Sanjana and Revant at JW Marriott, Delhi
What happens when a natural disaster hits your wedding venue? Revant and Sanjana’s experience was like no other.
Our series, ‘Featured Weddings’ brings you wonderful moments from weddings held at the finest venues across different cities. Here, Delhi-based Revant Jain, tied the knot with Sanjana Agarwal from Kathmandu, Nepal. He is an importer specializing in Belgian beers. She moved her bakery, Mad Batter, to Delhi. Here, the bride shares their experience from their very first meeting to the last gleams on the peacock feathers of their iridescent wedding day.
How we met
“Our families arranged our match. We met just four or five times before we decided to spend the rest of our lives together. Revant is this calm, composed person, the perfect complement to my hyperactivity. He has this comforting quality that makes me feel at peace. We got engaged in February 2015 at the Taj Mahal Hotel in New Delhi and decided to tie the knot in June 2015. Three months flew by shopping and prepping for the wedding. In those three months, Revant pampered and surprised me often. The more I got to know him, the more I looked forward to being with him.
Wedding Planning
We’d decided to host the wedding at the Hyatt in Kathmandu. Unfortunately, the earthquake struck Nepal on 12th April. The country was in shambles. We didn’t feel right celebrating there with the country in mourning. With only one month to go, moving the wedding to Delhi made sense. However, having a wedding outdoors in the summer was impossible. Some of the farms we checked out were very loud.
My family owns two upcoming Marriott properties in Nepal and JW Marriott was the best location we could think of in Delhi. It has an amazing ballroom with a lot of space. We knew the food at Marriott would be perfect too. With the co-operation and hard work of the hotel and our families, we put the wedding together in just one month.
The Wedding
We had around 400 guests who flew in from Nepal and another 100 from different parts of the world.
Day 1: Engagement- White Wedding-I always dreamt of having a white wedding. I bought my gown from Hong Kong and Revant got his tux from London. My bridesmaids wore the same outfit and did a flashmob dance to “Happy” before the bridal entrance. I entered as the song “Here comes the bride” played after which we exchanged rings.
I danced with my father to “Daddy’s little angel” and then my first dance with Revant was while Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking out loud” played.
We had a band playing at the engagement ceremony, which turned into a party for the youngsters. I changed into a yellow gown and Revant changed from a white tux into a black one. We wanted a personal touch so we placed Jenga blocks at the entrance that all the guests signed with messages for us. We kept flip-flops for the girls so they could kick off their heels and dance with us till wee hours of the morning.
Day 2: Sangeet – It was a typical fun-filled sangeet with performances by the family. I danced to ‘Kehna Hi Kya’ and then Revant and I danced together to “Oh boy you are mine” and “Kabhi Jo Badal Barse”. Later, we had Amit Jadav perform.
Both of us wore Shantanu and Nikhil.
Day 3: Haldi and Nuptials – The day started with the Haldi ceremony. The theme was Phoolon ki Holi for which we literally created showers of flowers. I wore a yellow saree.
The baarat started in the afternoon and Revant arrived in a vintage car. I entered in a peacock dholi, as that was the theme for the wedding ceremony.
The decor was a mass of flowers and gorgeous peacock feathers. It was the perfect way to give wings to our flight of fancy.
Like any bride, I was mixed with various emotions. I was looking forward to Revant being a part of my new life, but I was scared about living with a new family and I was very sad about leaving my house and family, and moving into a new city. Despite, so many emotions I managed to have a lot of fun at the wedding. A lot of our friends traveled from different cities and we made it a point to dance till wee hours of the morning with them everyday.
Some of the moments which will always be close to my heart from the wedding are our friends’ toast at the white wedding,my dance with my father, my first dance with Revant, my brother’s speech at the sangeet night, my mother’s dance on Kabira and the vidai.”
The Wedding Makers
Make Up Artist: Nivritti Chandra – Cory Walia recommended Nivritti. I wanted a natural look and also wanted to look different at each event. And as soon as I spoke to her, I was convinced she would be perfect.
Photography & Wedding Film: The Wedding Salad
