, that your wedding invitation should be put together with great thought, and be a reflect what your wedding will be like. The trends in wedding invitations change every year, and it can be hard to keep up with them. One of the hottest wedding trends these days are luxury boxed invitations. Marigold Events (ME) had the opportunity to talk to Puneet Gupta (PG), who designs these kind of boxed couture wedding invitations.

ME: What is your background? How did you get started with designing wedding invitations?

PG: I am a NIFT graduate and have had a love for design since my childhood. After having worked as a design consultant for various Indian & International brands in the lifestyle and fashion industries, I finally decided to use my design capabilities, technical expertise and love for beauty to launch a luxury line of bespoke wedding invitations and favors. Since then, there has been no looking back and with every wedding invitation we produce, this passion for designing has grown stronger and my love for print novelties is getting deeper. Read more »

In the last post we featured Sabrina and Ranvijay’s  Moghul Mujra themed Sangeet. In this post we will talk about the details of their decor and entertainment.

The venue was converted into a luxurious lounge with low, pillow-style Moghul seating.

The decor was lush floral and the ambience, very romantic. Beautiful candelabras and candle walls added dramatic light to the opulent Ballroom.

For the Sangeet, the State and Grand Ballroom at the Palmer House had a very palatial, antique, and Moghul feel to it.

The live entertainment lineup at Sabrina and Ranvijay’s Sangeet was phenomenal! They had the Bellytwins come  in from California to perform mujras to Bollywood classics dressed in eleborate and colorful costumes.

Ambika Raazdan’s dance group were performing mujras on the balcony as guests were entering into the ballroom. Munni Begam, an acclaimed qawwali artist, performed with her group to international hits such as “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom“.

The event was planned by Sabrina Hans herself, and Nisar Naimi of Sabrina Hans Events.

Image Credit: Jai Girard Photography

The Sangeet Night is one of the very vibrant and enjoyable evenings, where both the families come together to celebrate the couple.

Today we are featuring the Sangeet celebration of Sabrina and Ranvijay. Thanks to the lovely Jai Girard for sharing the pictures!

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Imagine trying out Indian designer bridalwear, while hanging out with your girlfriend and sipping on a mimosa on a beautiful summer day at a luxury hotel in Manhattan. This past weekend, Exclusively.In brought this kind of luxurious and pampering wedding shopping experience to New York that no South Asian Bride would ever want to miss!

Black Velvet Saree with Kundan Work by Shyamal and Bhumika

Brides could try out and buy custom fitted made-to-order Sarees, Lenghas, and Anarkalis from the exclusive collections from designers such as Ritu Kumar, Shyamal and Bhumika, Payal Singhal, Satya Paul, Archana Kocchar and more.  For Grooms, there was a very elegant collection of Sherwanis.

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A few months back we had featured the Cherry Blossom engagement session of Aman and Gurdeep. We are so excited to feature their wedding and reception pictures. Thank You Photographick Studios for sharing beautiful photos of the couple with us!

Aman and Gurdeep’s wedding was an intimate affair with close family and friends.

Getting Ready

I absolutely love Aman’s outfit and jewelry. Her kaleeras are my favorite – they perfectly match her outfit.

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The following pictures is the concluding post in the series telling the story of Arun and Kreso. The pictures in this post are from their wedding ceremony and reception. The pictures have been taken by Shuva Rahim of Accent Photographics.

Arun and Kreso had a small wedding in Danforth Chapel on the University of Iowa campus. Their families flew long distances, from India and Croatia, for the wedding. Their ceremony began with the beautiful guitar music of Dana Starkell as the proud papa walked his daughter down the aisle.

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The following article is a guest post by Shaily. Shaily and her husband planned their wedding in six months. In this article she gives some very useful tips on how she and her husband went about their wedding planning process and have a wedding of their dreams. Hope you enjoy! Photo Courtesy: Sandeep Ingale of Bestphotog

Planning your wedding is both an exciting and stressful time.  It doesn’t matter whether you have six months or two years, there are still the same amount of tasks that need to be planned and executed.  My husband and I planned our wedding in just six months and it was most certainly a labor of love.  How did we do it?  We did it just like any other couple does by focusing on what matters the most to us and recognizing our limits and our budget.

First we started with the basics that every wedding needs: a priest, a venue and a caterer.  Once those were in  place, we focused on what meant the most to us: photography, entertainment and decor.  While we planned our wedding in six months, we did take some time prior to do our research to know that it was possible to take the plunge in such a short amount of time.  We made sure we vetted all of our vendors as thoroughly as we could via email prior to meeting them in person, thus reducing the amount of time spend traveling from meeting to meeting.  Meeting with our top 2 or 3 choices whether it was a photographer or venue really helped to maximize our turn around time on each vendor decision.

Second, it was really important to us that our wedding be a reflection of our personalities and be as personal as possible.  We decided to DIY our invitations and chose a theme that reflected both my Indian culture and my husband’s late father: paisleys.  We found a graphic we liked from iStockPhoto and leveraged both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create our invitation suite.  We created all of our paper products from the invitations, programs, seating cards, menus and candy buffet bags.  We leveraged the theme through most of these items and stayed with the same color scheme to ensure that they all tied together. Read more »

The following post is by our guest blogger, Sneha Subrahmanian of My Shaadi Obsession. Check out her DIY tutorial to create your own Save-the-Dates!

Making our Save The Date’s was a lot of fun. We wanted to do something different so we created these minicard magnets!

Since our wedding date was on a popular long weekend, we wanted to send them out ~10 months in advance. We had just done an engagement session, so to create the save the date minicards, we picked 3 photos, including one from our formal engagement party to have a few different looks.
Here are the rest of the details: Read more »

Happy New Year you all!

Pantone Color Institute has announced Honeysuckle Pink as the Color of the Year 2011. A vibrant reddish pink hue, dubbed as “Honeysuckle“, will be in fashion this year. Wedding, Home, and Fashion websites/ blogs are already buzzing about this new color.

How will this color come into play in your wedding? Here are some inspiration boards using shades close to Honeysuckle and other shades, like Blue Curacao, Coral Rose, Peapod, Russet and Peony Silver, in the Pantone Color Palette for this year. Hope you enjoy!

Inspiration Board: Shades of Honeysuckle, Peapod and Blue Curacao

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Hello Lovely Ladies! Wedding Wednesdays just got more interesting on Marigold Events. We get many questions from brides asking for wedding advice. We will be selecting and answering “Question of the week” every Wednesday on Marigold Events. Ask your question by filling out our contact form on the right.

Q. I am getting married in six months and am very confused on how to plan my wedding. How should I go about my shopping. I want to have a royal wedding with traditional Punjabi touches and want to make it a memorable event. I would prefer pinks, reds and lots of gold.

A. Dear Bride-to-be: Congratulations! Planning a wedding can seem to be a daunting task, and you should break it down to smaller tasks and have a plan of action. Following is a list of things you will need to shop for:

1. Wedding Invitations
2. Wedding Outfits
3. Wedding Jewelry
4. Accessories: Bindis, Bangles, Shoes, and Purses
5. Trousseau
6. Favors and gifts for family and friends
7. Money Envelopes and other gift wrapping/packing supplies

Now that you know what you need to shop for, I would suggest picking colors for your wedding. Pink clashes with red, so I would suggest that you pick shades of red, orange and gold. These would be great colors for a traditional and royal look. You can tie in your colors in all the things you get for your wedding – from invitations, to decor, to your outfits. You can find beautiful invitations in many colors and themes on invitation websites. Here is an example of a unique invitation that I think will go along well with your colors:

For a traditional and at the same time royal look, I would suggest that you include marigolds in your decor. You can also incorporate orange gerbera daisies, red roses and chrysanthemums for accents. You could ask your decorator if he can incorporate different styles of rangoli (on floor and water) and fabrics like organza and chiffon in your wedding decoration. For shimmery look in your decor, you can ask the decorator to use strings of crystals. You could also have antique chandeliers at your venue for a royal look.

Since you are Punjabi, consider using kaleeras in your wedding decor. When you walk to the stage/mandap for jai mala, your cousins/brothers/sisters/bridesmaids will be walking along you – At that time you can have your entourage carry a “Phoolon ki Chaadar” or a sheet made of flowers over your you. You can have your decorator/florist decorate this with many different kinds of flowers, fabric and even kaleeras.

Hope I was able to provide some helpful wedding planning pointers to make your wedding memorable. Good Luck and don’t forget to have fun while planning your wedding!

Shopping in Delhi is fabulous! It is full of cute shopping areas with nifty stores. Yesterday I was shopping around in Greater Kailash I, N Block market, and found this amazing gift and home accessories store called Kassmi. Kassmi has some amazing collection of accessories and gifts, which can be used as wedding favors, gifts, as well as wedding trousseau.

They have an amazing range of products, hand crafted using brocade and zardozi or dabka work, like trays, jewelry boxes, coasters, photo frames, lamps, corner tables, umbrella stands, planters, and lots more. I had the pleasure of meeting the owner, Smita Kasliwal, one of the owners of Kassmi, and talk to her about her work.

Zardozi work is very intricate, gold thread work, which never goes out of fashion. Brocade and Zardozi are usually used on sarees, salwar kameez and lehengas, but Smita has taken these fabrics and hand embroidery to a more unique level, by using it to design home accessories.

I found the stuff at Kassmi beautiful, practical, as well as reasonably priced. I really liked their coasters and I think that would make for a gorgeous and a very practical wedding favor. Kassmi take appointments at their store. I highly recommend shopping at this store as it has stuff in every budget range.

Next week I will be giving away a home accessory that I picked up from Kassmi. Please note that the views presented in this blog post are my unbiased views and this is not an endorsement.

The following post is by our guest blogger, Ruchi Garg Kalra of RGK D’Zines. All the photos of  gorgeous jewelry pieces in this post have been designed by her design studio, that showcases different designers, and can be purchased on her website. Scroll to the bottom of the article for a special offer!

When you think of a wedding you think of love and all that went into bringing those two people together.  Most brides have dreamed of their wedding day since they were little girls.  They are excited not only about what the future holds but also everything that will go into making that day one of the most memorable days in their lives.

Apart from the choosing the wedding dress the bride will wear, the next most important selection is of the gorgeous jewelry she will be wearing.  Most brides today are looking for simple, yet elegant pieces that help make a statement.

Modern South Asian American brides of today are done with their grandmother’s traditional love of big gold necklaces and perfectly matching earrings.  Nowadays if they have statement earrings that have a hint of tradition and a hint of gold they have reached a perfect balance.  They want something more versatile and modern. They are looking for pieces with a unique sense of style and flair.  They are looking for pieces that they can wear more than just on their wedding day.

The modern American glamorous bride is trending away from traditional diamonds to statement chandelier earrings.  Statement earrings not only are bold, but they also add class and style that is timeless. Vintage inspired chandelier earrings in sterling silver with crystals, semi precious stones and fresh water pearls are affordable yet classic.  Statement Chandelier Earrings are a must for any glamorous yet classy bride of today!

RGK D’Zines is one such jewelry design studio that showcases unique pieces.  The pieces are stylish, diverse and add a mystique to your elegance. The inspiration for these pieces dates back to the Victorian and Royal Mogul era in India. Pieces are truly unique and combine the old world traditions with the new world fusion.  Their jewelry has been worn on the red carpet at the Emmys and also has adorned many Hollywood Celebrities.  Check out the collection at www.RGKdzines.com or fan them at www.facebook.com/RGKdzines and also do check out their blog at www.rgkdzines.wordpress.com.

Natasha Alam (True Blood) wearing RGK D'Zines ring at Hollywood Gala, September 2010

Sarah Drew (Grey’s Anatomy) wearing RGK D'Zines Earrings at The Emmy Event

Ali Fedotowsky , bachelorette wearing RGK D'Zines earrings at The Emmy Event

The RGK collection pieces are all either sterling silver or 24K gold vermeil with semi precious stones and fresh water pearls.

Special Offer for Marigold Events Readers – RGK D’Zines is offering 10% off to all our followers! Use the discount code “Marigold” when making purchase on their website.

Looking for unique invitations? Don’t want to go to India to get your invitations? Looking for eco-friendly invitaitons? 3 Bees Paperie is your answer. Indian weddings consist of many events, and putting together multiple invitations can get expensive. I spoke with Reena Vadehra of 3 Bees Paperie – A stationary company with unique invitation collections, printed on high-quality lush paper and inspired by contemporary South Asian Designs – like peacocks, mosaics, paisleys and tribal designs.

3 Bees Paperie have two wedding collections:

1. Couture weddings: Ready-to-order wedding invitations. These are already designed invitations, which can be printed with your content very quickly. The ready-to-order collections are eco-friendly, printed on FSC-certifed paper with recycled envelopes.

2. Made for You: For custom wedding invitations. These are completely customized to your wedding theme, motifs and color pallet. These can use different types of printing like offset, letterpress, screen printing or digital.

In addition, they also sell Thank You card sets on their Etsy store.

Reena said that 3 Bees Paperie invitations use unique color combinations that you don’t commonly see in Indian Invitations: Orange and Plum, Turquoise and Green, Yellow and Plum etc.

Check out the entire collection on 3 Bees Paperie’s Website.