From a New Jersey couple''s vision of a Maharaja-style wedding to the final baraat through Rambagh''s illuminated gardens — a complete behind-the-scenes account of one of Vivaah India''s most ambitious Rajasthan weddings.
Rambagh Palace is not simply a hotel. It is the former residence of the Maharaja of Jaipur — a 47-acre estate of Mughal gardens, marble pavilions, and polo grounds that has hosted royalty, heads of state, and, for the past several decades, some of the most spectacular weddings in India.
When Kavya and Rohan — a New Jersey-based couple with Jaipur roots — told me they wanted a "Maharaja wedding," I knew exactly what they meant. And I knew exactly where it had to happen.
This is the story of their three-day celebration at Rambagh Palace: how we planned it, what we learned, and why it remains one of the most complex and rewarding weddings Vivaah India has ever delivered.
The Vision: Maharaja Scale, Modern Sensibility
Kavya and Rohan came to us with a clear brief and a firm budget. They wanted the grandeur of a royal Rajasthani wedding — the elephants, the baraat, the fireworks, the sheer visual spectacle — but with a contemporary sensibility that would feel authentic to who they were as a couple.
"We want our guests to feel like they've stepped into a Bollywood film," Rohan told me at our first meeting. "But we also want it to feel like us."
The parameters:
- Three days: mehendi and sangeet on day one, pheras on day two, farewell on day three
- 350 guests, with approximately 180 travelling from the USA, UK, and Canada
- A colour palette of deep crimson, gold, and ivory
- A baraat on horseback through Rambagh's gardens, with a dhol procession and fireworks
- A mandap in the Mughal Garden, with the palace's illuminated façade as the backdrop
- A live Rajasthani folk performance and a headline Bollywood act for the sangeet
The budget was ₹4.1 crore, inclusive of all events, décor, entertainment, and guest logistics.
Why Rambagh Palace
Rambagh Palace is managed by Taj Hotels, which brings a level of operational excellence that is essential for a wedding of this scale. The property's event team has decades of experience with large destination weddings, and their in-house catering is among the finest in Rajasthan.
For Kavya and Rohan, the choice was also deeply personal. Rohan's family had celebrated his parents' silver anniversary at Rambagh twenty-five years earlier. The continuity — the sense of a family's story unfolding across generations in the same extraordinary place — was profoundly meaningful.
From a planning perspective, Rambagh offered several advantages that few venues can match:
**The Mughal Garden.** The palace's formal Mughal garden — symmetrical, immaculately maintained, and framed by the palace's pink sandstone façade — is one of the most beautiful outdoor event spaces in India. The mandap we constructed here, against the backdrop of the illuminated palace, was genuinely breathtaking.
**The Polo Ground.** Rambagh's polo ground provided the space for the baraat — a procession of 180 guests, a decorated horse, dhol players, and a fireworks display that lit up the Jaipur sky. No urban venue could have accommodated this.
**The Suvarna Mahal.** The palace's grand ballroom — a gilded, chandeliered space of extraordinary opulence — was the setting for the sangeet. Its scale and grandeur matched the ambition of the evening perfectly.
**Heritage accommodation.** Rambagh's 78 rooms and suites are among the most beautiful in India. Guests staying at the property were immersed in the palace experience from the moment they arrived — which contributed enormously to the overall atmosphere of the wedding.
Planning the Three Days
### The Mehendi and Sangeet
Day one was designed as a warm, celebratory introduction to the wedding. The mehendi was held in the Jiva Spa Garden — a lush, intimate space that provided a contrast to the grandeur of the main events. Twelve mehendi artists worked throughout the afternoon, and a Rajasthani folk ensemble played continuously.
The sangeet, held that evening in the Suvarna Mahal, was the most elaborate event of the three days. We transformed the ballroom with a custom lighting installation — 40,000 fairy lights suspended from the ceiling, creating the effect of a starlit sky — and a stage designed to evoke a Rajasthani haveli.
The programme ran for four hours: family performances, a live band, and a headline Bollywood act who performed for ninety minutes. The standing ovation at the end of the performance was audible from the palace gardens.
### The Baraat and Pheras
The baraat is, for many NRI couples, the most emotionally charged moment of the entire wedding. It is the groom's procession — traditionally on horseback, accompanied by music, dancing, and celebration — that marks the formal beginning of the wedding ceremony.
For Rohan's baraat, we arranged:
- A decorated white Marwari horse, sourced from a heritage stable outside Jaipur
- A dhol and shehnai procession of twelve musicians
- A fireworks display timed to coincide with the baraat's arrival at the mandap
- LED-lit umbrellas for the 180 baraat guests, creating a river of light as the procession moved through the gardens
The pheras were held at sunrise in the Mughal Garden. The mandap — a 50-foot structure of carved wood, ivory silk, and marigold — was positioned so that the rising sun illuminated the palace façade directly behind the couple. The pandit's chanting, the scent of the havan, and the extraordinary visual of the palace at dawn created a moment of genuine transcendence.
### The Farewell
The farewell brunch was held in the Rajput Room — a more intimate space that encouraged the lingering, unhurried goodbyes that mark the end of a great celebration. We arranged a heritage walk of the palace for guests who wanted a final immersion in Rambagh's history, and a local jewellery artisan set up a display in the courtyard for last-minute purchases.
The Logistics Challenge: 180 International Guests
Managing 180 guests travelling from three continents to Jaipur required a logistics operation that ran in parallel with the event planning for the entire eighteen-month preparation period.
The key elements:
**Visa and travel support.** We partnered with a specialist travel agency to provide personalised visa guidance for all US, UK, and Canadian guests. For guests who had never visited India, we created a detailed arrival guide covering everything from airport transfers to currency exchange to cultural etiquette.
**Hotel block bookings.** Rambagh's 78 rooms accommodated the immediate family and closest friends. We secured block bookings at three additional Jaipur properties — Samode Haveli, Jai Mahal Palace, and Trident Jaipur — for the remaining guests, with a dedicated shuttle service running between all properties and the venue throughout the three days.
**The welcome kit.** Every guest received a welcome kit on arrival: a hand-embroidered juttis (traditional Rajasthani shoes) in their size, a personalised itinerary, and a small bottle of local rose water. The juttis, in particular, became a talking point — guests wore them throughout the wedding and took them home as keepsakes.
**The WhatsApp command centre.** Our team managed a dedicated WhatsApp group for all 350 guests, providing real-time updates, reminders, and logistical information throughout the three days. This single communication channel eliminated the confusion that typically arises when large groups are navigating an unfamiliar city.
The Décor: Crimson, Gold, and the Rajasthani Aesthetic
The décor brief for Kavya and Rohan's wedding was the most ambitious we had executed in several years. The lead décor team — forty specialists from Delhi and Jaipur — worked for five days before the wedding to transform Rambagh's spaces.
The mandap was the centrepiece: a structure of carved teak wood, draped in crimson and ivory silk, with garlands of marigold and rose cascading from every surface. The floral installation alone required 80,000 flowers, sourced from farms in Pune and Bengaluru and transported to Jaipur overnight.
The sangeet ballroom transformation — the 40,000 fairy lights, the custom stage, the floral backdrop — took three days to complete. The result was a space that felt simultaneously intimate and spectacular: a quality that is very difficult to achieve in a room of that scale.
What This Wedding Taught Us
Every wedding teaches us something. Kavya and Rohan's wedding reinforced three lessons that I carry into every planning process:
**The baraat is non-negotiable.** For NRI couples with North Indian heritage, the baraat is the most emotionally significant moment of the wedding. It is the moment when the groom's family and friends express their joy most fully and most publicly. Never underestimate the time, space, and resources it requires.
**International guests need a dedicated point of contact.** For guests who have never been to India, the experience can be overwhelming — the heat, the noise, the scale, the unfamiliarity. We now assign a dedicated team member to serve as a personal concierge for international guests throughout the wedding. This single change has transformed the experience for overseas attendees.
**The farewell matters as much as the arrival.** Couples invest enormous energy in the welcome experience — the welcome kits, the arrival transfers, the first impressions. The farewell is often an afterthought. At Rambagh, we invested as much care in the farewell brunch as in any other event — and the gratitude from guests was palpable.
Is Rambagh Palace Right for Your Wedding?
Rambagh Palace is the right venue if you want the most iconic address in Jaipur, a team with decades of wedding experience, and a setting that will make every photograph look like a painting.
It is not the right venue if you are working with a tight budget, a small guest list, or a preference for intimacy over grandeur. Rambagh is built for scale — and it delivers scale magnificently.
For couples who want the royal Rajasthan experience in its fullest expression, there is no better choice.
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*Akshat Purohit is the founder of Vivaah India, India's premier luxury destination wedding planning studio. With eighteen years of experience and over 200 weddings across Rajasthan, Goa, Kerala, and beyond, he specialises in creating bespoke celebrations for NRI couples. To discuss your wedding, [contact Vivaah India](/contact) for a complimentary consultation.*
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