Krupa & Akshar // Basking in the Sun

In this blog, we will walk you through the wedding of Krupa and Akshar. The bride, Krupa, had originally contacted Mint To Be Events in early 2020, hoping to welcome her fiancé and his family to some home cooking in New England for the wedding. The plan was to host a massive wedding in the heart of Boston like we did for her cousin, Frank (check out Frank and Seema's wedding). All was going according to plan until the pandemic threw in a slight wrinkle. The entire hospitality sector shut down thru the pandemic, and the State of Massachusetts had stringent mandates on gathering. The dilemma was that in Gujarati traditions (largely true for all Hindus actually) the murat, or the auspicious date for the couple to get married had to be observed. And while this was a marriage of Krupa and Akshar, the couple truly believed it was a wedding of two families and having a small wedding was out of the question. The only solution we came up with collaboratively was to move the wedding out of state where the mandates were accommodating. After searching for several venues, we ended up at the JW Marriott in Orlando. The challenge in working at this venue was that this would be the venue's first Indian wedding ever, which made our role even more exciting. From shifting all the vendors from Boston to Florida, to flying in for multiple walkthrus, Krupa and Akshar's wedding felt like planning two separate weddings, which made it pretty awesome as we love these two. Plus, escaping New England weather to bask in the sun is always a great ordeal.

We encourage you to follow their journey through the pictures from A&A Photo and Video below. Or you can choose to watch the highlight film below. Please enjoy both!!!

(Highlight film above from AA video)

Drop dead gorgeous by our friend Ravi from the Wedding Design.

Every Gujarati sangeet begins with an aarti to Indian deities. Radha Krishna.

Followed by several folk dances from the state of Gujarat, including a 2 step (be tali), 3 step (trun tali), and coordinated stick dance called the dandia.

It wouldn't be an Indian wedding without some choreographed dances. Pictured below is our handsome groom performing for the crowd.

Every garba night turns into a dance party on its own. Pictured below is the "sanedo".

And a sparkling best of night from the bride and groom.

The following morning the bride gets her final touches done.

Hear all, hear all, somebody's getting married.

The masserati escorting the groom and his sister to the baraat.

And the groom's family taking advantage of the basking Florida sun.

The bride secretly showing off her moves from her view of the baraat.

After the baraat, the two families meet for a milni. Gujarati's calls this ceremony the "ponkhvanu".

Pictured below is the mother of the bride trying to pinch the nose of her future son-in-law. If she is able to pinch his nose, it signifies that the mother will always be in charge. The groomsmen desperately trying to protect the groom's nose from being pinched.

After the Ponkhvanu, the groom enters the ceremony for the Ganesh puja.

Once the Ganesh puja is completed, the bride is floated in on a dholi.

And they are married.

A Gujarati specific tradition called the Akhand Saubagyavati is performed where an odd number of married women approach the bride and whisper marital advice in her ear.

In most Patel weddings, immediately after the wedding, the families exchange and present gifts to the bride and groom and to each other.

After lunch the bride and groom leave for the vidaii. The sisters of the groom stop the newly weds suggesting that technically she is still part of the sisterhood, and demand reprimand to let their sister go with their newly married brother-in-law