Well known TV personality and anchor SHONALI NAGRANI and photographer and cinematographer SHIRAZ BHATTACHARYA finally tied the knot over a memorable three day ceremony at an intimate destination wedding with 120 family and friends at a spectacular beach resort – Carnoustie resort and spa in Kerala(an hr away from Cochin).
Lush green surroundings, white sandy beaches, stunning touchdown sunsets, rooms with a plunge pool and fingerlicking fresh scampi from the sea. The two day event which stretched into four days as guests decided to come a day earlier and stayed back after the wedding as well. The Baraat put everyone in a trance with 30 kerala percussionists who were joined by the groom who played a dhol and walked in along with all his boys(vishal, shekhar, niketan madhok and randolph corriera) who also joined him.
Riyaaz and Kiran Amlani, Rahul Aggarwal. Shriya saran, Vishal dadlani. Shekhar rajani. Mandira bedi and Raj Kaushal, Neha dhupia, Anushka manchanda. Sophie choudhary, Pia trivedi. Ritwik bhattacharya. Shveta salve. Niketan madhok. Sarah Jane Dias, Hazel Dawn Keech were some of the guests who attended.
The Sindhi bride though from Delhi followed Bengali customs who was picked up by her brothers while she covered her face with a pan leaf. She then asked Shiraz to propose to her on the mandap in front of all the guests before the pheras started as she never got a “will you marry me” proposal. Kerala celebrations were followed by a reception in Delhi since her parents are from delhi, followed by another sea side reception in Mumbai. The decor of the kerala wedding is still being talked about with lanterns that were flown in from vietnam, parasols from Jaipur, and chandeliers on each table, the bar was made of an actual live size Kerala back water boat.
The guests included Generals, Brigadiers and Colonels (since both Shonali and Shiraz are defence kids) to filmstars, musicians, models and sportsmen, it was a magical, star studded affair.
For her mehndi in Kerala, Shonali wore a fun, multicoloured Manali Jagtap ensemble. For the wedding ceremony she wore an antique gold stunning ritu kumar lehenga choli. And for her reception she wore her mother’s 30 year old bridal saree which shonali converted into a lehenga.The Delhi reception was a monsoon wedding in the month of Feb and the saree she wore was a wedding gift from Rakesh Aggarwal.For the Bombay reception she wore a pakistani Faraz Manan, exquisite ivory colour halter gown with a beautifully embroidered sherwani jacket over her gown.