Barkha & Arul

Barkha and Arul’s three-day wedding was a wonderful blend of South Indian and Punjabi Hindu traditions. I honestly don’t know how Barkha was able to oversee so many details, especially since the planning coincided with her preparations to move to Philadelphia to begin her residency in orthopedic surgery. She was on top of every detail from start to finish, and as the photos will attest, she did a great job creating a beautiful event. The festivities started off with a South Indian ceremony at the Malibu Temple. A sangeet at the Dana Point Yacht Club followed, with the main wedding day taking place on the Grand Lawn at the beautiful St. Regis in Monarch Beach.

The wedding itself was an explosion of beautiful colors, including tangerines and fuschias. Fabric panels provided a romantic ambiance to the mandap, while colorful parasols gave the entire event a fun and stylish vibe. Barkha had two different bouquets made — one for the wedding and one for the reception — which I thought was a great idea. The bridesmaids all looked fabulous in their fuschia saris. And let’s not forget the animals: The baraat and doli/viddai featured a horse and carriage, and the couple threw two doves into the air at the end of their ceremony. The reception was chock-full of fun details, including hand-made booklets with pages of poetry for placecards, a huge magnum of red wine for guest signatures, a candy table, water boards, a gorgeous mix of red and turquoise decor, and reception outfits to die for. In fact, when Barkha was in India to buy her outfits, she emailed me a really bad photo of the lengha she was considering, just to ask if I thought it would photograph well. Of course, the photo didn’t do it justice, and when I finally saw it in person, it totally took my breath away. Don’t ask me why, but I love lenghas that have long sleeves. Not to be outdone, Arul looked uber-swank in his red sherwani. I love when grooms go with color.

With coordination by Pinaki and Raakhi at Pink Rock Events, hair by the St. Regis salon, decor by Fayaz and Saman at 2 Create Designs, video by the always fabulous April and the team at Robles Video, DJ artistry by the awesome Sandeep Kumar, and lighting by Hemant at Ambiance AV.

And one from a quick portrait session we did before the sangeet: