Shvetha Jaishankar’s Big Fat Tam Bram Wedding

Feb 28, 2011 Celebrity Wedding Pictures

A day after Mahesh Bhupathi walked the aisle with actress Lara Dutta, his ex-wife Shvetha tied the knot with Chennai businessman Raghu Kailas. The three day celebrations took place between February 17th and 20th in Chennai. The couple even set up a closed group on a social networking site with the title ‘our big phat Tam Brahm wedding.’ The celebrations started with a Mehendi and the wedding was an intimate ceremony for which Shvetha wore temple jewellery and the nine yards saree (maroon with gold border) worn by Tamil brahmin brides. The grand reception for over 1,200 guests was held at Valliammai Hall.

Shvetha who met Raghu Kailas through common friends announced a few months ago, that she was seeing someone but didn’t mention his name, since Raghu prefers to keep a low profile. Shvetha, was married to Bhupathi for seven years. After her marriage in 2003, the svelte model, a brilliant student, pursued her MBA at ISB, Hyderabad and then she and Bhupathi set up Globosport, the sports management company. After her separation in 2010, she moved to Chennai, where her parents live. She helps her father in his pharmaceuticals business, and also runs an NGO alotofdreams.com. Raghu Kailas manages his family business, Ucal Exports that deals in auto-components.

Tags: Chennai, Raghu Kailas, Shvetha Jaishankar, Valliammai Hall, wedding

Samir Jain hosts daughter’s wedding in Udaipur, Sajjan Jindal’s daughter weds in Delhi

Feb 27, 2011 Destination Weddings

Two business tycoons hosted their daughter’s wedding in February. Tarini, elder daughter of Sajjan Jindal tied the knot with Vikram Handa. Trishla, the artist-daughter of Samir Jain, Vice Chairman of The Times of India group married Miami-bred, Stanford graduate Satyan Gajwani. Ace Wedding Planner Vandana Mohan managed the Jindal wedding. The pre-wedding celebrations were at Shangri-La’s Villingili Resort & Spa, Maldives and the wedding at the Jindal farmhouse in Delhi. The Jain wedding at Jagmandir, Udaipur, was around the same dates as the Jindal wedding, and was co-ordinated by 360 Degrees, the event management division of The Times of India group. Some of Delhi’s A-list bridal specialists and wedding vendors were contacted by both families, and they had to take the tough decision to figure out which wedding to go to. We presume many VIP guests faced a similar quandary!

When Tanvi, the younger daughter of Sangita and Sajjan Jindal got married in Florence last year, WeddingSutra published reports on how the Florence media went ga-ga over the Maharajah style wedding. Back in India, the wedding generated a lot of interest too. Many WeddingSutra visitors are enquiring if we’ll be featuring elder sister Tarini’s wedding photographs. But the bride and groom wish to keep it private, and so we have no pictures to share. We’re still trying though! Media moguls Jains also guard their privacy fiercely, so here again we have no pictures or details on the Trishla- Satyan wedding.

Fashion enthusiast Tarini ran Muse the erstwhile store in Kala Ghoda, she now lives in Abu Dhabi where Vikram manages his family business; Trishla, a poetry and literature graduate from Stanford, is Meera and Samir Jain’s only child. Her first solo art exhibition was held last year, and besides wielding the paintbrush, Trishla takes keen interest in spirituality writings and has over-seen the launch of Times weeklies Times Crest and The Speaking Tree. Satyan relocated to Delhi some years ago, he works with the Internet division of the Times of India group.

Trishla Jain (left) and Tarini Jindal

Tags: 360 Degrees, Daughter, Jagmandir, Sajjan Jindal, Samir Jain, Satyan Gajwani, Shangri-La Maldives, tarini jindal, Times of India Group, Trishla Jain, Vandana Mohan, Vikram Handa, wedding

Marriage fit for Kings- NZ businessman hosts Big Fat Wedding for two Sons in Hyderabad

Feb 27, 2011 Celebrity Wedding Pictures

For a change, Hyderabad, and not Delhi is making big news for its big fat weddings. Late last year, Taj’s newly-opened Falaknuma Palace acquired the status of being the most luxurious boutique wedding property. In December 2010 Krishna Bhupal (grandson of GVK Reddy) married Dia Mehta (daughter of Mumbai’s diamond merchants Devaunshi and Anoop Mehta) at a fairy-tale wedding, which international glossies featured as the most spectacular Society Wedding of the Year. Last week, a NZ/ Hyderabad based Real Estate tycoon S. Ravinder was in the news for hosting “the most expensive wedding” in South India. Ravinder’s two sons Rohit and Ranjeet married cousins Shruti and Divya at a week-long affair with different themes—Bengali, Rajasthani, Punjabi, Middle Eastern, Jodhaa Akbar and hold your breath ‘Underwater’.

S. Ravinder in an interview to WeddingSutra said: “I approached Wizcraft, the Wedding Planners who I had interacted with at IIFA Awards, to execute me and my wife’s dream of organising the most exotic wedding for our sons.” Ravinder does not believe in religious traditions, nor does he believe that the bride’s family should be managing the wedding affair; he and his wife directed the organisers and the bride’s family came in as guests. He adds: “This is an arranged marriage. Two years ago, when we formalised the alliance, we didn’t have an engagement ceremony, only a commitment function. The wedding was held as per the Special Marriage Act and the traditional wedding ceremony lasted for less than five minutes, where the bride and groom exchanged Platinum chains with a diamond pendant to Sivamani’s beats.”

More shaadi details:

- Belly dancers from Dubai, dancers from Russia and percussionist Sivamani performed at the numerous functions.
- A pink Mercedes, one of its kind in India was bought to ferry the brides around town.
- After the Jodhaa Akbar theme wedding, the guests were asked to shift to another side of the reception which had an underwater and desert theme. The shell at the underwater theme reception was closed and opened once the bride and groom got into it.
- The ostentatious festivities were managed by Wizcraft and a record 15,000 guests (10,000 were invited) turned up at the dazzling main wedding function at GMR Gardens on 25th February.

Delhi’s Celebrity Wedding Photographer Bankim Jain whose team managed High definition videography & photography for all the functions, shares with WeddingSutra some photographs.

Photographs courtesy:
www.bankimjain.com

Tags: Bankim Jain, Big Fat, GMR Gardens, Hyderabad, Jodhaa Akbar, Most Expensive Wedding, Themes, Underwater, wedding

The Wedding Filmer

Feb 26, 2011 Wedding People & Planners

Our new column called “Wedding People” where you can get up and close with People who are part of the Wedding Industry. In our second post here, we profile The Wedding Filmer Vishal Punjabi

Vishal Punjabi who till recently was producing and directing commercials for Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment has quit his job to start a delightful new venture ‘The Wedding Filmer’.

Says Vishal: “I put on hold my plans to direct my first feature film, so I could concentrate all my time and efforts on building ‘The Wedding Filmer’ an idea that began at my own wedding which was a beautiful riverside affair. We didn’t get a videographer with us so I decided to capture the weekend with whatever little equipment I had and with the help of some brilliant cinematographer friends. I ended up cutting three films which became an instant hit on Facebook after which I was sure I wanted to set up The Wedding Filmer.

At The Wedding Filmer we create memories for you to treasure for years to come- beautifully captured films of your wedding days. With 10 years of experience in the Indian Film Industry, The Wedding Filmer draws on a huge pool of Bollywood and Fashion talent to create this magic. Each wedding is catered to uniquely and each couple get to choose from a trailer of the wedding, a full length film (ranging from 5 mins to an hour long) along with coverage of the entire event.”

So what does Vishal like most about Wedding film-making? “It’s the best form of film-making I have experienced. Every emotion felt is real. Nothing is staged. What I grew to realize is during the wedding, everyone involved is so busy hosting and making sure everything is right, they miss the emotions they need to go through. Watching them feel those emotions when they watch my films is most heartening.”

To view the work of The Wedding Filmer visit
http://vimeo.com/channels/theweddingfilmer
To get in touch with Vishal visit www.theweddingfilmer.co.in

Tags: The Wedding Filmer, Vishal Punjabi, Wedding Film-making, Wedding Films

Varun Gandhi’s Wedding

Feb 23, 2011 Celeb Weddings to Watch out for

Varun Gandhi and his bride have kept a very low profile (we haven’t even seen a couple picture of Varun and Yamini) but there’s a lot of buzz about this wedding. After all, who wouldn’t be curious to read the wedding details of the scion of India’s now most famous family?

Yamini Roy and Varun Gandhi

The Hindu wedding ceremony is at the Kanchi Shankarachaya’s temple on Hanuman Ghat, Varanasi. The Shankaracharya will preside over the morning wedding ceremony, after which the newly-weds and their close ones will return to Delhi by a private aircraft. The reception for 1,200 guests is at Ashoka Hotel, Delhi on March 8th. Here’s more about the people working behind the scenes.

Decor by Sumant Jayakrishnan: The groom’s mother is India’s most well-known environmentalist and animal rights activist, so obviously we’ll see the most eco-friendly decor here. Jayakrishnan, an NID alumni and his team (most of whom are architecture graduates) have created the most exotic visual experiences for some of the most high-profile weddings in Delhi. In an earlier interview to WeddingSutra, Jayakrishnan said: “Since I’m from a theatrical background, I enjoy creating the visual ambience for the drama that unfolds at any event—be it a wedding, luxury launch, fashion show or award function.” Every season, Delhi’s most sought-after Production designer takes on 4-5 wedding events only, and he prefers working at large, private spaces like Delhi’s farmhouses vis-a-vis Hotel and Banquet-like set-ups.

Wear by Rohit Bal: In an interview to Bombay Times, Bal made an interesting comment on the dress sense of young scions of political families: “They don’t want anything flashy and ostentatious”. So Bal has designed two extremely simple and elegant outfits for Varun. While he has not revealed much, there’s buzz that Varun will wear a dhoti-kurta in white and gold for the wedding and a traditional churidar-achkan teamed with old polka buttons for the reception. Yamini, will not be wearing a designer creation for the Reception but a 100 year old brocade Benarasi, that belonged to Varun’s great grandmother, Kamala Nehru. Her mother-in-law will wear a sari with the Nandi bull motif designed by Madhu Jain, who specialises in reviving heirloom saris.

From left to right. Sumant Jayakrishnan, Rohit Bal and Puneet Sikand

Pan-Indian menu by Puneet Sikand: The vegetarian fare will include dishes from Kashmir, Bengal, Awadh (UP), Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Sikand, who runs Delhi’s Kitchen Art Company, is known for creating the most contemporary cuisine in traditional flavours; Kitchen Art’s offering includes a no-onion, no-garlic option for weddings, bar-be-que and South Indian delicacies for the mehendi and a continental bar-be-que, crepe station and stir fry station for the sangeet and cocktails.

Tags: Delhi, Heirloom Saris, Madhu Jain, Photograph, Picture, Puneet Sikand, reception, Rohit Bal, Sumant Jayakrishnan, Varanasi, Varun Gandhi, wedding, Yamini Roy

Miss Malini gets Hitched

Feb 23, 2011 Celeb Weddings to Watch out for

Malini Agarwal, popularly known as Miss Malini got engaged to her long-time boyfriend Nowshad Rizwanullah. The stylish & sassy Radio Jockey turned Celebrity blogger writes about Nowshad’s sweet and romantic proposal.

“On a Thursday night I was scheduled to have a pre-valentine’s dinner date with my boyfriend which I was pretty excited about because I didn’t know where we were going—he took me to Sahara Star’s Mabruk (the Lebanese restaurant) after which he said we were going to the Grand Hyatt to meet Eric (his business school buddy) for a drink. Enroute to Grand Hyatt, Nowshad called Eric to tell him we were on the way. We walked into the hotel, were intercepted by a hostess and Nowshad mentioned Eric’s room number and handed her a business card. We reached the room, Nowshad knocked and commented that the door seems to be ajar and maybe we should just go in. Boom!! I suddenly found myself surrounded by roses, candles, glitter, champagne, strawberries and chocolate whipped cream (an excellent job by Cupid Corner who specialize in creating romantic spaces).”

“Even at that point I kept thinking; wow, what a romantic, he really went all out for Valentines Day! Then Nowshad told me that he asked for a room with a nice view and I should check it out. I walked up to the window and when I turned around two seconds later he was on one knee with a little box in his hands. I was kinda in the middle of half crying/half laughing and mostly saying, “Oh My God” when he said, “I know I’ve made you wait a long time for this, but I want to spend the rest of my life with you, will you marry me?” It took me under a second to say, ‘YES!’ After he put the dazzling diamond ring on my finger and we clink clicked the champagne he revealed that Eric and his wife were actually at the hotel but waiting for us at China House to have a drink. So we went downstairs to the club. As we walked in, there was another big surprise– 30 of our closest friends gathered around screaming “Congratulations!” and the celebrations continued!

So when and where are they marrying? And what does Malini plan to wear for her wedding. “Nothing’s finalized yet—we’re still in the deciding phase. But after we figure it all out, I look forward to sharing my Wedding Planning and Trousseau Shopping experiences with WeddingSutra readers”, says Malini adding: “For the record (and since this seems to be everybody’s favorite joke/question) I’m NOT changing the name of my blog to MrsMalini.com!

Photos courtesy: www.missmalini.com
Follow MissMalini on Twitter @MissMalini

Tags: Miss Malini, MissMalini, Nowshad Rizwanullah, Proposal, wedding

Are Sid and Vid getting engaged?

Feb 23, 2011 Celeb Weddings to Watch out for

There’s much talk about this Bollywood connection. Siddharth Roy Kapur, CEO of UTV Motion Pictures has been seen with actress Vidya Balan on many occasions, but the couple have not spoken about their relationship. Now there’s speculation that 37 year old Siddharth and the talented actress may be getting engaged soon, though reliable sources tell us that news on the engagement is just a rumour.

If Siddharth marries Vidya, this will be his third marriage. Siddharth is often interviewed and seen on TV, but not much is known about his personal life. The good-looking and talented corporate head-honcho schooled at GD Somani Memorial school and lived next door at Jolly Maker Apartments in Cuffe Parade where his mother Salome Roy Kapur, a former Miss India ran a Western dance academy. Siddharth completed his graduation from Sydenham College, and MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj. He began his corporate career with Procter & Gamble, and then realised his passion lies in Marketing Films & Entertainment, so he quit P & G to join STAR TV after which he moved to UTV. Though Siddharth’s father an Army officer turned businessman, had no connection with films, all his other family members have a Bollywood association. His paternal grandfather was a Producer while his mother choreographed the dances for some of the biggest films in the 70s. Aditya Roy Kapur of Guzaarish and Action Replayy fame is his youngest brother and younger brother Kunal is active both in Theatre and Films.

Siddharth’s first wife was his childhood sweetheart and second wife who he separated from three years ago, was a Television producer. While there may be much speculation about this B-town couple, we guess the couple will tread cautiously and if and when the engagement and shaadi happens, it will be a quiet and low-key affair.

Tags: aditya roy kapur, engagement, kunal, marriage, salome roy kapur, Siddharth Roy Kapur, utv, vidya balan, wife

Dhoot-Biyani Wedding at Turf Club, Mumbai

Feb 22, 2011 Celebrity Wedding Pictures

Tanushri Dhoot from the Videocon family got married to Vivek Biyani (nephew of Kishore Biyani of Big Bazaar and Future Group) at a lavish ceremony at Turf Club, Mumbai. Shah Rukh Khan who performed at the sangeet a day earlier, came wearing a headband. Sonam Kapoor looked beautiful in a zardozi-embroidered outfit designed by Anuradha Vakil. A host of political, business, sports and bollywood biggies attended the power wedding. Gopinath Munde, Subash Chandra, Yash Chopra, Mohammed Azharuddin, Dilip and Manali Vengsarkar, Poonam Dhillon and her sister Dr Rishma Pai, Yukta Mookhey and her husband Prince Tuli.

Tanushri and Vivek Biyani

SRK, Sridevi and Boney Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor

Yukta Mookhey and Prince Tuli

Poonam Dhillon and Dr Rishma Pillai, Shaina NC

Tags: Anuradha Vakil, Kishore Biyani, Sonam Kapoor, Tanushri Dhoot, Turf Club, Videocon, Vivek Biyani, wedding

Fabianis pre-wedding party at The Taj; Destination Wedding in Monaco

Feb 21, 2011 Celeb Weddings to Watch out for, Destination Weddings

It’s expected to be the Hottest Society Wedding of the Year. Kajal Fabiani, owner of Villa 39, a fine dining restaurant is marrying Gaurav Assomull, CEO of Marigold Group at an intimate destination wedding in Monaco, in March this year.

Kajal’s uncle, Harish Fabiani and his charming wife Roopa, hosted a pre-wedding celebration at Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai. It was a party for close friends and family members of the to-be-weds, her parents Rachna and Kamal Fabiani and his parents Sangeeta and Madan Assomull. Kajal glowed in an orange ensemble beautifully accessorised with diamonds—and her makeup was oh-so-perfect. Gaurav wore a bling-rich dress too. Though we aren’t great fans of grooms who opt for an ‘over the top’ look, must say Gaurav looked dapper in the heavy embroidered outfit.

Tags: Destination wedding, Gaurav Assomull, Harish Fabani, Kajal Fabiani, Marigold Group, Monaco, Sangeeta Assomull, wedding

Lara and Mahesh’s Victorian Wedding

Feb 20, 2011 Celebrity Wedding Pictures

Tags: Dreamz Kraft, Elie Saab, Goa, Lara, Lara Dutta, Mahesh, Mahesh Bhupathi, Taj Aguada, Victorian theme, wedding