I was smitten with this couple when I saw their Florida Indian wedding, but when I read about the non profit they start I fell head over heels in LOVE! They creative & generous pair started an organization that supports women and children who have been trafficked or are at the risk of trafficking. They had a friend design their logo, and the women of the charity block printed the totes which were used as their welcome bags. I can’t think of a better way to jump start a wedding weekend!
From our Maharani, Rina :
Something about us is that Anup and I both co-founded a 501(c)3 non profit, Cents of Relief (www.centsofrelief.org) which supports women and children that have been trafficked or are at risk of trafficking. We started this in college when we met each other as friends at the University of Florida and have made it our life mission!
Either way, we incorporated our passion for these women and our baby (Cents of Relief) into our wedding. Our friend Leanne, had custom designed a ganesh logo for our wedding which we used for wax seals on our invites to the logo on the glass waterfall behind us on our mandap. It was also block printed by the women we work with and support in India onto jute bags that we used as our welcome bags in all our guest rooms. They took the design and block printed them onto the bags. All of these women are survivors of human trafficking now working and recieving healthcare support from our organization. If any brides are interested in giving back in someway, this was one way I felt like we were able to have the women and children be a part of our special day! They were also so excited that we were finally getting married (after so many years of “dating” they were prob confused by us being in India!)
It’s that time of the month again….we are on our final day of the June Maharani of the Month contest. This month’s lucky winner will be crowned as our Facebook avatar and win a $100 gift certificate to Exclusively.In. Voting closes at 5pm PST, so make sure you head over to The Maharani Weddings Fan Page on Facebook and *like* the photo of your favorite Maharani! Just a note, for this contest, we can’t count comments, only likes, and only one vote per person please.
From South Africa to the sunny beaches of Southern California….meet our gorgeous contestants from around the globe!
Seshni Coopsamy: Simply loved this website, was an absolute inspiration for my garden wedding in april 2011, from the hairstyles to mendhi… my family and frends loved every moment, definitly set a new standard for indian weddings here in South Africa
Harpreet Lakha: I love this picture of my sister from her wedding day..She looks absolutely beautiful so I thought of sharing it!
Karishma Gautam: Like everyone else here, I love MW, the pictures are so gorgeous, and every event an inspiration. I got married March 14, 2010 and believe it or not we were able to pull the whole thing together, from start to finish, in 5 weeks! My parents brought my wedding lehenga when they came from India as I never had a chance to go to there to shop! But despite the time constraints, everything turned out perfect (or so I feel). Obviously tons of inspirations were to be had from this website, so a BIG Thank you for that.
Anuradha Ana Mohleji: I absolutely LOVE Maharani Weddings. It is is an absolute must for any South-Asian bride-to-be. It serves as a great source of inspiration. The best part about it is that this website is constantly updated and relevant. Right now I am a bride to be and I hope to look as great as all the gorgeous brides featured on this website
Divya Sai Vaswani: sharing my maharani moment! maharani weddings is such great site…it’s the perfect tool for brides to be.
Monika Morovic: i love maharani weddings! i got inspired a lot by the pictures and links here – this inspiration was important during the preparation for our wedding: i am from slovakia and my husband is indian… our wedding was a lovely fusion of our cultures also thanks to the inspiration found here… thanks!!! this is a picture of me from our wedding weekend: a slovak maharani! Hope you like it!
Neha Daryanani: Love love LOVE this website! You really helped me to plan my January wedding in Arizona! We got some great ideas for decor and color themes for each event and I love that people share their real life experiences. There are great money saving ideas too! I recommend this site to every one of my friends that are planning their weddings and even though mine is over, I still love to view the website every day
Nika Patel: Maharani Weddings is the best site that I have ever been to! It’s up to date on everything, which helped me plan my dream wedding to be perfect! My family and friends were amazed with how everything looked and said it was like a royal gorgeous wedding! I had to tell everyone about Maharani Weddings because that’s where I did most of my research. Even though I’m married now I still love looking at their site and helping anyone else that is planning a wedding! I love it!
Priyanka Patel: I LOVE Maharani Weddings, It has truly been a inspiration to my dream wedding. The best part of the website is the Platinum AMAZING Vendors! THANK YOU for helping me plan my dream wedding!
Rajni Seehra-Thiara: Love this site always have refreshing ideas and inspirations. Always look forward to new updates. The Platinum Vendor list is very helpful. Your doing an amazing job. Maharani to me means having a distinctive royal style. Along with the perfect attitude to carry it.
Tamika S. Jaswani: Maharani weddings served a a great resource for me during my wedding planning….even if it was just one picture of a beautiful wedding. I received personal emails on where I could get a bridal lengha to my specifications. Even for a non-traditional bride, all you need is available on this site.. if not they will help you find it….Love it!
Megha Kaushal Kadiyala: I got married almost 2 years ago but STILL visit Maharani Weddings on a daily basis. I’m slightly obsessed with Indian weddings and MW does an amazing job feeding that obsession! This is one of my favorite pictures from our wedding because it shows how happy and content I am, even though around me the crazy wedding festivities are going on! And I also love the fact that the happiness is coming through when I’m with my husband! I truly felt like a Maharani with my Maharaja
Arpana Uppal Bhatia: My family and friends loved this pictures, as did I. It was taken as I was getting ready for the wedding ceremony. Everyone said I looked like an old Indian movie actress. That was great, as our whole wedding weekend, I felt like I was the star of a Bollywood movie — with my Bollywood hero, my dulha raja, awaiting me!
Good luck to all these amazing ladies, and make sure you head over to Facebook to vote for the next Maharani of the Month!
We are back with our next Indian wedding tip! Today’s tip is the one Indian wedding tip every Indian bride must think about before she walks down the aisle!
