Sujaya & Eric’s celebration had the kind of energy that makes strangers smile and aunties cry happy tears—often at the same time. Set against the palms and sparkling water of Hilton St. Pete Carillon Park, the weekend unfolded like a love letter to color: teal silks, fuchsia dupattas, citrus marigolds, and that Florida sunshine that insists on a close-up. Sona Photography turned every beat into a keepsake—crisp portraiture on the hotel’s grand drive, radiant close-ups where you can see the glow and the heart eyes, and editorial frames under those chic, minimalist arches that had us whispering “print this one.” It’s the Platinum Guide difference: seasoned pros who know South Asian timelines, capture traditions beautifully, and deliver magazine-ready galleries without missing a single candid.
Eventfully Yours choreographed the flow with the calm of air-traffic control, ceremony pacing, and reception transitions, all landed right on time. Maharani Designs dressed the day in saturated blooms and thoughtful texture: a lush mandap tableau that felt intimate yet grand, petal-strewn aisles, and reception florals that echoed the bride’s palette without stealing the spotlight. Saree pleats fell just so, thanks to Ruchi Patel’s expert draping for the ceremonies, a golden yellow saree, and partial draping for the reception, a dusty rose lehenga, while the bride’s aunts lovingly managed the rest. Tampa Bay Henna set the tone for the night with designs that felt straight out of a fairytale. Sujaya adored her mehndi so much that she made sure it peeked above her bangles—and trust us, there were lots of bangles. Guests joined in the fun too, lining up at the Garba Raas Hora for their own intricate designs, each one a tiny work of art that became part of the celebration’s magic.
When it came to beauty, Michele Renee The Studio crafted timeless, classic glam looks for the ceremonies and reception. From glowing skin to defined eyes and polished hair, it was elegance designed to last through vows, tears, and one or two very enthusiastic group hugs.
The celebration was further elevated by FyerFly Productions, who kept the soundtrack irresistible, stacking classics with crowd-pleasers until the dance floor forgot what empty looked like. One of the sweetest parts of this wedding journey was preparing for their first dance. The couple chose A Whole New World from Disney’s Aladdin, a song that captured both the magic and playfulness of their love story. Take the Lead Dance Studio choreographed a routine that highlighted their connection, blending elegance with just the right amount of flair. Publix delivered a sweet finish, and the interfaith ceremonies—two in total—were lovingly led by Rabbi Lefkowitz and Guruji Marathe. Together, they created a spiritual tapestry of two faiths, one promise, and an aisle full of very proud people.
We can’t stop replaying the highlights: the bridesmaids striking in emerald green, the couple framed beneath a flower-laden canopy, a gallery-wall moment where Sujaya & Eric lean in and the whole world blurs. It’s joyful, elegant, and so them.
How did you meet your Groom and when did you know he was "the one"?
We met through the band program at the University of Florida!
Share the scoop on your Proposal Story!
Eric worked with one of my best friends to plan a surprise proposal at our local botanical gardens, Longwood Gardens, during their Christmas festival.
Tell us how you went about planning your wedding, and your overall experience with the Venues, Hair & Makeup, Outfits, Decor Theme, and all of the other important details.
We started planning our wedding before we were even engaged, as we attended our friends' weddings. We would make a list of what we would want for our future wedding. As we started wedding planning we relied a lot on our family and friends who had recently gotten married for advice and research. Our priorities when we started wedding planning were having the people we love at our wedding, and doing the traditions that were important to us and our families. We began with searching for venues and determining a budget. We wanted all of our events to be at one venue, and we wanted the venue to be relatively close to an airport because most of our guests were flying in from out of town. A hotel made sense so that it would be convenient for us and our guests to simply walk downstairs for each event, and be able to hang out in between.
Sujaya's younger sister ultimately found the venue and it was perfect. It was big enough for our events, but because the hotel has one ballroom, we did not have to worry about the hotel being double-booked. The grounds also had beautiful tropical greenery and water features for photos, and a carillon tower that reminded us of the carillon tower at the University of Florida where we met. Another draw of the Hilton St. Petersburg Carillon Park was working with Tori. Tori is incredibly detailed, efficient, and kind. We absolutely loved working with her. The catering staff had the same attention to detail in their planning and execution. They worked with us to come up with a custom all vegetarian menu for all of our events, and even created a dish for us, the stuffed peppers. Soon after, we hired Tracy from Eventfully Yours, and we really appreciate her vendor recommendations, wedding planning timeline, and tips along the way. When we were looking for photographers, I sent Tracy a few photographers whose style I liked so that she could know who to recommend to us, and one of these photographers was Sona Photography. Tracy highly recommended Mona and we hired her soon after.
Throughout the wedding planning process, Sujaya handled the aesthetics and the big picture, and Eric helped with the execution and logistics. Our main wedding colors were pink and green because Sujaya's favorite color is pink, and Eric's favorite color is green. We wanted our wedding to feel very Florida, and formal but fun. We added a marigold orange into the color scheme as a reference to marigolds and to drive home the tropical theme, and Maharani Designs created beautiful tropical floral centerpieces that drove home this theme. We wanted our wedding party to not only look good as a group, but for each individual to look good in what we had them wear. We went with the dark green lehengas and suits because this would be a flattering color on a variety of skin tones, and brought more of the dark green into the color scheme. When we first talked to Maharani Designs, I sent them a sketch of what I wanted our mandap/chuppah to look like. Tarak truly listened to every detail about what we wanted and literally brought our vision to life.
For hair and makeup, I wanted a classic old Hollywood vibe for the makeup, including a soft matte base, and wanted to still look like myself. I had always loved low chignon hairstyles and was excited to include this hairstyle in my classic look; as my cousin advised me, it was also practical to do an updo because this made it easier to put on the flower garland and the mangal sutra!
How did you select your bridal lengha or wedding dress? Did you have a favorite color in mind?
I am Gujarati and Marathi, so I chose to wear yellow in Marathi tradition for the wedding ceremonies. I do not love red which is a common color for Gujarati brides, so I instead decided to incorporate hot pink in part to replace the red, but mostly because I just like it. I wanted a golden yellow saree with a hot pink border to both coordinate with the hot pink and marigold orange in the mandap, but also stand out from these colors and the greenery backdrop.
We found the perfect shade of champagne gold to flatter Eric and coordinate with my saree. His embroidered sherwani was custom-made with dark gold accents by MFS. The buttons & collar, pagadi, and dupatta were made in the exact same dark gold shade. We got his gold shoes from Chic Men to finish the look.
I wanted something more traditional for the ceremonies, but for the reception I wanted the lehenga to be even more reflective of my personality. For my reception lehenga, from the start I wanted it to be a lighter pink with silver accents, I wanted 3D floral appliques, and a square sweetheart neckline. I also wanted something that I would actually feel comfortable in. Rather than a super heavy skirt, I opted for an organza fabric which already had a beautiful sheen, and crystals for the decoration, which were higher impact even though they did not cover the whole skirt. I also made the look even more bridal with a lot of sparkly bangles and jewelry. I custom-designed my perfect lehenga with Panihari Mumbai. My mom also sewed in tulle skirts instead of the can can so that the skirt would not be stiff and heavy, but still had volume. I wore the dupatta Gujarati style.
Eric's gray tux and light pink tie coordinated perfectly with my lehenga. The groomsmen had dark green suits, but pink ties to match Eric.
For the Garba Raas Hora, I again wanted to wear pink, but opted for a hot pink lehenga that spun nicely and had nice embroidery on the blouse. Eric got a dark green kurta. We matched our wedding colors!
For the ketubah signing, Eric and I both wore purple because a traditional Jewish dye called techelet was purple.
For the Grah Shanti, I wore the saree that my mom wore for her wedding reception that was gifted to her by her mother in law.
What was the most enjoyable part of the planning process, and why?
Eric and I really loved taking dance lessons to learn our first dance. We danced to A Whole New World from Disney's Aladdin and Take the Lead Dance Studio choregraphed our dance. We had learned rumba in previous lessons at the studio, and we had so much fun learning our choreography and adding on different moves and details as we took more lessons. We also learned our dance pretty early in the process, so we did not feel rushed to learn this at the last minute and could really enjoy it.
What did your guests particularly love about your Wedding?
We loved asking our guests what their favorite part of our wedding was after the fact! We received a variety of answers, but the most common answers involved dancing. The Garba Raas Hora was a favorite for a lot of our guests! The Garba Raas is a Gujarati tradition, and only my mom's side of the family is Gujarati, so most of our family and friends were learning these dances for the first time, and most of our guests were learning the Jewish dance of the Hora for the first time. Nevertheless, almost everyone participated in the dances after brief tutorials by our family members, and everyone had a blast, especially with Raas. Some commented that every wedding should have an event like this! Our guests also loved watching the bridesmaid and groomsmen dances that two of my bridesmaids choregraphed, and Eric's and my first dance. Our wedding party did a great job learning the dances despite many of them not being dancers, and we were so happy with how it came together.
Was there a really special moment in your wedding that constantly replays in your mind?
The highlight of our wedding was feeling the atmosphere of love and joy emanating from all of our friends and family. Everyone was on time, had put so much thought into their outfits, and were so excited to take part in each event and celebrate us.
We also loved the intimate moments of our wedding, such as Sujaya getting ready for the ceremonies with her immediate family, and with her bridesmaids for the reception. And Sujaya and Eric's moment together after the Jewish ceremony, the yichud.
We also had so much fun on the dance floor at the reception! We played a mix of Bollywood and American music, with a healthy amount of Taylor Swift and early 2000s pop.
For events other than your ceremony, please tell us as much as you would like about the decor, style, dances, and all the special details.
Eric's groomsman 3D-printed the custom Sujaya & Eric sign for us that hung on the greenery wall at our reception. We told him the colors and style of script we wanted, and he brought it to life! He has a 3D-printing Etsy shop called Stella's Print Shop.
I absolutely loved my bridal mehndi! Tampa Bay Henna was lovely to work with. I wanted something whimsical with more negative space, and not too intricate. I had it come up as high as I did because I wanted to see it above my bangles, and I wore a lot of bangles. Our guests also loved the mehndi designs they got done at the Garba Raas Hora, and we even added an hour for her on the spot because so many people wanted to get mehndi done!
Do you have any words of wisdom for Brides-To-Be?
Regarding planning timeline, we found it important to stay on top of things throughout the process, because we knew that unexpected things would come up last minute. So if we knew there was something that needed to be done, we tried to do it early on. Wedding planning is a marathon, not a sprint, so we also found it important to pace ourselves.
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