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Nirali Ruparel

A footwear designer by profession, Nirali designs all her wedding outfits on her own

Nirali Ruparel, now Nirali Ruparel Gurwada married Aman Gurwada, a South Mumbai resident who lived barely five minutes away from her before they got married. A footwear designer by profession, Nirali has her own bespoke luxury brand named Achilles Heel which specializes in custom made men’s footwear. Aman, an MBA graduate from SDA Bocconi Milano, works in his family business. They got married in Mumbai after an eight year courtship and the wedding was held as per Gujarati and Punjabi traditions.

Nirali tells us about her wedding shopping and planning process:

Wedding Planning
The wedding was planned like a Royal Wedding. From the wedding logo and card to the decor, the cake, to all our outfits — everything was designed and taken care of by Aman and me. We didn’t hire a wedding planner, but we ensured we took a lot of care and efforts in customizing our wedding. We scouted for card makers, embroiderers, fabrics and tailors to keep a check on the budget and at the same time achieve the ‘Royal theme’ we had in mind.

Our wedding celebrations began with a Pre-wedding brunch, followed by the Ring ceremony, Sangeet and Mehndi. The Wedding and Reception were held on the same day.

Wedding Outfits
I browsed through several fashion websites, magazines, and attended bridal fashion shows for inspiration. But being a designer myself, I chose to design and make my own and my husbands outfits, shoes included! For my husband, we even customized his cuff links and tie-pin with his initials. Jewellery is the only thing we purchased from stores after our outfits were made.

All my outfits were designed and embroidered in my workshop, keeping in mind that I wanted them to be subtly bling and yet classy and glamorous. All the creations had an Indo-western influence and I chose colors that blended in well with the royal theme, and were a contrasting match with my groom.

For my pre-wedding brunch, I wore an ice blue one-shoulder red carpet like gown. The wedding logo was embossed on the pocket of Amans brunch day blazer.

For the Sangeet, I wore a navy blue backless lehenga, made of velvet, chiffon and chantilly lace. The lehenga had a subtle red border and silver pita laser cut work, incorporating one of the designs on our wedding card.

For the wedding ceremony, I chose pastel pink and gold to move away from the traditional colors. The lehenga had zardozi, pita and a lot of French knot work.

Hair and makeup
I booked my favourite artist, Recinda Martis a year in advance. I had worked with her on celebrity shoots in the past when I was with HELLO! Magazine. She’s the best and I knew she’d make me look like a star! I researched a little and showed her pictures of what kind of looks I had in mind. All I had to do after that was close my eyes, sit back and chill. I opened my eyes and voila – I looked and felt like a diva! Her sister Ronella Santhumayor did my hairdos. For my Mehndi, we called upon a few women who specialized in Dubai style rose mehndi patterns and they didnt disappoint either.

All in all it was a perfect big fat royal wedding.

Photographs courtesy – The Photo Diary

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