Maharani Palvi has slipped into a sensational reception lengha, and she and her brand new hubby, Michael, take a stroll while posing for a few final portraits with Kimberly Photography before heading to the celebration of a lifetime with family and friends. Rang Entertainment is at the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina, getting the party started as the lucky partygoers take their seats and feast on some of the most fabulous Indian fare catered by S3 Catering — my mouth is watering. The entire reception venue has been decorated from top to bottom in violet and lavender hues. With darling floral details and contemporary decor by Occasions by Shangri-La, plus modern mood lighting, it's simply set to be a night no one in attendance will soon forget. The newlyweds treated their guests to aerial entertainment from the Aerial Dragons, and a five-tier wedding cake masterpiece by Hands On Sweets. Tracie Domino Events sure knows how to plan one extraordinary event! We can't see what she does next! Check out all the details you're dying to see from this fun-tabulous celebration in the complete gallery!
The bride, on her most memorable wedding day moment:
"Like most Indian men, my dad is not one that expresses his feelings. On the day of the Catholic Ceremony, my dad comes into the bridal holding room, looks at me, tells me “You Look Beautiful” and as he teared up he gave me a hug."
On her and her Raja's first dance song selection:
"Our first dance song was Heaven, originally sung by Bryan Adams but the version we chose was actually sung by Megan Nicole and Boyce Avenue."
On the integral that family and friends played:
"Michael and I took on the majority of the wedding planning activities as we wanted to ensure everything was planned according to our how we wanted it. We involved very few family and friends throughout the process as we wanted to retain our vision and ensure everything got completed by the dates we had planned. My sisters (Priya and Tina) and friend (Kajal) helped out with various planning activities such as providing decorating ideas, providing vendor recommendations, reviewing vendor contracts, reviewing seating charts, helping with wedding cloths shopping, planning family pickup and drop logistics, writing out invitations, making nasto, and various other activities. Most importantly, they (my sisters, Kajal, Reshma, Shetalbhabi and Michael) provided me a lot of moral support. Even if I didn’t agree with what they had to say, they kept me grounded and were the talk of reason, when things got stressful and tough,
Shetal Bhabi spent endless hours educating me on the various wedding rituals, who does what in the ceremonies and what specific things one needs to ensure they wear during the wedding along with their meaning. She went out of her way to make sure I had whatever I needed for each ceremony and also helped me get ready on my wedding day.
Masi, Masa, Ka-Ki and Ka-Ka spent a lot of their time helping my parents prepare for the wedding events prior to everyone’s arrival. They helped my parents with a number of things including making a variety of nasto to include in the room drops. They helped my parents make mistan to distribute to family and friends as part of post wedding offerings. The most important thing they helped with was providing my parents moral support throughout the entire planning process. As both Masi and Ka-Ka have been through the wedding planning process, they were able to provide first-hand experiences and advise accordingly.
My Mami’s and Mama’s did an amazing job planning and the execution of the mameru. I have never seen it this organized or as nicely presented. I loved every aspect of it and all of the guests loved the gifts they were given."
on working with her dream team of vendors:
"We thoroughly enjoyed working with each one of our vendors and watching our vision become a reality. We loved seeing the excitement in the vendors faces [or hearing it in their voices if we were on the phone] when we mentioned, in conversation, that we were working with vendor “X”. Their feedback on the vendor(s) would provide us more affirmation that we selected the right vendor for the job(s). The fact that each and every one of our vendors worked fluidly with one another provided us with ease and permitted us to actually enjoy each event rather than worrying about what will go wrong next. One perfect example of this that comes to mind is, post the Hindu ceremony, I was looking our wedding planning/coordinator, Tracie Domino of Tracie Domino Events, and Kimberly Ramono of Kimberly Photography saw the look on my face and asked me what I needed. She told me to give her a few minutes, she would find her and let her know I needed her. Within minutes Tracie was located and attending to my request. Not only were Kimberly and her team fantastic to work with, she always seems to be around and helping me out with little things that weren’t even part of her job. These extras went a long way with me.
Our vendors went out of their way to ensure they helped make our vision a reality. Some even made sure to do some little extras here and there that made working with them even more special. Tracie introduced us to this amazing couple, Carlos and Marie Ramírez, owners and chefs at Hands on Sweets, worked with us to design our dream wedding cake. Initially when I filled out the questionnaire, I was filling it out thinking we were giving Carlos and Marie and insight into our dessert likes and dislikes. It was actually used to determine what we were going to be presented at the tasting. When I pointed out that I was looking forward to tasting some of the other options they had on their website, Chef Marie asked me which ones and we told her, without hesitation Marie told me us if we wanted to stop the following Friday or Saturday she could arrange to have samples ready for us to take home and try before making our final decision on the cake flavors.
Throughout the planning process, the one thing I knew was that I did not want any traditional dance performances during the reception but could not put my finger on exactly what I wanted. Tracie provided option after option but none of them had that wow factor that I was searching for. One Friday night (less than 1 month before the wedding), my sister Priya and friend Kajal decided they wanted to explore what was new in downtown Tampa. We stumbled across this juice bar [Urban Juice Bar] that served sake and beer at night and decided to check it out. As Priya and Kajal played a round of pool, I continued talking to the bartends and learned there was a yoga studio and spa upstairs. We were given a tour of the place and learned that one of the Arial Yoga instructors had her own ariel acrobatics company. The very next day I was on the phone with Kaley Gay from Aerial Dragons arranging our wedding reception entertainment. Within 2 weeks Tracie and Kaley had all the details ironed out. Kaley had so much energy and enthusiasm that I knew we had found the right person for the job. Kaley and Jessica Watson put on an amazing show. Not only did Michael and I enjoy it but all of our guests thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.
Last but not least, our wedding planner/coordinator, Tracie Domino from Tracie Domino Events. I came across Tracie Domino Events via a simple google search. She along with several other wedding planner/coordinators were returned on my search results. In reviewing several websites a number of factors specific to Tracie and her talents jumped out at me including her experience, self-presentation, organizational skills, detailed, etc. After doing our (my sister Tina and I) due diligence, Michael and I decided to engage Tracie as our wedding planner/coordinator and we are glad we did. Her vendor network, take charge attitude and wedding planning execution skills made our wedding stress free and enjoyable not only for us but for my family."
See you tomorrow, dolls!
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