Destination weddings have always been about exotic beaches, royal palaces, far away countries and they have this special charm about them. But imagine getting married in a quaint place away from the city in the middle of a beautiful coconut grove. And so when we at @pink-parrots# got a call from our bride who wanted to get married in her ancestral place and that too amidst a coconut grove at the foothills of the beautiful Yelagiri mountains, it definitely got us excited.
And what can be better for a wedding designer than having the full freedom to convert a beautiful piece of land into a picture perfect wedding venue. When we saw the place, we were very particular that our designs or any space transformations should retain the pristine beauty of the place and bring out the glory of mother nature.
We were very lucky to work with a couple, Jayshree and Dinesh and their super sweet family, who trusted us completely and gave us a free hand in designing a wedding venue that pushed us to do nothing less than the best for them. When you have a wedding that was going to be witnessed by an entire village, apart from family and friends coming from all over the world, it was bound to be challenging too.
We had to plan three of the wedding events with more than 1000 guests attending the reception and wedding and also a small haldi function. The Haldi was in the open courtyard of their ancestral home located in the coconut grove.
We put together a minimalistic quirky colorful decor using origami birds to keep it light and make it fun for the bride and her cousins. The next event was an engagement ceremony with close relatives and friends. We wanted to have a traditional stage setup for this ceremony.
Since the event was happening right in front of their home, we wanted to have an extension of the ancestral home as the theme and hence the stage design used antique style pillars and a betel leaf backdrop to signify the start of something auspicious. We wanted every event to be different from the other and so we decided to go with a ombre pink floral strings for this one as rest of the events were primarily using orange/yellow .
For the main events, we had decided on an orange color palette based on the bride's preferences. Reception was designed based on an enchanted woodland theme with lights as the main element. So the whole venue was lit with crystal chandeliers, candle walls and fairy lights adorning the canopy ceilings. And the reception stage was set against the backdrop of mountains and the coconut trees with a floral wall and a floral canopy with chandeliers.
One of the main highlights of this design was that the backdrop does not hide the beauty of the venue but instead highlights the beautiful coconut trees background. With less than 6 hours for the muhurtam , we had to ensure that the entire place was again transformed to a traditional set up for the wedding . The pathway was now adorned with mud pots hand painted with worli deisgns to reflect the wedding festivities and floral cane chandeliers at the top.
And the kalyana mandapam was weaved using coconut tree leaves with an orange,purple and white combination of flowers and brocade drapes were used to highlight the outer stage of the Mandap. With more than 60 people working day and night for three days, this was a truly unique wedding which we at @pink-parrots# executed with so much passion, heart and soul.
Every guest who came to the wedding raved about the décor and such heartfelt compliments are what makes our day special and every single effort worth it. To plan such a magnificent wedding in a remote place with limited access to resources was a unique challenge but it goes on to prove that anything is possible if you put your heart, mind and soul into it.
Photo credits : @shikha-balakrishnan# and @studio-31#