A Silver Anniversary
This September we had the pleasure of planning a 25th Wedding Anniversary at the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles. Since it was their silver anniversary, the couple wanted to incorporate a lot of those elements. The Albert ballroom was a great venue for this because it has built in elements that matched our decor perfectly. Beautiful embellished mirrors from floor to ceiling and walls with white draping were a perfect backdrop for our mirrored table tops and over the top flowers that looked like they were meant for the ballroom.
Enjoy this video and we look forward to sharing pictures with you all very soon!
25th Wedding Anniversary video
Take care
-EE
The Mehndi (Henna) Ceremony
The Mehndi is a very festive night during the coarse of an Indian wedding and is usually the event that kicks off all of the festivities. It is colorful and cheerful and involves lots of singing, dancing, and of course, mehndi!
The Mehndi night is typically the night before the wedding or just a few nights before and is called Mehndi-Ki-Raat (which literally translates into Mehndi night). Traditionally, both the bride and the groom are to get mehndi on their hands and feet, but in modern days, the groom usually does not partake and if he does, he will put a small design on the palm of his hand.
The mehndi artist draws a very intricate design on the hands and feet of the bride with the henna paste and the pattern can either be chosen by the bride, or as some of the artists that we work with say, they get inspired by each hand they work on and come up with their own designs accordingly. What's nice is that it is always a one of a kind design because it is done free hand and will be your own design.
Mehndi symbolizes love and it is said that the darker the color of the mehndi, the more love and respect the bride will get from her husband...so many brides will sleep with the paste on their hands and wash it off the next day to insure a very dark color! It is also said that once the bride and groom are married, the bride is not to lift a finger until the mehndi pattern on her hands is no longer visible- So according to tradition, brides have about a 2 week period after the wedding to honeymoon...not bad.
The bride and groom wear more simple outfits this night with the bride wearing typical mehndi colors like yellow, orange, or green and she usually does not wear much makeup so that come her wedding day, she really stands out.
The rest of the evening is left for dancing and singing and celebrating the new bride and groom. Such a fun night!
Photography by John Solano Photography
Thanks for reading everyone!
-EE
Anum and Muhammad at Vibiana
When Anum and Muhammad hired Exquisite Events to design and coordinate their wedding, we were so excited! They are such a warm and sweet couple, so gentle and fun and so very clearly in love. While we were hired early on in the process (still with about one year until the wedding), the couple had already chosen the venue for their reception and it was to be held at Vibiana.
In this traditional Muslim affaire, the couple had exchanged their vows the previous day and the reception would be a grand celebration with friends and family of their first day of married life. Vibiana holds the greatest challenges and joys in design, providing simultaneously, some of the most beautiful and detailed architecture in Los Angeles and a blank slate. To successfully design an event at Vibiana, one must first respect the space and work within it. The details at Vibiana are so incredibly beautiful that a lot of fussy, complex designs would only compromise the true beauty of the space, the very beauty that inspired Anum and Muhammad to choose Vibiana to begin with. The bride wanted the color pallet drawn from her traditional
Muslim gharara of aubergine with Tiffany blue accents, which, while two of Nikki’s favorite colors, were not two she had used together before. Always excited by something new, Nikki decided aubergine would be the dominant color, Tiffany secondary and that the two would be perfectly married by a platinum grey.
With her space and color pallet decided on, Nikki began to work on the details of the design. The primary lines of the space at Vibiana are very long and clean and so it was decided that there would be no round guest tables – that all of the tables would reflect what is already suggested by the space so as to complement and not compete with it. Guest tables would be both square and rectangular with the large families of the bride and groom sitting opposite one another at very long one-sided tables on either side of the forever-long white aisle runner. The effect of this arrangement was something that, while lovely in setup, Nikki knew would be its most beautiful once the faces of these two families filled the tables.
Each of the tables for family and guests were dressed in tailored satin aubergine linen and flanked by silver Chiavari chairs with Tiffany blue cushions. The place settings featured delicately folded Tiffany blue napkins atop silver beaded chargers, detailed silver flatware and surrounded Shirvan Design’s beautiful arrangements of soft lavender roses, hydrangea, classical candelabras and mirrored trays set with softly glowing candles.
The room at Vibiana was awash in violet light, highlighting the detail of the architecture and décor with a stunning gobo ceiling treatment that added another touch of fine detail.
It is tradition that the bride and groom sit while their guests come to give their blessings, well wishes and monetary gifts and the altar at Vibiana was the perfect stage for this beautiful couple. Very simply adorned with violet-hued glass bubbles holding candles on the altar, the newlyweds held court on an elegant aubergine setee, chatting and taking photos with their guests.
It was clear that the unification of this couple was a truly joyous occasion for all. Anum and Muhammad’s families spent much of the reception smiling and laughing with one another, the men from he Anum’s family wearing boutonnieres in aubergine and the Muhammad’s in Tiffany blue.
It was such an incredible pleasure to see such happiness and love between these two families and to have the honor of designing the details for this day they will hold forever.
