Mandarin Oriental New York Wedding: Alice and Sanjay
Alice and Sanjay’s double wedding was my last wedding of 2019 and it was quite a celebration to end out the year! Looking back it was also my last wedding before COVID-19. Now looking over these pictures and seeing a celebration of over 200 guests brings with it a whole host of emotions for me. I greatly look forward to the wonderful day when we can get back to these big fabulous weddings in New York City. In the meantime, I hope this recap brings some inspiration to couples out there planning away.
I was so pleased to finally get the opportunity to plan a wedding at the Mandarin Oriental New York. A stunning ballroom located in the luxury hotel in the Time Warner Building at Columbus Circle. Alice is Chinese American and Sanjay is Indian American, so it was important to them to honour both their family traditions. We had a Hindu ceremony in the morning and a Christian ceremony later in the evening.
We were able to start load in and setup the day prior to the wedding, but it still meant that we had to arrive at the crack of dawn on wedding day due to the early start. As we were busy setting up the HIndu ceremony in the ballroom, Alice, Sanjay and the bridal party took a car to Lincoln Center for portraits in their Indian attire. It made for such a beautiful backdrop. We had to obtain a permit prior to the wedding, but it was well worth it.
Guests started arriving at the Mandarin Oriental a 9:30AM for a breakfast of pastries, cookies, masala chai tea and coffee. We then invited guests to the baraat which started at the south east corner of Central Park. The baraat is a custom at an Indian wedding ceremony for the arrival of the groom with live music and dancing. We had Suhel Jagtiani provide the music from a DJ setup on the back of a white truck and Nihal Singh who played the dhol (a double sided barrel drum). They were both amazing and really got the big crowd dancing despite the early start of the day and the crisp November weather! Sanjay rode a white horse adorned with ornate red and gold refinery from Central Park to the entrance of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. We had hired security to help get the party safely through Columbus Circle and had to stop traffic for a short time! Alice was able to watch the festivities from her hotel suite with a bird’s eye view perched high above Columbus Circle.
The Hindu ceremony took place in the north side of the ballroom, and we had walled off the rest of the ballroom with clean white drapes. The carpet in the ballroom has large dramatic swirls and circles, so By Yena Designs decided to go with it. She created a dramatic design with orange and hot pink petals inspired by those curves. All this leading up to an elegant mandap draped in light ivory organza with cascading roses, dahlias and phalaenopsis orchids. To help guests understand the different elements of the Hindu ceremony, we had short explanations listed in the programme. After the ceremony, guests were invited into the ballroom foyer for a reception with butler passed hors d’eouvres from Chef Gaurav Anand. As this was going on, we were busy doing the first flip of the day to change the Hindu ceremony to the Christian ceremony in the ballroom.
Guests departed after the reception back to their homes and hotel rooms to rest and change. Festive Indian attire was welcome for the morning Hindu ceremony. The evening Christian ceremony and dinner reception was black tie. Alice and her bridesmaids went back to the hotel suite to rest and change. We had the hair and makeup artists from the morning stay to change Alice’s hair and makeup to a different look for the evening.
Alice wore a mermaid gown from Mira Zwillinger with elegant leaves embroidered on the gown and cathedral length veil. She carried a bouquet of pink roses, blush and peach garden roses, and creamy white lisianthus. Sanjay wore a midnight blue tuxedo. They ventured out to Central Park for some portraits and the bridal party joined them later. The ladies had faux fur shawls to keep them warm! I do love using Central Park for portraits whenever we are working at venues close by.
While portraits were going on, the team from By Yena Designs was building a tree in the ballroom foyer! It had lots of beautiful fall foliage and accents of red and orange flowers. Ribbons in red, orange, yellow and gold hung from the tree to hold the hand calligraphed escort cards for dinner.
In order to help make the two ceremonies feel different, we also changed the direction slightly of the ceremony aisle. For the morning ceremony, we had the chairs facing the east windows. For the evening ceremony, we angled it to the corner, so the aisle was a diagonal from the doors to the northeast corner. The white aisle runner led to a modern design of clear lucite boxes with single variety arrangements of hydrangea, blush roses, dahlias, goddess calla lilies, fringed tulips and pink and white phalaenopsis orchids. It was a very different look from the morning’s mandap, but still very clean and elegant. A piano and cello duo from the Juilliard School of Music provided the music. The bridal party walked down the aisle to The Luckiest by Ben Folds and the bride entered to Hallelujah by Leanoard Cohen. Katherine Kurs officiated the ceremony and What a Wonderful World was played for the recessional.
Guests were invited into the south section of the ballroom for the cocktail reception. We had his and hers specialty cocktails: Boulevardier and Lychee Martini. In addition to hot and cold passed hors d’oeuvres, guests also feasted from the sushi station, dim sum station and the seafood bar. While cocktail was in progress, we were all busy working on the second flip of the day. We had to change the ceremony to the dinner setup. Drapes had to be removed, the dance floor and stage put down, the band to setup, tables and flowers to be moved into position, lighting focused on tables, and table numbers and place cards setup. It is always a frantic and exciting time. The hour feels like it flies by in minutes. Particularly when I am working on a wedding where there is a tight flip or in this case two flips, I want to make sure to work with the best professionals. Vendors that I know will bring a large and experienced team with them that day to accomplish this in a smooth and timely way. This team did an amazing job!
For dinner for 212 guests, we had a lot of tables to play with, so By Yena Designs created 3 different types of arrangements to give the room texture and depth. Something interesting to look at with every angle of the room! My favourite design was the hot pink phalaenopsis orchids in slender flutes of varying heights, floating candles and low arrangements of pink tulips, purple stock and variegated purple roses at the base. We rented clear lucite chairs with a deep Bordeaux cushion, a bright champagne satin for the linens and a clean white charger with a silver rim. The modern letterpress menus from Bella Figura had their initials in a blind emboss at the top.
First course was butter poached lobster with tagliatelle pasta (YUM). The entrée was a choice of roasted Chilean seabass or red spiced lentil and tofu curry. It was important to Sanjay to have some Indian food served for dinner, so the chef at the Mandarin Oriental came up with this curry served with steamed basmati rice with cardamom and saffron, charred zucchini and tableside naan. The lively Marcus Reid Band played and got everyone on the dance floor! Two dessert carts were wheeled to the corner of the dance floor with with a colourful selection of desserts for guests to enjoy as they were dancing away.
The cake from Ron Ben-Israel was alternating vanilla and chocolate cake with cappuccino and Mexican hot chocolate fillings. The white cake had structured white icing folds with gold edges. The wedding favours were delicious (and enormous!) cookies from Levain in three different flavours. These were all individually packaged with a customized label expressing Alice and Sanjay’s thanks to their guests for coming. After the wedding, the festivities continued on at Ascent Lounge in the Time Warner building for the after party. I was truly impressed by their partying stamina after a long day of festivities already! Thank you to A Day of Bliss for documenting their wedding beautifully.
Venue: Mandarin Oriental New York | Planner: Ang Weddings and Events | Photography: A Day of Bliss | Videography: Kiss the Bride Films | Florals: By Yena Designs | Hair and Makeup: Beautini | Stationery: Bella Figura | Baraat DJ: DJ Suhel | Dhol: Nihal Singh | Baraat horse: Equishare Baraat Horse | Lighting and draping: Fusion Productions | Band: Marcus Reid Band via Hank Lane | Piano cell duo: Juilliard Performers | Officiant: Katherine Kurs | Rentals: Party Rental Ltd | Photobooth: We Love Photobooths | Calligraphy: Wellspring Writes
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