A Touch of France in Pondicherry
Mar 29, 2011 Honeymoon
If you are looking to honeymoon at an artsy, design-savvy destination without having to leave the country, Pondicherry is the place. A fascinating blend of Indian and French culture, Pondicherry is a revelation. And if you are keen to explore the French colonial roots of the city, there is no better place to stay than the Hôtel de l’Orient. Converted from an 18th-century Education Department building, the Hôtel de l’Orient has 16 tastefully decorated rooms and sits elegantly on the rue Romain Rolland.
All the rooms are beautifully decorated with french colonial furniture including four poster beds and dark-wood wardrobes, fascinating artefacts, traditional tiles and woodwork. All rooms are elegantly attired in whites, pinks, yellows, or cool emerald They have a wonderful, airy feel and surround a pretty courtyard shaded by citrus and neem trees. Top favorites are Mahe ( a double bedded luxury suite) , Karikal (a Grand Room with terrace and veranda) and Arcot, which has a patio.
A stay here is incomplete without a meal at romantically candle-lit courtyard restaurant, Carte Blanche, where local “Creole” cuisine, a blend of South Indian and French, is served.
Now you can buy or gift a stay at this romantic hotel and experience the French heritage of the city.
Tags: Hôtel de l'Orient, Pondicherry, Wedding Gift
Meet the Shaadi Samagri Specialist
Mar 24, 2011 Wedding People & Planners
When NRI Sindhis visit Mumbai for shaadi shopping, there’s one person they must visit, Colaba-based Pradeep Gidwani, who specialises in puja samagri (puja related items) and wedding decor accessories. His clients come from far and wide like Netherlands Antille, Spain, Hongkong and Dubai. Pradeep’s designs samagri color co-ordinated with the wedding theme (or the bride’s wedding wear), and he retails decor elements like the backdrop for pre-wedding functions, packaging material and boxes for favors.
Pradeep Gidwani@ a Wedding in JW Marriott, Mumbai
Cuffe Parade housewife Sapna Bharwani tells us how Pradeep has been involved with the wedding elements of every wedding in her family since 1996. “Our large family is spread all over the world and every few months a family member or friend visits Mumbai for wedding shopping. Our must-visit destinations include Pradeep Gidwani’s studio for decor accessories, multi-designer boutiques Designer Studio and Ensemble for trousseau picks, Lalchand Jewellers@ Colaba for diamond jewellery and Bhuleshwar for bindis and bangles.” According to Sapna Bharwani, unlike earlier today most of her NRIs relatives prefer organising the destination wedding abroad, in places like Thailand or Bali. “The weather and the traffic is a big-dampener, so they prefer marrying abroad, but there, you won’t find a resourceful person like Pradeep, or a fun shopping place like Bhuleshwar, so Mumbai is a must-visit place for wedding shopping.”
For many like Pishu and Mayu Mirani from Hongkong, the Vaswanis from Saudi Arabia, Lasmanas from Jakarta and Alwanis from St Martin, Pradeep has not just supplied the all-important wedding items, but he stepped in as a family member to help co-ordinate all the pooja rituals. He explains: “Recently, when Pooja and Jackie Vaswani’s son Akash got married at Amby Valley I was there to co-ordinate with the Maharaj for the pooja samagrahi, and in the last minute when the wedding party couldn’t find the ‘sanduli’ on which the pooja is performed, I co-ordinated with the relatives who were on their way to purchase it from a shop enroute.”
While color co-ordinated pooja samagri is Pradeep’s forte, attention-to-detail decor items (personalised cushion covers, napkins) his speciality, his clients can rely on him for help which they can’t get from regular event management companies. Explains Pradeep: “At one wedding, the Pandit had to go back home since it was very late, and the Dattar ceremony (salt ceremony) was to take place—but none of the relatives how to go about it, thankfully I was there to guide them on the how to’s.”
WeddingSutra Editors Note- Here’s our tip for all budding wedding managers. At the best event management schools, you’ll learn about wedding-related food, decor, entertainment and guest management. But as Pradeep’s experience proves, it’s not enough to know just that if you want to be much sought-after by clients.
GVK Reddy’s set to host the Grandest Wedding
Mar 24, 2011 Celeb Weddings to Watch out for
Sanjay and Pinky Reddy with their daughter
Mallika and son Keshav
When glamorous socialite Pinky Reddy or her parliamentarian father Subbirami Reddy send out an invitation, India’s most powerful people drop everything to mark the date on their calendar. Little wonder the wedding of Pinky Reddy’s daughter is a much-awaited event and expected to be the most spectacular wedding of 2011. Mallika, the 21 year old daughter of Pinky and Sanjay Reddy is engaged to Sidharth Indukuri whose family runs Indu projects, the Hyderabad-based Infrastructure company; this is an arranged match and the big day is in June.
Last year, when Sanjay Reddy’s nephew (his sister Shalini Bhupal’s son) Krishna married Dia, the daughter of a Mumbai-based diamond tycoon, the wedding was referred to as the hottest Society Wedding of the year. The functions included a pre-wedding celebration at Chowmohalla Palace with performances by Sonu Nigam, percussionist Sivamini, Louis Banks and Hariharan. The highlight of the evening was the presentation of the event in the form of a poetic narration, written and narrated by Poet Iqbal Patni. The wedding was at Mumbai’s Cooperage ground and the post-wedding party at the Taj Falaknuma Palace where the decor was designed by Tarun Tahiliani. We hear that for Mallika’s wedding, GVK Reddys, popularly known as Hyderabad’s first family, are inviting between 6 and 7,000 guests, and the three main events, all to be managed by three different event management companies will be held at an expansive ground.
The billion-dollar GVK Group run by father-son duo GVK and Sanjay Reddy have several business interests, one of them is GVK Airports which undertook modernization and expansion of Mumbai and Delhi Airports. GVK Reddy’s wife Indira Reddy takes care of the group’s hotel business—they co-own 5 Taj Properties. Pinky Reddy manages the family’s charities and social responsibility initiatives. Considered every designer’s darling patron, Pinky is known as much for her down-to-earth nature as her high-flying lifestyle. The couple have two children, Mallika who has just returned to Hyderabad after completing studies in London and son Keshav, 19 who is studying in the US.
Tags: GVK Group, GVK Reddy, Hyderabad, Iqbal Patni, Mallika Reddy, Pinky Reddy, Sanjay Reddy, Sidharth Indukuri, wedding
Band Baaja Baraat in Monte Carlo
Mar 23, 2011 Destination Weddings
Finally, it was the images of the decked-up elephant, and the groom on a white horse which excited Monaco and the world media most. Even before the wedding, the celebration was in-the-news, Indian newspapers talked about Kajal Fabiani and Gaurav Assomull’s exotic wedding destination, Monaco’s media referred to it as Biggest Destination Wedding in their principality, and members of the Sindhi community exchanged notes on the fairy-tale extravagaza which Billionnaire Kamal Fabiani was organising for his daughter. The four-day celebration ended on March 21st with a finale by singing sensation Akon. Here are some pictures of the Big Fat Marriage, managed by Aditya Motwane and Nemish Sanghvi of Percept D’Mark and Frank Damgaard, head of Monte-Carlo Weddings.
Gaurav Assomull on a white horse on his way to the wedding ceremony at the Opera of Monaco
‘Baby’, a 21 year old female elephant walks in front of the Monte Carlo Casino as part of the festivities
Gaurav and Kajal, in an ensemble by JJ Valaya, with her father
The decor and the venues for the Mehendi and the Shaadi
Tags: Aditya Motwane, Akon, Destination wedding, Exotic, Frank Damgaard, Gaurav Assomull, Kajal Fabiani, Kamal Fabiani, Monaco, Monte Carlo, Monte Carlo Weddings, Percept, Photographs, Pictures
Wedding Albums: Newly-Wed Bollywood Stars
Mar 22, 2011 Celebrity Wedding Pictures
Big Bollywood Presence@ Actor Nikhil Dwivedi’s Wedding Reception
Venue- Beach Towers, Yari Road, Mumbai
Nikhil wore a Manish Malhotra ensemble and his bride Gaurie Pandit looked pretty in a pink lehenga by Reynu Tandon. Abhishek Bachchan, Juhu Chawla and Anil Kapoor and many bollywood biggies were there. Nikhil, a protege of Salman Khan, made his debut in ‘My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves’ and he has starred in Khallbali, Fun Unlimited and Raavan.
SRK@ Actress Shweta Varma’s Big Fat Wedding
Venue- Chattarpur, Delhi
Shweta Varma wed Rustam Tiwari who is Gauri Khan’s first cousin. The Mehendi was at Gauri’s home in Panchsheel Park and SRK was there for the Big Fat Wedding at Parkland Retreat in Chattarpur. Rustam is a Delhi-based entrepreneur, Shweta who he has been dating for long, is a former Airhostess who made her debut in the film ‘Hide and Seek’.
Gauri Khan and her mother
Bhavana Balsaver’s Arya Samaj Wedding
Venue- Bhavana’s residence, Juhu
Actress Bhavana Balsaver married ex-model, director and Reliance Big Pictures Senior Producer Karan Shah. The couple knew each other for long, and last year Karan surprised Bhavana with a sweet proposal in Goa. The wedding at Bhavana’s Juhu home was a simple Arya Samaj function. Bhavana a fashion design graduate designed her own wedding lehenga- a gold brocade creation covered with white net, embellished with red and green sequins and gold embroidery.
Tags: Bhavana Balsaver, Gaurie Pandit, Karan Shah, Nikhil Dwivedi, Rustam Tiwari, Shweta Varma, Wedding Photographs
Actor Sammir Dattani’s Wedding Reception at CCI tonight
Mar 21, 2011 Celebrity Wedding Pictures
When actor Sammir Dattani wed Ritika Jolly in Dehradun, the Times of India, stated the wedding was ‘Low on Celeb Quotient but High on Excitement’. Tonight, at Sammir and Ritika’s Reception at Cricket Club of India (CCI), Mumbai we expect the opposite. After all, weddings in smaller towns, complete with naach-gaana, have an element of energy and fun, not usually seen in celeb-studded Mumbai receptions.
The star last seen in ‘I Hate Love Storys’ and his scriptwriter bride wanted their wedding to be a family affair, complete with traditional festivities, so Dehradun, where Ritika’s grand-parents live was the perfect choice. On March 12th, the wedding day, Sammir arrived at the venue in a vintage car, wearing a white sherwani designed by his costume-designer sister-in-law Niharika Jolly. Ritika wore a self-designed lehenga, in red and gold and looked very charming and sweet.
Tonight’s reception at CCI is reportedly a not-so-big affair with 200 guests—the gold and red wedding card quotes Vincent Van Gogh: “There is nothing more truly artistic than two souls in love” and the accompanying box of chocolates features the famous line from Forrest Gump ‘Life is like a box of chocolates you never know what you’re going to get!’
Tags: Dehradun, Niharika Jolly, reception, Ritika Jolly, Sammir Dattani, wedding
WHY some men are more hairy. And WHY girls are much repulsed by the macho Hirsutism
Mar 19, 2011 Uncategorized
Waxed buffed bodies, or hairy retro males? Given the choice most of us would opt for the former– being brought up on a steady diet of buffed waxed and shaven male physiques on magazine covers and in the movies.
Sadly enough, some men from certain communities are more hairy than the norm, some being positively afflicted with enough hair to be deemed shearworthy rather than lustworthy. While this might be genetically caused, other factors like hormonal variations also impact the growth of body hair according to Dr Madhuri Agarwal of Kaya Skin Clinic. Interestingly, while what you eat does not necessarily impact what you have as hair on your body, being obese or having an erratic diet pattern can see the luscious growth on your scalp thinning down and the hair on your body growing with redoubled effort.
Alas and alack, these are not the days of yore when a hairy torso was considered the equivalent of much virility. If anything, modern girls are much repulsed by the macho hirsutism which would have got the women raving in ancient times. No running fingers along the carpet of his chest figures in popular romance fiction anymore, if you may kindly note. Which leaves no option but for the self respecting, hirsutely blessed male to look at serious options for hair removal.
Kaya dermatologists recommend
The Painfree Hair Removal service which is virtually painless, and has less service time taken compared to other options– and equally effective in freedom from excess body hair. After a look at the lifestyle, background of the client and an assessment of the hair and skin type, the client is advised of the customized service he should opt for, which takes around six to eight sessions, eight weeks apart. With appropriate post treatment care, most men should be smoother than the proverbial infant’s behind once the three months of treatment are done with. And then, settle back for a lifetime of clear, hair free living– most importantly no embarrassment at the thought of exposing one’s hairy torso at a swimming pool!
Nuptial News – WeddingSutra Exclusive
Mar 17, 2011 Celebrity Wedding Pictures
Actress Megha Gupta best known for her role in TV serial Kavyanjali got married to Aditya Shroff of Fame Cinemas. Says Megha: “I always dreamt of having a small wedding with no logistics and arrangements hassles, and I’m so happy it was so. We had a temple wedding in the morning, and a chilled-out evening celebration with few near and dear ones.”
India’s hottest male model, Freddy Daruwala tied the knot with his long-time sweetheart Crystal Variava at a small function at his home town Surat. Crystal is also from Surat, but has been brought up in USA, where she is now pursuing Masters in Audiology. Freddy says he and Crystal have not finalized their where-to-settle-down plans. “After Crystal finishes her studies, she may move to Mumbai else I’ll move base”, says the light-eyed Parsi dude.
Padmaja Kumari Mewar, 30, the younger daughter of Arvind Singh Mewar of Udaipur married Khush Singh Parmar of Santrampur, Gujarat. It was a special occasion for HRH Group of Hotels, who hosted their own Princess’ wedding after having hosted so many high-profile celebrity weddings like Raveena Tandon-Anil Thadani and Priya Sachdev-Vikram Chatwal. The Mehndi and Sangeet were held at Jagmandir Palace and the Pheras at City Palace’s Zanana Mahal. Khush Singh Parmar, is an alumni of Harvard Medical College, and lives in Boston, Padmaja began her career in Four Seasons Hotel, after which she worked with her father in the HRH Group.
The Vagdaan ceremony, from left to right. Khush Singh Parmar and his parents. Padmaja Kumari and her parents.
Tags: Aditya Shroff, Crystal Variava, Freddy Daruwala, HRH, Khush Singh Parmar, marriage, Megha Gupta, Padmaja Kumari Mewar, wedding
Akon to perform at Big Fat Destination Wedding in Monte Carlo
Mar 16, 2011 Celeb Weddings to Watch out for, Destination Weddings
“The largest destination wedding Monaco has ever seen” states the official communication from the Monaco Tourism Board. The wedding functions of Mumbai socialites Kajal Fabiani and Gaurav Assomull, both scions of Sindhi business magnates take place between March 18th and 21st in Monte Carlo. Who isn’t interested in getting a share of the Big Fat Sindhi Wedding and venues/ organisers in Monte Carlo are excited that a traditional shaadi complete with horses and elephants is taking place there, with 600 high profile guests from the community that spends the highest amounts on Destination Weddings.
The highlights of the four day celebrations include:
- Youngsters Party at Monte Carlo’s Indian theme lounge/ bar The Buddah Bar.
- Welcome party at the Grimaldi Forum
- The Mehendi at Hotel Hermitage
- The Sangeet at Salle Empire of the Hotel de Paris
- The traditional Sindhi Wedding on the stage of the Salle Garnier of the Opera de Monte-Carlo; the venue which has seen numerous ballets and world-class productions is playing host to a traditional Indian wedding for the first time.
- Post-wedding cocktail at the Atrium of the Casino after which guests will be ferried to Salle des Etoiles for a laser/acquatic show and the evenings big act—a performance by singing sensation Akon.
According to a spokesperson of Monaco Tourism Board, the bride and groom were initially considering Beirut and Rome, and eventually zeroed in on Monaco for its perfect blend of luxury and elegance. The Wedding is being managed by two event companies– Mumbai’s Percept D’Mark (PDM) and Monte Carlo Weddings. Kajal is the daughter of Kamal Fabiani, the President of Americorp Group. Gaurav’s parents Sangeeta and Madan Assomull run The Marigold Group.
Tags: Akon, Destination wedding, Gaurav Assomull, Kajal Fabiani, Kamal Fabiani, Madan Assomull, Monaco, Monaco Tourism Board, Monte Carlo Weddings, Percept D'Mark, Sangeet, Sangeeta Assomull, Sindhi, Venues
