Palak and Paras Faridabad Golden Galaxy Resort Wedding

A couple different as chalk and cheese bonded in eternal love…

Meet Palak and Paras, a couple who are polar opposites or as different as chalk and cheese but the conspired to bring them together forever!

Having known each other from their high school days, Palak and Paras literally grew up together. Over nine years of courtship, not only did they fall deeply in love but also learnt to respect each other and at the same time became each other’s best friends.

And when the time came to take their relationship a notch higher, fortunately for them, their families readily agreed!

Planning the Wedding

“We both took on the mammoth task of planning everything on our own! Oh boy, was it a rollercoaster! It was the ultimate group project. We primarily followed one simple rule for all the major decision-making. We first sat down together, discussed at length what each of us wanted – got on to the same page and prepared our script before we presented it to the parents,” says Palak, the bride.

Luckily, both their families did not mind and let the couple decide and steer things their own way.

“From the venue, décor and the clothes to the design on the DJ floor we pretty much did all of it together,” says Palak. 

Of course, it was no piece of cake. Due to the stress and intensity of everything ‘wedding planning’, Palak had nightmares! “Paras will never forget when he had to calm me down in the middle of the night (or was it nights?) when I was convinced that my wedding lehenga (which I had gotten heavily customised) is going to be a disaster!), but we both had fun doing it together!” says Palak.   

However, the whole planning process was a huge learning for both of them. The couple made it a point to take breaks from their wedding planning to spend some quality time with each other. They went on dates too.

“We made sure we went on a date to our favourite place three days before all the madness was set to begin!”

Another interesting point to note was that the couple along with their families tweaked certain wedding rituals. The idea behind this was to ensure that they did not have to sit through or participate in any traditional that imposed due to cultural norms. “As everyone knows, Indian weddings have a robust dose of (without the lack of a better word) misogynistic rituals. And so, began the family discussions on kanyadaan, bidaai and other such stuff – we were pleasantly surprised to hear our families’ progressive views and their appetite for discussion on this.  We did manage to “tweak” some of these rituals and the others we accepted with a pinch of salt and the fact that we and our families were on the same page with our thought processes aligned. My biggest takeaway was when my parents, especially my dad, was open to doing away with kanyadaan declaring his daughter was not something to “be given away”. – Palak, the bride.

The Wedding Festivities

The main vision for the couple was that everything about their wedding had to be super fun and breezy. They had four functions and therefore, four different outfits for the bride and groom were carefully curated. Each look had to be different from the other. Also, they did not want to stick to ‘expected colours’ for each of the functions.

Mehendi

For the mehendi ceremony, the couple matched each other in ice blue hues and white tones as they did not want any typical colours of pinks and yellows. Palak wore a stunning lehenga by Vasansi, Jaipur and Paras wore an achkan with white embroidery work.

Engagement and Cocktail

For their engagement, Paras wore a classic tuxedo with a hand-embroidered waistcoat while Palak wore a beautiful Indo-western sapphire blue lehenga with an attached dupatta. “Best decision ever – need your hands free for all the tunak-tunak-tuns!”

Haldi and Choora

Wedding

For their sunset pheras, Paras wore an ivory sherwani with intricate embroidery and Palak wore a baby-pink hued organza lehenga with a heavy mix of pearl and zardozi handwork. For the reception, Palak donned an oxblood Anarkali with a draped dupatta complete with a kundan choker-set. Paras went for a black achkan finishing the look with a kani shawl.

Live Music at the Wedding

“The decision to have Jeevan, a live flute player at the pheras is definitely something that we both pat ourselves on the back for! Be it my entry on the tunes of classical Indian music or our jaimala on the flute rendition of our favourite retro song – the peaceful aura that Jeevan created was a much-needed break from all the crazy madness that had just preceded the event!” says Palak.

“We also did not have a stage at any of our events – we loved that we were not stuck in the same place for hours looking down at a party that we had hosted! Thankfully, our photographer was game for it and managed to capture the “traditional” shots as well.”

Tips for Couples Planning their Wedding

If your events are closely packed (like ours were) it is very important to have a time schedule in mind and finally (the most difficult part) abide by it. A delay of even say half an hour can set you back sometimes. Like me and Paras couldn’t make time for portraits after our pheras.

The Dream Team

Mehendi: Outfits: Study by Janak (Groom); Vasani Jaipur (Bride)

Engagement: Outfits: Study by Janak (Groom); Asmairaa – Mahima Batra (Bride)

Pheras: Outfits: Deepak S Chhabra Couture (Groom); Sangeeta Creations (Bride)

Reception: Outfits: Lakshay Nagpal (Groom); Ridhima Bhasin (Bride)

Photography: Beginnings for you

Video: Rock Paper Scissors Films

Caterers: In-house at the venue

Décor: Shaadi Masala by Jitendra

Makeup (Bride): Neha Grover

Hair (Bride): Rashid

Location: Golden Galaxy Resort, Faridabad