We’re over the moon today to be sharing stunning images from beautiful Shloka Narang‘s wedding in Mumbai. When we first saw these pics we were smitten, and a peek at @Shloka’s insta and the lovely words she’d written about her wedding to Shiv grabbed our hearts and gave them an extra squeeze!

“After having to delay our huge Indian wedding four times due to the pandemic, Shiv and I decided to have an intimate 50 person affair to celebrate our love for each other and to do our Hindu wedding ceremony. Starting with a list of 800 and cutting down to 50 was a task in itself! We decided to do it in Mumbai, India, which is where I am from originally.”

I decided to go completely makeup-free to one of the events (Haldi) at our wedding. I have acne-prone skin and have struggled with acne as well as scarring for a lot of my adult life so this was a risk for me but I really wanted to be comfortable in my own skin.

The event was a ritual-based one, but I was still going to be heavily photographed and of course, all our guests were there but I was so happy I did this because I really wanted to look and feel myself during our wedding. It really proved to me that beauty is on the inside and real happiness radiates beyond any make up! What better event, as the significance of a haldi is to purify you and your soul before your wedding and to have your families good wishes and love showered upon you.

For the ceremony itself, Shiv and I broke tradition and actually saw each other before. Once he was dressed he came up to my room and saw me before I had my veil on and we were able to take some photos and spend time together. It was one of the best decisions we made. It really helped us both feel calmer before the actual ceremony and although we weren’t sure if it was going to take away from the moment that we would see each other at the ceremony, it actually made it all so much more special. I wore a custom made Manish Malhotra outfit for this, which was a dream to have made and to finally be able to wear. Note: I tried on my outfit only 5 days before our wedding due to the pandemic!!!

Our biggest takeaway from this whole experience is that a wedding is truly a celebration of you as a couple, so it should reflect the two of you and your values in every way!

Wedding photographer’s website

https://www.instagram.com/fourfoldpictures/

How did you choose your photographer?

Indian weddings have a lot of ceremonies involved, and since our wedding was incredibly intimate, we were looking for someone who could capture the essence and mood of the event. It was really important that our couple photographs were as beautiful as the candid imagery from the wedding.

Were you pleased with your wedding photographer? Do tell… we love a brilliant review!

Incredibly pleased. Our photographers really took the time to get to know us as a couple and the photos were a real reflection of us. They captured our candid moments so beautifully and more than just us they also captured our family so well. When we look at the photos we are filled with joy!

Tell us about your venue – what made this place special for you?

We chose to do it in a hotel in Mumbai. We wanted our guests to all stay at the venue as we had so many different ceremonies taking place and as it was mainly family, it was quite a lot of fun to all be together. The hotel was the JW Marriott Sahar, and they took fabulous care of us!

Did you love wearing your outfits? How was the dress / suit shopping experience?

Shiv and I had to plan our wedding remotely – we had initially planned a huge Indian wedding in Jaipur but due to the pandemic and countless delays. Shiv looked for his outfit completely remotely. He had identified the designer as it was someone he had worn before and worked with them virtually to choose a design. They sent it to us in London where he tried it on! For me, it was a little different. Indian wedding outfits are quite large and elaborate so getting it to London just for a trial was not going to be possible. I had worked with one the team of one of my favorite Indian designers, Manish Malhotra, to create something custom-made. Back in 2019, we identified the types of work I liked, the colour, the cut and from there the team created a beautiful custom-made lehnga. The only catch was that I wasn’t going to be able to try it on until I arrived in Mumbai. I tried my wedding outfit on for the first time a few days before our wedding! Luckily it was incredible, exactly what I had imagined and wanted. It just shows how important it is to go for a designer whose aesthetics match your own!

Mehendi. The Mehendi ceremony is where the bride and her female family members have henna applied to their hands in intricate patterns. Bridal henna is incredibly intricate and is done on the hands and the feet – mine took 5 hours to do! I did it in advance so I could truly enjoy the event.

Did you hire a wedding planner?

Our wedding planners are called The Design Company by Henna Arora – they are a couple, Henna and Ashish and they not only styled our big day but also handled the logistics. Indian weddings take place over a few days so there was a lot to plan! They made sure to create the most stunning scenes for every event – every event looked and felt different and had an amazing atmosphere! We genuinely couldn’t have done it without them! Not only were they an incredible support on that front, but they were also so supportive for Shiv and I, making us feel so special.

Tell us about any special personal touches, or creative projects you made yourselves

Since our wedding was very intimate we wanted to make sure that our guests felt that. We handwrote little welcome notes, as well as thank you notes for each of our guests that were then dropped off in their rooms for them along with a special little present. Shiv’s mother who is an illustrator actually designed these cards for us – the welcome note had a background of lotuses to represent India (our heritage, but also where I was born and brought up) and our thank you notes were with a background of tulips to represent Holland (where Shiv was born and brought up!)

Although our wedding was only 50 people, Shiv and I are planning something larger for the year, which is why we chose an Italian theme!

How did the pandemic affect your wedding plans? Do you have any advice to share with couples planning their weddings right now?

We got engaged in 2019 and were planning to have our wedding in 2020. It was such a difficult process to have to continuously delay our wedding (it was delayed perhaps 5 times!) not just from a logistic perspective but also an emotional one. What we both learned was that at some point, you have to let go of the stress and try to enjoy the moment. Things change so rapidly, and we had to just focus on what was in our control, and be flexible and open to making changes to still be able to create the day that we wanted.