A cheetah-shaped brooch was pinned across her chest, paying tribute to Vantara, a 3,000-acre animal sanctuary in Gujarat, while Isha wore a custom sari by French haute couture house Schiaparelli, a first for the brand.
As the party drew late, and Justin Bieber took the stage for a private concert, Radhika changed into a Manish Malhotra metal mesh sari. “It featured a corset and had a modern twist,” Radhika explains. “It was quite heavy, but it was all worth it in the moment.”
Over the next few days, the couple performed several pujas (ritual prayers) and a mehendi ceremony, in which the bride and guests applied henna to their hands and feet. Then, on July 11, they had a haldi, an auspicious traditional ritual in which soon-to-be couples apply turmeric paste to their bodies as a blessing for prosperity. Radhika wore Sherara pants by Anamika Khanna and a floral dupatta (stole). “The atmosphere was filled with joy and a little chaos,” Radhika says. “Our haldi is the most important thing to me.”
July 12 was the day of the baraat, or the groom’s wedding procession. As Anant arrived on horseback to the Geo World Congress, there were musicians and hundreds of dancers. “It was out of this world. I’d never seen anything like it,” designer Prabal Gurung, one of the more than 2,000 guests who attended along with Tony Blair, Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra, says of the baraat. “The whole room was filled with flowers and Bollywood celebrities. Dancing and singing.” (Those flowers were orchestrated by Preston Bailey, an event planner who has created more than 60 floral animal sculptures, including monkeys, elephants and tigers, made from Indian flowers. He estimates that it took more than 100,000 flowers to make one. “It took many sleepless nights,” Bailey says. trendarrived in Mumbai three weeks early to pull off the event, and people queued up throughout the evening to have their photos taken in front of the installation.
After a short break, it was time for the wedding. The Hindu ceremony began with a traditional Jaimala, where Anant and Radhika exchanged garlands to symbolize their mutual approval. This was followed by Kaniyadaan, a formal ceremony in which Radhika’s parents blessed Anant to marry their daughter. This was followed by the phera, or the actual wedding ceremony, in which the bride and groom circled around a ceremonial fire. Radhika describes the ceremony as “solemn, yet enchanting.”
