{About Maneka and Mayur}

Maneka and Mayur met at work.This is the story of an Indian fashion designer’s Indian wedding. Mayur is the CEO of Keller Williams Newport Estates and Maneka is a realtor and the owner/designer for Officially Couture by Maneka in LA’s Little India. Their love blossomed and they organized a beautiful winery wedding, a sangeet and two receptions within 3 months! Oh, and Maneka designed 6 different outfits for herself and Mayur and got them all done in time for the wedding week celebrations!

Maneka and Mayur’s love story is being featured on A&E’s hit show Arranged. In addition to her realty and design work, Maneka and Mayur shot for the show almost everyday…including their wedding! About 15 crew members from the show filmed the entire wedding week. Tune in now!

Also, coming soon Maneka’s Closet – a new website with a collection of Maneka’s fashion favorites! Stay tuned for that exciting new website, perfect for South Asian brides!

We caught up with Maneka to hear all about the celebrations!

Indian bride and groom chatting at their sangeet

Maneka and Mayur at their second reception at the Westin South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, CA.

{The Wedding Ceremony}

Being in the wedding industry, I talk to so many brides and grooms and everyone mentions hotels. I just wanted something different like a winery. The wineries in Temecula are beautiful and not too far for most of our guests. Leoness has great views in addition to being a beautiful property. However, they’d never done an Indian wedding/reception and we definitely faced some challenges throughout the planning process as well as the wedding day because of their inexperience.

{The Westin South Coast Plaza}

Our second reception was at The Westin South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, CA. My family had been there before for various expos and events. We liked their ballroom and they were available on our date.

{Our Clothes}

As a designer, our clothes were pretty important to me. I had a few months to design my mehndi, sangeet, wedding, and reception outfits. Plus two outfits for Mayur. It took me a month to put the designs together. I worked with our sketch artists, select fabric, borders, work, and embellishments and sent everything to our trusted artisans in India.

My clothes:
mehndi: orange anarkali with capris
sangeet: dhoti sari
wedding: high-low, very heavy chudidar, in white and red with a detachable 50in trail. We detached it when we were ready for the pheres.
1st reception: baby doll style lehenga in aqua blue. It was off the shoulder and embellishments and crystals.
2nd reception: 3D roses look.

Mayur’s clothes:
sangeet: navy blue and gold in jamalwar fabric with slacks
wedding: he wore white and red also.

{Decor + Entertainment}

Kismet Events designed our wedding and 1st reception and Deepti’s Floral Designs and Mandaps did the 2nd reception. The winery was so beautiful, we didn’t need a lot of decor. We used the venue’s pergola for the mandap and draped with flowy, clssic colored fabric.

For the 2nd reception, we emphasized the stage with a unique background and large flowers arrangements placed high on each table.

In terms of entertainment at the wedding we hired a fire breather and spin wheel artist. And at the 2nd reception we had live singers. I sang Bahon Ke Dharmiyan to Mayur at our sangeet. My family loves to sing and dance and we all performed at the sangeet.