Brilliant colour, traditions, flowers galore, and so much dancing and merriment, to us, equal a wedding for the ages! (And one the Polka Dot Wedding team will fall wildly in love with!) Deepthi & Varun’s Romantic & Colourful Wedding Celebration, photographed and filmed by Shaadi Capture, was planned super quickly amid lockdowns and included some very special virtual guests. Deepthi tells us about their fabulous day! 

Our love story is just like the Bollywood Two States story. Varun’s home city is Shimla and mine is Bangalore. We have currently been living in Australia for the past 7 years and tied the knot after a decade together. Due to COVID, our parents, families, and relatives were unable to attend our wedding day in person however they virtually blessed our wedding. Our sisters from both sides sat in the mandap to take the place of our parents. It was a 2-month full-on preparation full of uncertainties and COVID scare but we truly feel blessed to have had a beautiful, fairy tale wedding!

Our wedding theme was pink and pastels, while the reception was white with rose petals – both Indian style. We loved how it all came together! We had 4 events and with Melbourne as the chosen location, we were praying for good weather and no COVID risks. And we were blessed to have had no issues.

There were many traditions we upheld before the actual wedding such as the turmeric, henna tattoo, and the Sangeeth and Sehra ceremonies.

Our wedding was held at the beautiful Hidden Valley Resort, with the reception in the Luxor Reception Hall.

When the wedding dates were set, I had literally 2.5 months to organise my wedding day attire. For so many years I had a list of designers, colours, and ways that I had dreamt of getting married. Now, with just so much less time, I had no idea who would design my outfits. I was relieved when three of the wedding boutiques in India immediately started working on my outfit designs – Agashe, Isa by Dolly Wahal, and Studio Iris.

The reception dress was the first one to reach me from India and the wedding dress was the last one to reach (15 days before the wedding date). The outfits were fabulous but needed further alterations and I sourced this locally. I had always thought I would go to India and personally get my outfits designed but because of COVID, these had to be done virtually as well. Overall, I would say there was a lot of pressure because each and every accessory, piece of jewellery, attire, and footwear was coming here all customised and colour co-ordinated – but it was worth it all!

We went with Chatenya Mittal designer for Varun’s complete outfit, accessories, and footwear. Again, we went through similar meetings virtually, and I took all the measurements of my husband over a video call with the designer, going through colour shades and design details. My husband was so particular with each and every design especially the Indian groom’s shawl that he wears on the wedding day. His reception attire was a tuxedo and Australia had great boutiques for this, so this was the easiest of all the outfits I must admit.

Our photographer/videographer team was Shaadi Capture for all the 5 events (Pre-wedding, Haldi, Mehendi, Wedding, and Reception). I got in contact with them over the phone 2 months prior to the wedding, luckily they had the dates available and I booked it straight away. We also spoke about the events planned, timings, live streaming, COVID situation, and everything possible. Pankaj was our point of contact, he and his team listened to our needs and really understood all our requirements, and made it easy for us. We loved our photographer and especially how he’s captured our day and family moments!

To this day, we feel that the day was made for our wedding. It was perfect in all ways – bright and sunny which is so not like Melbourne, no rain or heavy winds, and most importantly no COVID lockdowns! Firstly we really missed our parents, family, and friends  – all those who connected virtually. Live streaming was most important to us as our parents from both sides were in India and we didn’t want them to miss a single second of the events.

And those who were with us at the ceremony were fantastic and we still cannot get over the overload of enthusiasm they had before and throughout the wedding, and also the love they showered upon us is something we will always cherish!!

For the wedding flowers, S & S Event Specialists did the floral setups and the reason we went with them is that they knew all about Indian Mandap setups and had all the required décor that we needed. They put together the dream pastel setups against the lakeside backdrop for us!

And for the reception flowers, I chose Abracadabra Events to design the white with a bit of blush pink floral décor arrangements and they did a fantastic job as well. Both the ceremony and reception setups were dreamy and everything I had discussed through virtual meetings and calls from interstate.

My favourite memories from our wedding were Varun, all the beautiful colours, the moving rituals, the decor/setup on the day, plus all our family and friends! And the music! And all our vendors whose collaboration on the day was commendable throughout.

My advice to couples planning their wedding would be to book their venue first! I learned this the hard way!

Thank you to Deepthi & Varun for letting us relive their completely stunning wedding day with them. And to Shaadi Capture for sharing their beautiful photos & wedding film.