Double Your Pleasure Part 1 of 2

Congratulations Richa and Deb!

This was my first Hindu wedding and so it was a huge learning process for me. It was great fun though!

Richa and Deb are both so smart. He went to MIT (and apparently part of an a capella group) and she got her JD from U. Chicago. Sometimes I feel so stupid :)

The wedding was at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Woodley Park. This is a huge hotel - did I say huge? It felt like I was always running down the hallways or riding the elevators. This was also the first time I am working with a unionized hotel. I was all prepared for a lot of hassle but was pleasantly surprised at how accommodating the staff was!

So the one bad thing about summer weddings is that my assistants go on vacation. Whereas me, I have no life :) So I had resigned myself to doing this wedding by myself. It would have been OK but it probably would have meant that I would start setting up at 9am for a 6pm reception. No biggie. But last minute, I found a new assistant who will also be helping me in late September and a HUGE lifesaver from a fellow event planner (I owe you one LF!)

First off, the hotel gave Richa and Deb the presidential suite - yes, that's right - the palatial 5-room suite. Huge is an understatement. There was another Indian reception at the other end of the hotel and several other wedding parties staying there. It was nuts. Anyway, I was prepared to lay out the tablecloths ourselves as I was told that the staff would not touch them until 5pm. Nevermind that. They were helping throughout. It made setup so much faster.

On to the ceremony ... Richa was so nervous. Her maid of honor said that she might have puked! Oh no! I've never had a bride puke and I wasn't about to start! Hindu ceremonies are notoriously long. We had planned for 2 hours. The stage was decorated with a chuppah-like structure with tons of flowers and ceremonial items. Aradhana from As U Wish was the brilliant decorator. There were snacks and drinks available for the guests. It took nearly 20 minutes plus to get all the guests to stop eatting and drinking and chitchatting so that we could start the processional. From what I gathered, the ceremonies vary quite as nobody really knows the precise way they should be done. Much depends on the priest performing the ceremony and/or what the families want. What was really strange was that while the ceremony was going on, guests would routinely get up and get food and drinks and mill about the rear of the ceremony hall. Talk about polar opposites from a church wedding! The priest finished in record time, an hour and 20 minutes.

This was Labor Day Saturday and it had been pouring rain. But by the time they were ready for photos, the rain had stopped so that they could shoot some photos out on the back garden area! So pretty!

DJ Hawk played a mix of Indian and popular music. We had a blast working with Roman Grinev, the photographer. It was great help that he was well versed in Indian weddings. I had been really looking forward to working with him as I had heard wonderful comments about his work. Ms. Kelley Epps of Face Mode did a fabulous job making our girls pretty. The delicious Indian buffet was provided by Indique/Bombay Bistro.