2 Days. Cliveden House. The Grove Hotel. A Summer Soiree.

The Planning Journey: Highlights

It started with a phone call from Nikhil. He was a Groom who knew exactly what he wanted, what he liked, what he didn’t like. And yet he was very fair and measured in his approach – there is a definite warmth you feel speaking with him. I remember getting off the call and telling Ajay how much I already like this guy.

LaToya had a fantastic, professional, confident and flexible approach to our wedding. She was prepared to hear what things we needed from a wedding planner and find a way to help make the suppliers fit to our needs. This was the biggest difference we’d noticed compared with any other wedding planners we approached. Many told us what we needed to do to keep suppliers happy and LaToya was the first to ask us what would “we” need from the suppliers to make us happy. – Anika & Nikhil

Then we met Anika. She is without a shadow of a doubt one very impressive woman!

Super tolerant of her partner’s LOVE for all things Marvel and Star Wars…we heard about an idea to bribe members of the wedding party into Star Wars outfits, a cool idea to have a comic book of their love story and other “suggestions”! Assuming this was a way of testing just how far he could go with getting some of his favourite things into the wedding, we listened. Anika picked her battles…and frankly for the most part we backed her up! The message was received though – find a way to get both Marvel and Star Wars tastefully into this wedding.

…there were more atypical requirements that were specific to us and both Ajay and LaToya were prepared to adapt and meet the needs that were important to us. – Anika & Nikhil

And then there was the WhatsApp group. Now this is a standard thing with our clients and it works beautifully. This couple is, however, in our Hall of Fame for the most used group in the history of our business! I say that with love, as we now have a cool friendship with these two.

Perhaps the saddest bit about being married is not having the fun and banter that we had on the WhatsApp group with Ajay and LaToya. I’m sure we drove them nuts on it, but they were very patient with us and we loved every minute of the whole experience of it. – Anika & Nikhil

The Nuptials

They had us at 35 guests! And it was a beautiful ceremony at Cliveden House. Courtesy of The Garden Room Flowers, we opted to accentuate (rather than decorate) the space with florals in a blue, green and ivory palette.

And the cake (by Daisy Brydon Creations)! Topped with peacock love birds with trailing tails, this was a cake that was all about the detail. Daisy Brydon outdid herself with this one!

Then there was the Hindu Ceremony with a breathtaking Mandap from Jay & I Events. The ceremony was a beautiful blend of Gujurati and Punjabi traditions, to honour the backgrounds of the families. It was our first one with the well known Kamalji and Shiv Gopal combo…and I don’t know whether it was because of how much we’d come to like Anika & Nikhil or whether it was the delivery of the ceremony but it was one that really touched us as the Planners.

The Personal Touches

…were EVERYWHERE! Here are a few of them:

We ended up having so many personal touches and ideas that we didn’t think possible. – Anika & Nikhil

• The hand piped Superman logo on the back of the cake – in a place only the Bride and Groom could see as they stood to cut it and in the same coloured icing as the rest of the cake to blend in … an yes, I mean on this cake!

• Nikhil’s suit lining! A personal triumph! Ajay designed the layout of little R2D2 outlines, sent it off to be printed onto a roll of material and once approved had it sent to the suiting company for them to work their magic.

 …the custom-made Star Wars wedding suit lining. I was showing off that lining in nearly all the wedding photos. – Nikhil

• The wedding favours. They’re not for everyone but were absolutely perfect for these two!

[one]…that really will always remain with us was the amazing custom made comic book wedding favour depicting the key moments in our relationship – Anika & Nikhil

In Their Words

The biggest thing everyone said about our wedding was that they felt so welcomed, spoiled, and that the whole day was so personal even though it was done on such a huge scale. Never had they felt so much part of a wedding when there were so many people there. Another comment we received was how smoothly the whole day had gone and how good Ajay and LaToya were at tackling any issues.

Working with Ajay & LaToya was without a doubt the best decision we made through the entire wedding process.

Every wedding is bound to be stressful at times but whenever we did get stressed, we had such a great rapport with Ajay and LaToya everyone could comfortably speak their mind and it felt like planning with friends than suppliers.