There are so many, many, MANY things I love about this Chicago Indian wedding, that picking my favorite is next to impossible.  I am still swooning over the bride’s white lengha, and I can’t seem to get the gown aspect of it out of my mind.  Then it’s their wedding cake. Five tiers of sophisticated confection, it is almost too pretty to eat.  But, if I really had to choose my favorite part of this wedding, it would be the bride’s glowing smile captured beautiful by Monica Z. Photography.









From our Maharani, Jenny :
On May 22, 2010 we got engaged! We had exactly 1 year to plan for the most important day of our lives. As part of our tradition we had several events leading up to the big day. Some events took place as early as 10 months before, as well as the night before and throughout the entire day. The planning went beyond just choosing vendors but planning international travel for the many of our family members and myself. I was able to get all of the wedding clothes for myself, friends and family. The inspiration for the theme of the wedding did not come together until 4 ½ months before the actual wedding. A trip to India was planned but continued to get pushed out month after month. It was the first time for me going back after 17 years and I was putting all my eggs in a basket that I would find everything in the short 2 week window I had. I ventured to Bombay in search of the perfect wedding dress with nothing but a picture in hand and attempting to find the perfect bridesmaid sarees. I was lucky enough to find a tailor on my first day of shopping to create an Indian version of a white wedding dress! I got the exact mermaid style dress with the exact bead work I requested!! After spending the next two weeks in the motherland I managed to put an order in for 10 bridesmaid sarees and purchase the majority of the wedding garments and necessities! As soon as February hit the fun and games ended and the real work began. Visits to the florist, planning and finding venues for our night before traditions, food tastings, centerpieces, and taking care of those not so fun details ate up our time! Some of our details were extremely last minute and thrown together while other components were well planned out! It’s true when people say, the only ones that know if something went wrong is the bride and groom. For everyone else it’s just a part of the show!
There were key people that traveled from all over the world to share this day with us. One of them happened to my dad’s brother who is a priest. I was lucky enough to have him fly from India to conduct the actual marriage ceremony. I’ve always imagined getting married with my uncle performing the wedding rituals. Benny’s favorite aunt from him dad’s side also made the trip all the way from London and they were reunited after 15 years! Family and friends are incredibly important to us and without them there is NO way that we could’ve had the beautiful day that we had. From the visitors we had, to my cousins in India who helped me every step of the way with the translations, bargaining, and keeping me in line with the latest Indian fashions! In addition to all of those who made the travels to be with us,( 90% of my guests were from out of state) our vendors were huge life savers.

Our 2 biggest priorities were the banquet hall/food and photography. We were lucky enough to find individuals who really understood us and also meshed with us well. As the wedding day was a bit of a blur we are so thankful to have had amazing photographers capture those moments that flew by! Without the pictures we would’ve not been able to truly appreciate all of the decorations and the dessert table!!! Of course there were also the beautiful engagement session photos and the time our photographers spent the night before our wedding capturing more and more of our traditions! They were there at every moment making sure they didn’t miss anything and they were not shy with getting in the middle of the action to get what we needed!
Benny and I are extremely different however we complimented and balanced each other out during the wedding planning. We helped each out stay on track and really prioritize what was needed and what we could live without. With the combination of our faith, vendors, family, friends and each other we were able to have the perfect wedding!
 
With wedding memories this beautiful, do you blame me for sharing a ton of them?
Brava Monica Z. Photography! Thank you for sharing Jenny & Benny’s Indian wedding extravaganza with us!