Indian brides are always looking for unique Indian wedding ideas.  I have a modern Indian wedding idea for you today that will definitely knock your Jimmy Choos off! Kevin Shahinian, of Pacific Pictures, has finished his masterpiece CITY OF LAKES and Maharani is lucky enough to feature it today!  The artistry and creativity that goes into a full scale production like this wedding movie is filled with sleepless nights, endless shooting,  & countless hours of editing, that is only possible when you have true passion for your craft.  I really don’t know how Kevin and his team are able to do it, but every time I see one of his videos I think to myself, this is the ultimate wedding video. But then sure enough, I see Kevin’s name in my inbox, and he blows me away. Again. And, again.  So, sit back, grab a glass of wine (it’s Friday people!) and enjoy this very unique, wedding cinema from Pacific Pictures

From Kevin at Pacific Pictures : Melissa & Samir, Chicago natives, initially contacted me to document their 3-day destination wedding in Udaipur, India; they were also interested in producing a short Bollywood concept film to play for guests at their reception. Quickly realizing no concept could rival the couples' actual fairy tale wedding, I pitched the idea to combine a scripted concept movie with their live wedding footage to create one, seamless movie. The hope was to create a 'hybrid' feature that would include far more meaning than a traditional documentary. The result of this unprecedented collaborative effort, which included event filmmakers Patrick Moreau, Joe Simon & Casey Warren, is "CITY OF LAKES," and I think you'll agree, the results are rather stunning.

{A Tip from Shawna : Watching videos on the web can be an annoying experience because of their large file size.  Here is a trick that I use: Click play on the video below, then immediately press pause. Get yourself comfy while you wait for the video to load most of the way and then press play! The video will play without stopping to load!}

For once in my life I am speechless.

Congratulations to Kevin and the team at Pacific Pictures on this amazing production.  It is definitely going down in the Maharani Hall of Fame!

Can't get enough of Pacific Pictures? Click here to see more of their work featured on Maharani Weddings!

Pacific Pictures is part of The Platinum Guide.  For more details on how to become a member of The Platinum Guide, please click here.

Everyday I love and appreciate great wedding photography more and more.  I was thrilled when Pinaki, of Pink Rock Events, introduced me to TripleCord Studios.  They photographed Gauri & Nik’s amazing wedding, but they did it with this unique style and I am quickly becoming a big fan of.  They take time to set up shots, and have the ability to get great candid shots as well.  

I am going to share one of the best ideas in the history of wedding ideas with you guys today.  This idea is so good, that brides will be able to do versions of it for years and years, and guests will never get tired of it.  It is guaranteed to make your wedding memorable, festive, and fun for everyone of your guests.  So, what is this fabulous, over the top Indian wedding idea?  Well, I will let my friends over at Pink Rock Events share it with you:

From Pink Rock Events : For Gauri and Nik, we did something special.  We put together an Enchanted Dessert Land.

I mean seriously people…how awesome is that?!  Goodies galore, and something for everyone! I la-la-la-love it!

More from Pink Rock Events : The highlight of the entire day was the unveiling of the colorful dessert land. Before the unveiling it was a very nice and elegant normal reception…but the unveiling for the dessertland brought the party to a whole new level!! Everyone was wowed and the colors made everyone smile.

The entire room was orange, fuchsia and citron. We used psychedelic  GOBO floral patterns on the walls. To stay within our concept we used funky linens such as citron taffeta with fuchsia ribbons to create flowers, lily pad orange with hand stitched fuchsia flowers.

We brought in 16ft trees that were covered with orange flowers and feathers. It looked whimsical.

We brought in 7 different types of desserts. Each had their own table.

Table 1-Candy station with 10 different candies each with a cool jar and blinged out scoops with orange, pink and citron candy such as candy pumpkins and jordan almonds. Organza bags were available for guests to fill up their favorite candies. 

Table 2-Yummy pastries-like cheesecake bites,fruit tarts and carrot cake bites etc

Table 3-Cupcakes-red velvet and devil's food cake.

Table 4-DONUT STATION-fresh hot donuts. Made right in front of your eyes with toppings like oreo, powdered sugar and raspberry

Table 5-Indian desserts  

Table 6- milk chocolalte and white choclate covered strawberries drizzed  with orange, green or pink glitter 

Table 7-Candied apples. We had whole apples and wedges. They were dipped in chocolate and had colored glitter swirls

To finish off the room we offered coffee and had an exotic bar with yummy drinks.

This room was such a hit that the dance floor was empty. People just kept coming back for more!

Congratulations to the fantastic couple and amazing work by all the vendors that made this fairytale wedding come true!

Planning : PinkRockEvents / Photography : TripleCord Photography / Video : Robles Video / Location : Huntington Beach Hyatt / Florist : Nisie's Enchanted Garden / Lighting : Amber Event Productions / Wedding Cupcakes : Tomgirl 

Pink Rock Events and Robles Video are part of The Platinum Guide.  For more details on how to become a member of The Platinum Guide, please click here.

Stay tuned for tomorrow….do you remember that amazing wedding cinema sneak peak from Pacific Pictures that we featured last month?  Well, we are going to have the whole thing right here tomorrow, so make sure you come back and check it out.  It will make you laugh, cry, and want one just like it!

There have been tons of April showers in San Francisco recently, so I am delighted to showcase this bright sunny, garden wedding today.  So, what really makes this wedding stand out to me is the way the bride and her planners, Pink Rock Events, put together the color palette. They choose one color for each event and went all in.  And, when I say all in, I mean totally, 100% ALL in. It’s a new concept that I simply love, and when you see the results I am sure you will agree! 

Images by Triplecord

It's all about this smashing yellow!  I mean, isn't this floral aisle way grand?  Here is a close up!

Images by Triplecord

From Pink Rock Events : We started planning Gauri's wedding 10 months in advance. We started off as we always do by interviewing the client. Asking them how they met, what they love to do together, likes, dislikes. etc. After the interview we learned they both LOVED candy and since the wedding was so close to Halloween, we ran with that theme for the reception.

Gauri was very open minded and really thought outside of the box. Which fits perfectly with our style. We thrive on pushing the envelope and  creating one of a kind weddings. We wanted Gauri's wedding to be clean, modern, feminine 

yet make sure the mandap doesn't over power the couple.  We knew we didn't want to go with the traditional reds, creams and gold. So… We choose yellow and white! Yellow is a very cheerful and energetic color which reminds us of Gauri and Nik's personality.   

We used clean lines and a perfect square structure to give the mandap its modern feel. We always wanted to uses butterflies on a mandap with out making it too cheesy so we used yellow cymbidium orchids to mimic that look. Enchanted Florist did an amazing job hand pinning each orchid to the white chiffon fabric to create a fluttering butterfly effect. We also used ribbons to give the mandap its feminine feel.  Ribbons are so simple and rarely thought of when it comes to decor. Roses, dahlia, cymbidium orchids, hydrangeas were used to complete the look. A soft swirl pattern using dozens of yellow rose petals down the aisle really gave us the wow effect we were going for. The yellow truly complimented the gorgeous green lawn and the beautiful blue ocean.

If you are a 2010 bride you won't wanna miss tomorrow's post.  It is filled with awesome Indian wedding ideas that will knock your socks off!  Stay tuned!

Today’s wedding finale is a stunner.  It is soft, sweet, and utterly romantic.  There are so many things that I love about this Indian wedding, but I’ll cut to the chase and tell you my very, favorite part. I have a major crush on our Maharani’s wedding dress.  It’s got that Cinderella fairytale style to it that is magical, and her tiara is the perfect princess-y touch.  And, what I love even more is how effortlessly she carries both a bridal lengha and a wedding dress. She looks completely relaxed and herself in each look. I can’t decide which one I like better, I mean, with dresses this gorgeous, how could one possibly choose?!

I am huge believer in meant to be, and this dreamy wedding gets a bit dreamy-er with this little story. So, after talking to our bride’s big sis yesterday, I found out that our Maharani is celebrating her 1st year anniversary this week on her honeymoon trip to Thailand! What a wonderful coincidence that Maharani featuring her wedding the same week!

Post wedding tips from our bride : Most people say that you will need about a year to plan a big wedding; if you are working and planning on having a big fat Asian wedding with lots of guests from all over the world and you have a good idea of what you want for your wedding, give yourself at least a year and a half.  You will need this time not only to plan, but most importantly to start collating the little bits and bobs for your special day.  Remember that it’s a journey, not a destination.  If you wait to collect your tid bits later you will cause needless stress later on for yourself and/or family/friends.  Try to plan your day in way so as to delegate the workload to others; pay professionals if you must.  There are professionals who can cater for every little part of a wedding – it really is shocking.  If you like photographs, a good idea would be to make sure that your girlfriends / sisters etc are around you during your events, even while getting ready – you will have lovely photos together and you may find a really nice picture that you can get developed and gift to your girlfriends.  

Congratulations to the darling couple, and big thanks to Lishma Patel, of Beauty by Lishma, for sharing this wedding with us!

After a fabulously relaxing weekend, we are hitting the ground running this week.  Today’s wedding is really going to knock your socks off. Lishma Patel, owner/make-up artist of Beauty by Lishma, sent me her baby sister’s wedding!  It is a sweet, sweet love story where the bride and groom are so totally in love that it just bursts through their wedding photos.  Filled with tons of prettiness, and charmingly romantic details, this wedding may just be my favorite this month.  

images by Hina Photography

From our Bride: Living in London I have always loved the English countryside scenery.  At the same time I am a proud Indian who wanted to carry out tradition with a contemporary background.  The wedding was to be set in the middle of nature with a traditional bride.  A white palace with white carpet against the green in the warm sun made for an amazing setting for all the colours of an Indian wedding. I loved the idea of a Maroon traditional attire for the bride and groom as a contrast to the White Palace décor. I was brought to the Mandap in a Paalki by my mama’s and masa to the beautiful and perfectly suited song Dil Kho Gaya from Singh is King – the line ‘khulti havaye khulti fizaye’ was literally the backdrop of my wedding. 

Wanted a close family and friends guest only wedding. Ultimately we wanted a family and close friend’s guest list.  However since both families have resided in England for many years we had a rather large guest list which required a venue to cater the same.  Although we wanted both wedding and Reception to take place at the Manor of Groves in Sawbridgeworth.  Due to guest limitations we decided to condsider other countryside venues and opted on The Watermill Hotel in Hemel Hemptead.  This enabled us to have an outdoor wedding that we had originally planned for.  Since both of us reside in London we had a large number of guests and so we moved it to the Watermill in Hemel Hempstead and did an out door wedding to accommodate and have a back up of satin drapped marquees for in case it rained.

Many more goodies for tomorrow….you won't wanna miss it!