Sunny Shah & Ronak Shah
We love shooting South Asian weddings, and these days we shoot about 15-18 full weekend celebrations each year. There’s so much history and strong, vibrant culture wrapped up in bold colored fabrics and beautiful traditions.
Let’s check out Sunny + Ronak’s wedding weekend, starting with the Garba, held at the Shannon Community Center in Dublin, California. For those less familiar with South Asian traditions, the International Festival of Arts & Ideas shares that the word Garba comes from the Sanksrit “garbha”, which translates to “womb” — the Garba celebrates and honors the feminine form of divinity, dancing in a circle around a clay lantern called garbha deep (“womb lamp”). Sunny was the perfect representation of this idea, as an incredibly talented dancer herself; check out her moves!
Reception Venue: San Ramon Community Center | Reception Venue: Marriott | Photographer: David N. Sachs Photography
1. Tell us about your wedding! What was the inspiration behind your day? Did you have a specifc theme, style or color palette? Did you incorporate any cultural or religious traditions in any part of your day?
Inspiration: Neutral colors and a welcoming ambiance. We wanted to make sure that all our guests felt the love and excitement that we felt going into our big day. Wedding: Neutral colors: peach and ivory to complement our traditional Indian outfts. Reception: Royal purple(color), aimed for subtle elegance. We still wanted our guests to feel welcomed and excited so that ambiance continued into our reception. Cultural/Traditions: We incorporated both of our religions throughout the wedding week/weekend.
2. Let’s talk wedding decor. How did you decorate your space for the ceremony and the reception? Was any part of the decor DIY?
Decor: The decoration during the wedding primarily leveraged drapery- Garba Event: Bright, colorful cloths served as the foundation- Wedding: Ivory and peach cloths served as the foundation- Reception: Purples and silver cloths served as the foundationDIY: There were a couple of parts of the wedding that were DIY- Wedding program: Our programs were custom illustrated by a close friend (the same one who illustrated the proposal book) – Table cards: So guests could better understand who we were as a couple, each table card had pictures depicting a special moment in our relationship. Each table had a different moment, so that guests could share those moments with one another
3. What were the forals like in your wedding? Did you use fowers in any of your design elements like the bridal bouquets, centerpieces or ceremony backdrop? Did they play an important part in the overall style of your wedding?
Flowers were used during the ceremony and were in the centerpieces, but beyond that, they did not play a huge part in the overall style of the wedding
4. Did you personalize the day in any way (food trucks, guest entertainment etc.)? What were some of your favorite parts of your wedding?
See Q2 for personalizationFavorite parts of the day: – Taking pictures with friends and family to start the day- Baraat: The groom got to dance his way to the altar with 300 of his guests during a procession prior to the ceremony- Ceremony: The ceremony was traditional and elegant, you could really feel the love and the pandit did an excellent job playing off the excitement – Performances from friends and family: The wedding week consisted of numerous performances from friends and family, including an ~20 minute skit about their love story (roughly 70 people involved) and a special surprise performance from the bride- Dancing during the reception: The dance foor was BUMPIN. It was packed the entire night and continued after the music stopped (with guests literally chanting / singing to keep the party going)
5. Let’s talk fashion. How did you both choose your wedding day look? Describe the looks in
detail.
Bride: Wanted to wear a different style of Indian clothing for each event and a different color for each event. Each outft was to resemble that particular event (matched primary color palette for each event). Her main goal was to stay elegant, respectful to our culture, but also incorporating her own fair. For the garba event she wore a blue and gold lengha. During the ceremony, she wore a traditional red lengha with gold jewelry. During the reception, she wore an eggplant purple gown with silver jewelry diamonds)Groom: His main goal was to complement the bride’s look (without seeing her outfts obviously). She gave him small pieces of cloth from each of her outfts to match with. For the garba, he wore a blue kurta with a blue / gold khoti jacket. For the wedding, he went with a traditional gold / red sherwani typically worn by indian grooms. During the reception, he donned a charcoal tuxedo.
6. How did you meet? Tell us about the proposal.
How we met: We met through mutual friends at a garba in 2013 (Indian cultural event) and quickly became friends. Over the next two years, our friendship grew as we met each other at more events and messaged each other in between. After two years it became clear that both of
us had a crush on each other. We started ofcially dating in 2015. The proposal: In 2018, Ronak proposed by writing a children’s book about their love story (he completed a story he initially wrote to her via text message before they started dating). He read the story to her at the Palace of Fine Arts in SF where he ofcially proposed. He then brought her back to his home in San Jose where many of their friends and family we waiting, ready to celebrate. Proposal book can be found here: https://app.box.com/s/gyrhn53b3gmzmdl4qo9d4x8omhaqntpl
7. What was the most anticipated or special moment of your wedding day?
The most special moment of our big day was our frst look. We sat back-to-back while we read each other’s letters to each other and opened our gifts before seeing one another. Hearing the other person’s voice, expressing how much we love them without being able to see one another really built up the anticipation and excitement. Amidst the craziness, that quiet moment really helped it set in why we were there and set the tone for the rest of the day.
8. Do you have any wedding planning or marriage advice that you’d like to share with other
couples planning their day?
Wedding planning was absolutely one of the toughest endeavors we both undertook. There were a lot of difcult decisions that had to be made and we didn’t always see eye-to-eye. But after the wedding weekend, we realized a lot of the tinier details that we struggled with were not what
mattered. We got to express how much we loved each other and share that moment with our closest friends and family. So no matter what happened, it was going to be an amazing weekend. We recommend taking a step back from time to time during the wedding planning
process and really thinking about the big things that matter. Don’t forget why you’re there and continue to make time to surprise each other and show one another during the process. Lastly, always always communicate1. Inspiration: Neutral colors and a welcoming ambiance. We
wanted to make sure that all our guests felt the love and excitement that we felt going into our big day. Wedding: Neutral colors: peach and ivory to complement our traditional Indian outfts. Reception: Royal purple(color), aimed for subtle elegance. We still wanted our guests to
feel welcomed and excited so that ambiance continued into our reception. Cultural/Traditions: We incorporated both of our religions throughout the wedding week/weekend. 1. Inspiration: Neutral colors and a welcoming ambiance. We wanted to make sure that all our guests felt the love and excitement that we felt going into our big day. Wedding: Neutral colors: peach and ivory to complement our traditional Indian outfts. Reception: Royal purple(color), aimed for subtle elegance. We still wanted our guests to feel welcomed and excited so that ambiance continued into our reception. Cultural/Traditions: We incorporated both of our religions throughout the
wedding week/weekend. and be open with your partner during the wedding planning process.
