Best Text Message Ever: "Morning Babe! Let's Get Married!"

{About Reena and Ateet}

We caught up with Reena and Ateet, about their wedding. Ateet is the Founder of Planet DJ Productions, a popular South Asian wedding DJ and event production company in the Washington D.C. metro area. Being in the industry, Ateet has a lot of connections and knowledge. We’re bringing Ateet’s expertise to you! Check out the Wedding Planning Advice section of this article!

Inside:

photos of the Gurdwara wedding
photos of the bride’s gorgeous jewelry and lehengas
wedding planning advice from an industry expert!
decor, drinks, & dessert
and more!

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{The Wedding}

Among Reena’s move, finding auspicious dates and planning the wedding, we wanted to give ourselves time.

What were your wedding week events?

Kirtan at each of our parents’ homes.
Mehndi at her parents’ home in Pennsylvania
My family had a sangeet in Baltimore
Reena’s families sangeet in Baltimore in Pennsylvania
Reena’s haldi and chura
Wedding + reception at the Guru Nanak Society of Lehigh Valley and Iron Lakes Country Club

ProTip: We had a lot of events and drove back and forth between Baltimore and Pennsylvania several times, so we “took day off”. The day before the wedding, we didn’t have any major events. That break was nice as we were able to recharge for the wedding day.

ProTip: Consider waiting a week or so before you leave for your honeymoon. That will give you a chance to recover from the wedding.

{Thoughts at Pivotal Moments}

Reena during her chura ceremony:
What am I going to be feeling when I’m in the Gurdwara? How is Ateet feeling?
And, how the next day would go and how I’d feel on my wedding day.

Reena on the wedding day:
When the baraat was arriving I went to watch the baraat from a window in the Gurdwara. That got me excited! I remember being happy and not nervous. I was just excited and happy; especially seeing everyone down there – so happy! Ateet wrote me a note for me to read before our wedding started. He couldn’t see me so he gave it to my best friend Shweta to pass on to me. I was so happy reading it and it just made me more excited to get married to him.

Ateet when Reena entered the Gurdwara:
She looks GORGEOUS! And, she’s going to be my wife! It was a bunch of emotions all at once. Happiness and anxiety and then I just looked at her and smiled.

Can you share how you made accommodations for out-of-town guests?
We set up a room block at a hotel. We basically took over the hotel – occupying about 90% of it. Most of our guests were from the DC Metro area but we still had a significant number of people that came from all over the country and a handful from India.

{Wedding Planning Advice}

Start early. All the good wedding professionals get booked 6-12 months in advance.
Set an overall and realistic budget for yourself. Do research to understand what things cost so you get an idea and create a budget for yourself.
Most vendors who do both photo and video aren’t as good. In my 19 years of experience, here are few that can do both very well. Photo and video are very different skill sets. People often combine the two with one company because they can get economies. But for anything you get what you pay for.
Have a separate budget for lighting and the DJ. Lighting is labor intensive and worth a lot as it completely transforms a room.
A lot of people book venue food and decor first and usually go over budget and barely have much left for entertainment. Do your best to create a realistic budget and stick to it.
If you can, hire a wedding planner. Two types of people hire wedding planners. People who don’t want to do the planning and those that just don’t have the time.

{Clothes & Jewelry}

My parents got everything in India along with traditional pink turbans and matching stoles for my 20 best friends to wear.

Reena went to India (Chandigarh) for 5 days (including travel!) to buy all of her clothes. She got lucky as she bought everything on the 1st day that she was there – for the sangeet, ceremony, reception…everything in one day. Her parents were staying in India for another couple weeks so they brought all the clothes back after all the alterations were done. And the clothes fit her perfectly.

Tell us about the coincidence with the alterations
It turned out that the people Reena went to for the alterations knows my family. And they realized this when Reena visited their store and mentioned my father’s name. It was nice for my parents to receive a call from Chandigarh with news that our friends randomly met my in-laws and how much they liked them.

{Dinner, Decor, Drinks & Dessert}

We served a family style dinner instead of having a buffet. So we not only needed a great caterer, but also one that could handle the logistics of doing family style dinner with good presentation. We hired additional wait staff and runners so that we had one waiter per table.