16 Years of Crafting Dream Weddings: Akshat Purohit

When couples ask me what makes a wedding truly unforgettable, my answer is always the same: it is never just the flowers, the venue, or the food. It is the feeling — that rare, irreplaceable sense that every single detail was placed there just for you.

Over the past 18 years, I have had the privilege of creating that feeling for hundreds of couples — NRIs flying in from London, Toronto, Dubai, Sydney, and New York, all with one shared dream: a wedding that honours their roots, dazzles their guests, and stays with them for the rest of their lives.

This is what those 18 years have taught me, and how that experience works for you when you choose Vivaah India.

The First Five Years: Learning That No Two Weddings Are the Same

I began my journey in wedding planning long before "destination wedding" was a phrase anyone used casually. In those early years, I worked on the ground — coordinating mandap setups at dawn, negotiating with vendors in Jaipur's old city, learning the rhythms of a Rajasthani baraat and the quiet precision a Kerala sadya demands.

What those years gave me was irreplaceable: an understanding that Indian weddings are not events. They are living, breathing expressions of family, faith, and identity. A Punjabi wedding in Udaipur is a completely different world from a Tamil Brahmin ceremony in Goa. Getting the details right is not just about logistics — it is about respect.

By the time I had planned my fiftieth wedding, I had learned one truth that guides everything we do at Vivaah India: **listen first, plan second.**

Understanding the NRI Couple's Unique Challenge

When I started working with NRI couples in earnest, I quickly realised they face a set of challenges that no local couple does.

You are planning a wedding in a country you may not have lived in for years — sometimes decades. You have family spread across three continents, each with their own expectations. You are navigating time zones, currency conversions, vendor trust, and the very real fear that something will go wrong and you will be thousands of miles away when it does.

I have sat across from couples in video calls at midnight their time, walking them through venue floor plans, explaining why a particular caterer in Jodhpur is worth every rupee, or reassuring a nervous mother-of-the-bride that yes, the flowers she saw on Pinterest can absolutely be recreated at the Umaid Bhawan Palace.

That experience — of being the calm, knowledgeable voice on the other end of the call — is something you only develop over years. And those years matter enormously when it is your wedding on the line.

What 16 Years of Vendor Relationships Actually Means for You

One of the most tangible ways my experience benefits our couples is through the relationships I have built with India's finest vendors, venues, and hospitality teams.

When I call the Oberoi Udaivilas, they know Vivaah India. When I speak to the head chef at a heritage property in Jaisalmer about a bespoke menu, we are not starting from scratch — we are building on years of successful collaboration. When I negotiate a rate for a luxury tent installation in Ranthambore, I am doing so as a trusted partner, not a first-time client.

These relationships translate directly into three things for you:

**Better pricing.** Our long-standing partnerships mean we can often secure rates and packages that are simply not available to couples booking independently.

**Priority access.** The most sought-after venues in India — Taj Lake Palace, Rambagh Palace, Six Senses Fort Barwara — have limited dates. Our relationships mean your enquiry is taken seriously from the very first conversation.

**Accountability.** When a vendor knows they are working with Vivaah India, they know their reputation is on the line. The standard of delivery is simply higher.

The Art of Managing a Multi-Day Indian Wedding

A modern Indian wedding is rarely a single event. It is a four-to-seven-day celebration — mehendi, sangeet, haldi, the wedding ceremony itself, and the reception — each with its own mood, décor language, guest list nuances, and logistical demands.

Coordinating all of this across a heritage property, with guests arriving from multiple countries, requires a level of operational precision that only comes with experience.

Over 16 years, I have developed systems and checklists that cover every contingency — from monsoon backup plans for outdoor ceremonies to managing the very particular dynamics of a joint family where the bride's side and the groom's side have different ideas about how the evening should unfold.

I have handled power outages at 9 PM on a wedding night. I have sourced a specific variety of marigold at 6 AM because the original supplier fell through. I have quietly resolved seating disputes between families without either side ever knowing there was a dispute to resolve.

This is the invisible work of a great wedding planner — and it is the work that 18 years of experience makes possible.

Destination Weddings Across India: A Planner's Perspective

India offers a range of wedding destinations that is simply unmatched anywhere in the world. In my career, I have planned weddings in:

- **Rajasthan** — the gold standard for royal Indian weddings, from the pink city of Jaipur to the blue city of Jodhpur and the lake city of Udaipur

- **Kerala** — intimate, lush, and deeply spiritual, with backwater ceremonies that feel like a dream

- **Goa** — relaxed, sun-drenched, and perfect for couples who want a blend of Indian tradition and coastal elegance

- **The Himalayas** — Mussoorie and Shimla offer a fairytale backdrop for couples who want something truly different

- **Delhi and Mumbai** — for grand urban celebrations with world-class hospitality infrastructure

Each destination has its own season, its own vendor ecosystem, its own logistical personality. Knowing which destination suits which couple — and which season, which venue, which combination of experiences — is a judgement call that only comes from having been there, many times, in many contexts.

My Philosophy: Your Wedding, Not a Template

The greatest risk in wedding planning is the template — the package that looks beautiful in a brochure but delivers a wedding that could have belonged to anyone.

After 16 years, I am deeply allergic to templates.

Every couple who comes to Vivaah India gets a planning process that begins with a genuine conversation about who they are, what their families mean to them, what they have always imagined, and what they have never dared to ask for. Only then do we begin to build.

The result is a wedding that feels, from the first moment to the last, unmistakably yours.

A Note to Every NRI Couple Reading This

If you are planning your Indian wedding from abroad, I want you to know something: the distance is not the obstacle it feels like. With the right partner on the ground — someone who knows India's wedding landscape as well as they know their own home — you can plan a wedding that exceeds every expectation, without a single unnecessary moment of stress.

That is what 18 years of experience is for. Not to impress you with a number, but to give you the confidence that when you trust us with the most important day of your life, you are in the very best hands.

I would love to hear about your wedding vision. Reach out to us at Vivaah India — and let's start planning something extraordinary together.

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*Akshat Purohit is the founder of Vivaah India and has been planning luxury destination weddings for NRI couples for over 18 years. He is based in India and works with couples across the globe.*