Ritisha weds Abhishek

January of 2014 brought together the lives of Orlando-based 26-year-old Ritisha Chhaganlal and Australia-based 23-year-old Abhishek Khatri.

Love bloomed for the duo at a social gathering when Abhishek was in Orlando on a medical rotation. Abhishek took things to the next level by executing a perfectly romantic proposal with the help of Ritisha’s sister. It sure was an unforgettable experience for Ritisha who had to decode clues to reach the location.

Wedding preparations commenced after an engagement period of nine months. Ritisha was at the helm of things along with her family members as far as planning for the wedding was concerned. Though a tough job, she enjoyed the entire process as she also got to meet a lot of fun people along the journey.

While the wedding and reception was held at Hyatt Regency at the Orlando International Airport, thelocation for the Garba night was the Hyatt Regency Orlando. The wedding was attended by a significant number of people and the guest list included 375 people of which 100 had flown in from Australia.

Detailing played an important part in decorations for all the ceremonies. For the Garba night, the decorations included lanterns, peacocks, umbrellas and candles, and the hall was set in subtle colors and reflected a classy look.

The wedding ceremony took place indoors under a mandap with a large floral band at the top.

Going with her personality, Ritisha chose ivory/purple/plum as the dominant colors with rose petals thrown in the aisle.

The reception decor was a class apart with decorative trees, candles and florals forming the centrepieces and it wore a vintage look highlighted by amber lights. Ivory and gold remained the dominant colors with limited use of dark colors in the mid-drop and pillows of the love seat. The head tables had glittery table covers while the rest had rosettes.

Like any other Indian wedding, this one too had its dose of music. The Garba night featured a live band playing, and the wedding witnessed peppy dance numbers spun by DJ Firoz. To add zing to the celebrations, the bridesmaid did a divo dance to an instrumental piece and Ritisha walked down the aisle to “Sun Sathiya.”

The couple’s first dance was to “Samjhawan” from the film, Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya. One of the highlights of the Garba night was however, a classical dance piece performed by Ritisha, her mother and sister who were joined by six kathak dancers from the dance school run by her sister and mother. For the reception, they included all of their family and friends and ended it with a mother-daughter performance.

While Ritisha was constantly afraid that she would trip over her outfit especially when dancing, she faced a real wedding nightmare when one of the makeup ladies for her bridesmaid stood her up. But, luckily this minor obstacle was overcome and things were set sailing. The bride advises all aspiring ones to be prepared for things to go awry and just smile and roll with it!

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Byline: Taniya Talukdar