I spent $1.9 million on my five-day Indian wedding, which included a fire show and LED robots -

Photos: How I Spent $1.9 Million on My Five-Day Indian Wedding in Florida

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2023-09-25T16:46:14Z

Sanjay Balgobin and Carlita Nair at their wedding

Carlita Nair and Sanjay Balgobin got married in a five-day Indian wedding celebration in December 2022.
The couple spent nearly $2 million in total, including outfits from Bollywood designers and celebrity performers.
Nair said the wedding was a great way for family and loved ones to get together and honor traditions.

This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Carlita Nair, who got married in a five-day Indian wedding in 2022. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.

My husband Sanjay and I met six years ago and got married last year in a beautiful Indian wedding celebration.

Carlita Nair and Sanjay Balgobin at their wedding

We’re from very different backgrounds. Sanj grew up in America as the only child to an affluent family, while I’m half-Indian, half-white, and grew up between foster care and living with my grandparents. But we connected on our shared interest in entrepreneurship. Sanj began as a day trader on Wall Street and wanted to start his own hedge fund and brokerage, and I used to own a skincare company.

We now live with his parents in Florida, which is very traditional in South Asian culture.

We picked the Ritz Carlton because we wanted a beautiful indoor venue with delicious food. The hotel plus catering cost $130,000.

Sanjay and Carlita at their wedding at the Ritz Carlton

Because of the location we’re in, there are very few resources for South Asian community events. There are maybe one or two fantastic South Asian wedding planners, but they were booked on our event days.

We didn’t want an outdoor wedding because some of our Indian outfits weighed up to 60 pounds and we didn’t want to carry that weight in the heat.

We wanted to have the best food. The hotel has an Indian chef who will fly to any Ritz Carlton in the world just for Indian weddings.

Dinner at Carlita Nair and Sanjay Balgobin's wedding

On our wedding day, we had purely vegetarian Indian food, along with some vegan pastas and traditional treats.

The next day at our reception, we served both fish and chicken dishes, along with a vegan meal — pretty standard stuff. But we knew we wanted some spice, so we added a sweet curry sauce on top of the chicken and fish.

I wanted the decor for our wedding day to be very traditional, ethereal, and covered in florals.

Carlita Nair at her wedding at the Ritz Carlton

Our dream was the entire ceiling to be covered in real flowers, and for it to smell like a greenhouse when people walked in.

We also wanted a few non-traditional elements that people had never seen before — small details like a curved runway and sofas instead of individual chairs for people to lounge on.

We also wanted the lighting to be very moody, even though it was a morning event. We wanted it to feel like when you were walking into a different place, a different world.

Our sangeet, which is an Indian wedding tradition where there’s singing and dancing to celebrate the union of the two families, was Jaipur-themed, referring to the city in India.

Carlita and Sanjay playing a game at their sangeet

The lighting itself cost $25,000 and the rigging another $20,000, but we were able to receive discounts.

Carlita and Sanjay dancing at their wedding reception

We got a discount for the lighting. For whatever quote your wedding planner gives you, go get two or three quotes yourself.

Hair, makeup, jewelry, and turban tying cost around $25,000, with hair and makeup costing $6,000.

For hair and makeup, I flew a makeup artist down from Vancouver. I used to model when I was a teenager, and this artist had done my makeup several times before, so I knew exactly what I was getting, which was amazing. She even gave me a massage before every single event before doing my makeup.

Most makeup artists for South Asian events, especially when there are three events or more, usually charge prices starting at $6,000 up to $15,000, so it was a discount compared to others I interviewed.

I would advise other couples to invest in a photographer. Our photographer cost $40,000 for the full five days, plus a pre-wedding photoshoot. That price also included travel expenses and video.

I’m so happy with the photographer we got, especially since photos and video are what we look back on after the wedding.

In total, we spent $1.9 million on our wedding celebrations. Our families came together to pull the entire show off.

Our whole family came out to help us for our wedding, including financially, during the planning process, and with the small details. In Indian culture, the bride and groom often aren’t obligated to pay for the entire wedding, and cousins and aunts buy things here and there.

Sanjay is also the only child and has a big family, so he really wanted to throw a grand celebration for everyone.

If you’re not Indian and you come to an Indian wedding, the first question you usually have is, “How did you do all of this?” But everybody comes together to make it happen, and I’m really grateful for that.

Editor’s note, September 27, 2023: This article has been updated to clarify details about Nair’s childhood.