A sporty polo match and sufi sundowner lit up this wedding at Jaipur City Palace

A traditional sangeet party was replaced by a Parisian-inspired sangeet which earned the title of ‘Rajasthani Rendevouz,’ a tribute to the city where they first met. “We wanted it extremely personal so we redid the Pierre Hermé [dessert] cart, a lot of Parisian decor with earthy colours, and the bar completely decked out with family portraits and our pet’s pictures,” shared the couple. For a fun twist, Karnika brought her own baarat (because as she says “why should boys have all the fun?”) in a vintage car along with dhol wallas. DJ Maddy and the Copy Cats Band belted out tunes the entire night as close family and friends danced to the bride’s favourite Shah Rukh Khan tracks.

Initiating with poojas, the wedding day was timelessly traditional. “You embody Shiva and Shakti on your wedding day and that was our inspiration for the wedding. We wanted every element to showcase what we were doing so we included traditional flowers, sindoor, bangles, Rudraksh, and bells on every table,” the bride shared fondly. Lokesh Anand’s shehnai graced the wedding enhancing the spiritual aura of the evening. Moreover, a book encompassing particulars of the wedding ceremony, complete with spiritual paintings, were shared with guests to add meaning to the day’s events. “The whole point of the wedding was to celebrate and showcase our Indian culture, heritage and religion,” shared the couple.

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A disco-themed after-party with DJ AJ became the cherry on top of their well thought out wedding day. A close-knit all nighter in City Palace’s Baradari Restaurant featured all their comfort eats, from maggi noodles and mini burgers to Long Island cheesecake, which paid an homage to the bride’s hometown, as they danced the night away.

The wardrobe

A designer herself, the bride turned the galas into an exhibition of her fashion sensibilities. For the first ceremony, she donned a Raw Mango red bandhani sari with a white blouse, a draping of her grandmother’s wedding attire, and matching jewellery. In the phulon ki haldi, she went for a custom yellow lehenga by the same label. For the bridal mehendi, Karnika went with a playful yellow Anamika Khanna cape set which she paired with heirloom jewellery from Nikhil’s grandmother. A Sabyasachi white skirt and jacket set complemented her aesthetic vision for the polo match while she opted for a Ritu Kumar block-printed attire to transition into the sufi night. The sangeet witnessed an outfit change from a bespoke Anamika Khanna lehenga with a waistcoat for a blouse to a customised Vivienne Westwood Bordeaux gown because she wanted to carry a piece of England with her; finishing the look with diamonds. For the wedding ceremony, Karnika stunned in custom Sabyasachi. A rusty red lehenga with Gujarati elements, a short-sleeved blouse, and Rajasthani-inspired jewellery were assembled to build her look.

For the Mumbai event, Nikhil showed up in an Anamika Khanna attire. He opted for a blue kurta set from his wife’s label, Kaanjj, for the mehendi and went with a custom Raghavendra Rathore linen bandhgala for the polo match and sufi night. For the sangeet function, he threw on a custom tuxedo by London-based Jayesh Kamothi. For the wedding, Karnika played stylist for her soon-to-be husband, suiting him up in custom ivory Sabyasachi which reflected the same motifs as her lehenga.