Project Wedding Blog

The talented CK Hwang from 39 East Photography sent me one of the most gorgeous weddings I have seen in a long time. The couple, Brinda and Brian, hosted a multi-day cultural wedding in the heart of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma…

The happy couple was kind enough to share some details from their big day…

What were the main challenges in planning your wedding?

Main challenge was planning from a distance.  I had to make 2 trips to Oklahoma by myself and then a final trip with Brian. Each trip we would have to meet with as many vendors as we could and make as many decisions as possible in a short amount of time.  The rest we just had to leave up to my mom and “aunties” (my mom’s friends) and trust they would pick something we’d like.  There was a small army of women who made our wedding happen.  They had weekly meetings and at the time of the wedding, each auntie was assigned a task to make sure things ran smoothly.

What were some touches you made to your wedding to personalize it?

Since the wedding was so large, Brian and I really wanted to include some personal touches that our friends would recognize as “us”.  We both love ice cream so we had ice cream cups at the mendhi (they were from Braums which is a local ice cream chain). We made our wedding favors which were CD’s.  We each picked a few songs that meant something to us as individuals, a few that we loved as a couple, and a couple of Indian songs to celebrate the wedding.  Also, anyone who knows me knows I love chocolate so there were hershey kisses on every table at the reception.  Finally, Brian’s groom’s cake (a surprise from me to him) was a recreation of his custom hot rod — a 1928 Model A Ford that he assembled from pieces.  Sitting next to the car were gum paste figures of our dogs, Lady and Sadie. The altar where we were married (called a palki) was carved by a very close friend of our family (one of my “uncles”).  He made it especially for our wedding.  It was also his car we drove off in after the wedding ceremony. The car is a 1931 Model A Ford and very similar to Brian’s hot rod.

Who were your favorite vendors from the wedding?

Favorite vendor was our cake makers — the wedding cake was made by a woman named Mishelle Handy who also made my brother and sister-in-law’s wedding cake (http://www.cakeplease.com).  As I mentioned above, I love chocolate but her yellow cake with vanilla custard is the best cake I have ever eaten hands down (and I’ve eaten a lot of cake).  All of my friends were shocked when they found out I wasn’t going to have a chocolate wedding cake but once they tasted her cake they realized why!  The groom’s cake was made by a woman named Janet Rosebeary and I just happened to find her website when I was looking for someone to make a sculptural cake (http://www.rosebearydesigns.com).  I sent her a bunch of pictures of Brian’s car and she recreated it beautifully. Our other favorite was photographer as we wanted one that had shot Indian weddings before (www.39eastphotography.com <http://www.39eastphotography.com> ).