Nisha and Matt’s wedding was truly one for the books! Every detail was beautiful and their 3 days of celebrating was so much fun for everyone involved! From the decor, to the colors, to all of the laughs and love in the room, their wedding was heart felt and full of joy. Seeing their two families come together was so wonderful.

Because of all of the events that happened within their wedding weekend, I’m breaking this blog post up into sections to showcase each day.

Day 1- Grah Shanti • Pithi • Mehndi

The Grah Shanti is a traditional pryer seeking blessings of the planets. This tradition involved the priest and also Nisha’s parents heavily. While her parents were involved with this tradition, lots of family and friends were all around them in their home. 

Then the Pithi Ceremony is a fun time where a tumeric paste is applied to the couple and thought to bless the couple in preparation of the wedding ceremony. After the Pithi was applied by all their family and close friends, Nisha had the fun idea to have water guns for their friends and family to wash off the yellow paste. These photos made me laugh!

The last part of the night was the Mehndi party. This is a time of the bridal henna design, which was done by Nisha’s good friend. All of Nisha’s closest female friends also had a henna design done! Nisha’s Mehndi was just beautiful and so intricate.

Day 2 – Garba • Sangeet • Raas

Day two of Nisha and Matt’s wedding was fabulous! They combined their garba and sangeet night- which are full of music and dance. I was absolutely in love with Nisha’s Lehenga (outfit). Full of color and just gorgeous! Their set design on stage in the ballroom complimented her outfit so well and was stunning.

The Garba is a dance done in a circle with repetitive motion that starts with the bride and groom! This was a dance filled with energy and was so fun to watch and experience! There was so much yummy Indian food that was also so beautifully done.

Day 3 – Baraat • Wedding Ceremony

The wedding ceremony day is a long day especially for the bride with her waking up for hair and makeup  to begin at 3:30am. (Nisha is SUCH a trooper) and I never once heard her complain about being tired.

After hair and makeup, Nisha and Matt had their first look and then time for portraits around the pond at The Westin. It was so nice for them to have that time together before their big day started. Nisha also shared a first look with her dad and Matt’s dad, which was so sweet. Then we had time for photos with their wedding party and family, and of course their dog Ramsay was included in a few of these.

Then the Baraat. What a FUN tradition! This is a time when the groom and his side of the family/wedding party parade to the ceremony with music and dancing. Then the groom is presented to the mother of the bride and officially welcomed. Then Matt was lead to the ceremony, the Mandap (altar), by Nisha’s parents.

The traditional Hindu ceremony is filled with lots of detail. It was just beautiful!

Reception

After a few hours of rest and break time (and more hair and makeup for Nisha… and a nap for Katie, lots of football watching for Mitchel haha) everyone returned for cocktail hour and the big reception! This decor and design was truly amazing, as Nisha’s vision for the night was that it would look like they were in the stars. And oh boy, did it ever? It was to die for, along with her wonderful outfit!! No detail was left undone, just magical!

There were so many sweet touches during the evening. Many years ago, when Matt was 15, his dad was turning 50. So Matt had someone buy him a nice bottle of champagne as his gift to his dad. Matt’s brother made the joke that the bottle of champagne wouldn’t last one night. So their dad made a bet that he wouldn’t open it until the day that Matt got married. So after his dad’s toast, he opened the bottle and shared a glass with Matt & his brother, Nisha, Matt’s sister-in-law, and Matt’s stepmom.

During Matt’s mothers toast, she mentioned that she did not have many embarrassing stories of Matt’s childhood. She said he was a well-mannered and relatively serious child. She did however mention that his “lovie” when he was a child was a green bath towel that he lovingly referred to as “green blankie” (isn’t it funny what items kids take-to and end up loving- this makes me giggle because I GET IT as a mom of a 19 month old). Well, she brought a small strip of that green blankie to give to him – so sweet!

The reception was full of dancing and Matt and Nisha had a grand entrance on a Rickshaw (tuk-tuk) which was just so neat! We loved being a part of their celebration so much.

Vendors:

Venue: The Westin Atlanta Perimeter North

Coordinator: Amina Events

Hair & Makeup: Sumiyah

Decor: Vandana Decor

Catering: Cafe Bombay

DJ/Lighting: Wonder Works Events

Rickshaw rental: Boston Rickshaw

Chivari Chairs: Angel Linen

Live Singer: Vatsla Patil

Live Painter: Ronni Paints

Photography: Katie Jaynes Photography

Videography: Symphonic Productions, in partnership with KJP