Harry Potter Themed Party
While everyone is quarantined due to the pandemic COVID-19, we thought why not brighten up your mood with beautiful wedding stories. Here’s presenting one gleeful wedding that had a Harry Potter-themed ball pit & splendid decor in all the ceremonies. Besides, the theme & decor Siddharth & Rashmi simply made us go aww with their proposal story. So, what are you waiting for? Swipe down to witness this starry wedding & grab some inspo.
#SidFoundHisRush
How we met:
“We met at a close mutual friend’s birthday a few years ago. I don’t have any memory of meeting him there, but I must’ve made an impression because he started following me on Instagram shortly after that. He’d been following me all these years and I had no idea – until family introduced us and I went to stalk his profile and saw that he’d already been following me! I only agreed to meet him because he was my best friend’s friend (and I made sure to get a full report from her first) and he only agreed to meet me because he remembered me.
One of the first things we discussed after meeting was that we’re not a fan of being introduced through family, and would really like to take it slow. Hilarious in retrospect, because we ended up liking each other so much that we kept finding excuses to plan back-to-back dates. And things kind of just went from there.”- says the bride.
About the proposal:
“Apparently, Siddharth had a bunch of ideas planned but scrapped them all one by one (he still refuses to tell me what they were because he’s sure he’ll “end up using them someday anyway”). He finally ended up taking me to one of those mystery escape rooms, something we’d discussed doing a lot but never ended up doing. We were locked in and had to solve clues to move from one room to another – until the final clue ended up leading me to a ring. He picked up the ring, got on his knee and asked: “Let’s solve life together?” I was freaking out so much that I forgot to say yes. I just said “oh shit” a bunch of times in a REALLY squeaky voice.”- says the bride.
“We both live in Mumbai but picked Pune because it was convenient for our families, while still being out of the city. We narrowed down on Hyatt Regency because everyone we’d met there was super nice and helpful, and they offered us a lot of flexibility in our planning process – big shoutout to Ankita who treated us like family. Plus we really liked their EQ:IQ venue, which was a nice big space that could be used in different ways… we were able to use it for 2 functions without it feeling like the same venue at all.”- says Rashmi.
Mehendi
“A Caribbean-themed brunch since I grew up in the Caribbean. The function was originally meant to be a lowkey mixer for people to get to know each other over beer, sangria & rum cocktails. But then… the morning of the function, while I was getting my make-up done, it was announced the ENTIRE WEEKEND would be a dry weekend.
I nearly had a meltdown, but Sid and our wedding planning team (Q Events & Weddings) worked behind-the-scenes to level it up without telling me. What was supposed to be a chill mixer now became a raging party – within 2 hours, they arranged for a DJ, a host, a foosball table, limbo, and a guitarist… all to make up for the lack of alcohol. And that’s how my Caribbean brunch became a raging Bollywood party.”- says the bride.
“It ended up being a ton of fun, and I think it was the perfect start to our wedding. (Thankfully, the dry weekend was called off after that function, so we could serve alcohol at the rest of the parties.)“- says the bride.
It was exactly what one would expect a sangeet to be: lots of dancing, lots of drinking, lots of great music.
Fun Sangeet Night
Super beautiful, super floral. The decor was very contemporary, and the standout was an elaborate fruit counter that had like 100 different fruits from around the world.
Floral Decor
Here Comes Our Royal Groom!
And Meet Our Beautiful Bride!
“I was looking forward to this the most because we were going to have a BALL PIT! And it really did turn out to be my favourite function – so glad we did this instead of a reception. We did a bunch of random things that came together beautifully – we insisted guests wear sneakers with their formals, we had a ball pit constructed, we had a kickass gif photo booth, we had glow-in-the-dark face painting, and we had Sushant Divgikar perform in his famous male/female voice. It was a mash-mash of very different things but they aligned so well, and we’re still hearing stories about that night.”- says the bride.
Cocktail & After Party
Fun Anecdote:
“The after party randomly almost became a Harry Potter themed party, and I had no idea that was going to happen! I’m a big Potter fan, so our wedding planners made an impromptu decision to have our first dance to Hedwig’s Theme… and they also threw in some ‘golden snitches’ into the ball pit. To top it off, Sid got a lightning bolt scar painted on his head from the glow-in-the-dark painting corner.”- says the bride.
Wedding Planning Tips Or Advice For Couples Getting Married
“Don’t listen to anyone who says weddings are fun for the guests but not for the bride and groom. We heard a lot of this but refused to take it seriously. We prioritised the experience over everything – US having fun and our guests having fun, too. Everything else (clothes, jewellery, themes, etc) was secondary. And it worked out so well… we loved hearing people tell us that they’ve never seen a bride and groom enjoying themselves so much. That set the tone for everyone else too!
We optimized for guest experiences, so we did a bunch of small things that really added up to the overall effect:
1) We gave everyone card-holders that could stick at the back of their phones. Room key cards were put in those, and so many people commented on how helpful those were – especially women who end up carrying purses only so they can carry their room key.
2) We gave nathnis out to all the women in the baraat, and so many people got a kick out of wearing them.
3) We insisted guests wear sneakers + western outfits for the last function so they could be super comfortable (and get into the ball pit without difficulty). A lot of people really appreciated that, especially since by the last function you’re usually tired of wearing heels and elaborate Indian outfits.”- says the bride.
Experience of working with Q Events & Weddings:
“Q Events & Weddings is the absolute best – I can’t overstate just how much heart and soul they put into our wedding. Everything went super smoothly. The #1 thing we heard from all our guests was how well-planned it was. Their ideas were so great (they’re the ones who suggested the ball pit!). And most importantly, they had fun right alongside us. Forever grateful to them for the wedding of my dreams, and they truly feel like family now. They will always be a part of my and Siddharth’s story.”- says the bride.
Wedding planning and decor – Q Events & Weddings (q_eventsandweddings)
Makeup artist – Sheetal Sohoni (@makeupbysheetalsohoni)
Photographer and videographer – Aniket Mazumdar (@aniketmazumdarofficial)
Behind the scenes photos – Shutters N Frames (@shuttersnframes)
Invitation designer – Apurva Chaudhari (@chachichaudhari) and Dhanashree Koli (@d.illustrates)
Caterers – Hyatt Regency Pune and Liberty Caterers from Hyderabad
Bartenders – Flairology (@flairologyindia)
Bridal outfits:
- Mehendi: Dinesh Malkani (@dineshmalkani)
- Sangeet: Naionica Bahl (@naibah_bynaionicabahl)
- Wedding: Pallavi Goyal (@pallavigoyalofficial)
- After Party: Naionica Bahl (@naibah_bynaionicabahl)
Bridal jewellery:
- Wedding outfit: Raabta by Rahul from Azotiique (@azotiique)
- Sangeet: Ratan Jewellers (@ratanjewellers)
- After party: Reshma Chhabria
Groom outfits – NM Studio – all functions (@nm_design_studio)
We hope you enjoyed this starry Pune wedding with a Harry Potter Themed ball pit & have grabbed inspo from it’s pleasing decor. If you too have such wedding story then share it with us at wishnwed@gmail.com & get featured!