Gaurav and Garima, Cocoon, The Maldives
The heavy Mumbai rains delayed Garima and Gaurav's Mumbai wedding ceremony. However, they made up for that stressful time with rocking three-day celebrations in the Maldives.
Sun, sand and sensational views were just what Gaurav and Garima wanted for their wedding celebrations in the Maldives. Here, bride Garima shares details of the three-day celebrations with their closest friends and family.
How We Met
Garima shares, “Gaurav and I met through mutual friends, and over time, he mustered the courage to ask me out. We have never looked back since. He proposed to me in London over the summer at the Arts Club. Gaurav being Gaurav – I could tell the minute I met him that day that something was up! Nonetheless, it was amazing I couldn’t have been happier.”
Wedding
“Our actual ceremony was very intimate with only close family attending the ceremony at our home in Bandra. It took place on August 29th, 2017 – the day that Mumbai had seen the heaviest rains in over two decades! My ceremony was slated to take place at 3 pm and I found myself stuck and stranded at the Grand Hyatt junction! I was still there at 6 pm as my car had not moved an inch and I could not turn back! Gaurav and his brother decided to walk through the floods from our home in Bandra to get me – making the five km walk/swim across waist-level water. If I didn’t know already – I knew then that I was making the best decision of my life marrying this man. At 11 pm that night we got married.”
Wedding Venue
“Both Gaurav and I wanted to host something intimate with just our closest friends after our ceremony in Mumbai. So, we decided to do a ‘Youngster’s Weekend’ to celebrate. We decided on the Maldives as our destination and booked the beautiful Cocoon hotel there for three days.”
Wedding Planning
“We didn’t have a wedding planner because it was such an intimate affair. The team at Cocoon Maldives was incredible. We briefed them about our vision for the wedding, and they gave us the weekend of our dreams! All the credit has to go to them for the planning and execution of the whole thing. Our wedding invites were done by Namrata Shah and included a ‘Message in a Bottle’ theme with shells and sand. The bottle corks had USB drives that were loaded with a video invite. It was really cute. We used Tuhina Chopra Photoworks to do our photography because I love her work which is out of the box and super creative. If there is one person I would recommend to any bride it would be to hire Tuhina as she is a thorough professional and one of the most talented photographers I have ever met. I used Surabhi Ghosh for my makeup, I’ve been using her services for years and she has a very fresh ‘less is more’ aesthetic which I love.”
Wedding Functions
Welcome Dinner
“We had a sit-down Welcome Dinner the first night. For this evening, I wore a beautiful dress which my mother-in-law gifted me for this event which was designed by Francesca Miranda.”
Vows Ceremony
The brilliant blue Indian Ocean and sandy beaches of the Maldives are renowned for their natural beauty. Gaurav and Garima kept the decor for their vows ceremony simple and elegant. Their decor color theme was pink, green and peach with white flowers which looked striking against the turquoise water in the background. “We had around 100 people partying in a real paradise for three days! We did a beautiful vows ceremony on the beach which was witnessed by our nearest and dearest. It was magical. The ceremony at sunset was breathtaking. I felt like I was in a fairytale. We kept the dress code casual and non-traditional, so Indian outfits were not mandatory. For the beach ceremony, I wore a gown by a Los Angeles-based designer Nicole Batki as her stuff is exquisite.”
After Party
“The ceremony led into a Sundown After Party where we celebrated till the early hours of the morning. The Maldives is the most beautiful place in the world. It’s Mother Nature’s finest work, so we didn’t really have a lot of decorations. We had beautiful flowers, table lights, and candles at our sit-down dinner but other than that we really didn’t feel like the venue needed anything else to make it more beautiful than it already was.”
The Wedding Makers
Venue: Cocoon Maldives
Wedding Invites: Namrata Shah
Makeup Artist: Surabhi Ghosh
Bride’s Outfit: Francesca Miranda (Welcome Dinner); Nicole Bakti (Wedding)
Photographer:Tuhina Chopra Photoworks