Ashna & Chris’s gorgeous summer wedding is everything you want for a dreamy, romantic wedding day. We had such a blast designing and planning with them (especially Ashna!) and are so excited to share their story with you. A wedding should be a reflection of you both: your personalities, your traditions, your history, and what you’re creating together. Ashna and Chris’s wedding celebration started with a gorgeous Sangeet the day before, and wedding day saw a stunning merge of western and eastern traditions. This wedding has everything you could want: a stunning medieval castle, fireworks, flower arches, an absolutely stunning 3-dimensional cake and some of the most gorgeous bespoke stationary by Appleberry Atelier all dotted with personal touches here/there. Make sure to check out the part 2 SANGEET for this amazing wedding celebration! This wedding will surely inspire you. Read on at the end for all the great details! Photos by Awake & Dreaming Photography.

The bespoke stationary featured throughout the day. The invitation suite was designed by Ashna and her dad drew the map! We wanted something very elegant and timeless that perfectly captured the botanical and garden feel we were creating for the day. Our color palette focused heavily on peach, rose and rose gold tones, with accents of dusty blue and lavender. We wanted to create a timeless, romantic summer garden and carried those color tones throughout the day beautifully indoors and outdoors of the castle. The ceremony took place in the garden with the castle serving as backdrop. A stunning floral arch served as focal point, and we accented simply with chair decor and candles to enhance the garden space. The ceremony was completely bespoke and worked in both western and eastern traditions. Truly, the flowers by Bella Botanica were absolutely stunning in every way.

 

We carried the same color palette and theme into the dining room at the castle. The stationary again made a major appearance for our decor: we specifically designed each color and element to perfectly express our beautiful color palette, and loved accenting with pops of red to clue in for Ashna’s gorgeous second look. We kept the design very classic and elegant, using taper candles and pops of metallic gold and silver to add sparkle on the tables. The highlight is the custom design menus: again pops of our bespoke floral motif design in our color palette with the wax seal place card vellum is such a stunning addition to the table and really elevated the presentation. We wanted to mix in height into the room, and add deliberate pops of the dusty blue tones – the delphinium centerpieces added just the right pop of “elegant whimsical” to the space and helped juxtapose the traditional compote style centerpieces perfectly.

 

We are absolutely obsessed with this cake created by Colhoun Creations! Ashna wanted something that truly encompassed the garden and botanical theme, but we wanted to really lean into something that’d have huge visual impact as well. This 3-dimensional style cake incorporates a buttercream finish, and both buttercream, sugar flower, and real flower accents to create an incredibly detailed and textured look to the cake. It is stunning (and I sincerely hope we see more of this style in 2023!). Visually it was incredible to see in person.

As the guests enjoyed the cocktail hour, Ashna and Chris changed into their second look for the evening: a traditional Indian style that is simply to die for. The red is so romantic and works so beautifully with the rest of the wedding style and the castle. The night was spent dancing (so much dancing!) and ended with festive fireworks! A perfect ending for a perfect day!

     

Choosing Ireland

Ashna and Chris wanted to do something different for their wedding that really spoke about who they are as a couple and their personalities. “Traveling is something we both love, getting to experience different cultures and places makes us both so happy and doing it together is always better. The idea of being able to bring our closest family and friends to another country to celebrate our love for each other felt like the perfect combination, especially after a couple of years where traveling hadn’t really been an option for so many people.” A destination wedding made sense, but when it came time to picking a place, they wanted to make sure it was something easy to travel to and that felt welcoming. “Ireland is not only such a beautiful country to look at and be in, but the people truly make you feel like home and we knew that this was the right place for us to celebrate our love story. The one thing I wanted more than anything was for me and my partner to feel present and happy on our wedding day, which sounds simple but we have seen so many couples not being able to enjoy their wedding day because they were too stressed or caught up in the small details, but with the help and support we had and just being in Ireland on what felt like a vacation with family and friends, it made everything else fall into the background.”

Favorite Moments

“I could probably list 100 moments here because to me it was truly a perfect day, but if I were to pick one, I would say the ceremony. Everything from the weather holding up, to the beautiful backdrop of Kilkea castle, to being able to incorporate both Hindu and Christian aspects into the ceremony and just the feeling of being there in Ireland surrounded by our closest family and friends made it feel surreal. Everyone told me that your wedding will seem like a blur and I definitely experienced that the morning leading up to the ceremony and the reception and fun afterwards, but surprisingly, I remember every single part of the ceremony and I felt so present in that moment that I think that will always stay with me.”

A piece of advice

“Enjoy the process and enjoy your day! It seems like such a simple concept but not all couples truly get to enjoy their wedding. It is of course a stressful process to plan a wedding, but now that it is over I miss it! It is a day that you get to be surrounded by family and friends as they watch you both take such an important step in your life and keeping that and your love for your partner at the front of your mind throughout the wedding planning process and the wedding events themselves, will help you remember what is important. You won’t remember the little hiccups that you stressed and fretted over, but you will remember the feeling of that day and the happiness and love surrounding you – so make sure to take a breather and focus on that and let yourself enjoy your day.”

Congratulations Ashna & Chris! We are so happy for you and wish you both a lifetime of happiness!