The #Virushka Wedding Planners Tell Us : How They Pulled Off The Secret Italy Wedding
BY Latha Sunadh | 29 Dec, 2017 | 5 min read
2017's biggest story is here. As magazines and newspapers gush and gush about Virat and Anushka and their power move in keeping their wedding fuss-free and fun, we, in turn, looked towards the master planners, Shaadi Squad - Tina Tharwani, Saurabh Malhotra and Manoj Mittra to give us the big details into this tiny, intimate wedding. How they planned, how they zeroed in on that quaint Italian village and how they kept it a secret from everyone. Read on to know all the goop!
Just in case you're living under a rock, here's a teaser of the wedding that was, released by The Wedding Filmer. Be prepared, a gush of emotions on their way.
Tell us how you ended up being Virat & Anushka's planners...
Since we have a film production background, we have worked with Anushka very closely through her production house. She first approached us in July, but we did not think she was serious about it. We just laughed about it and forgot. It was only 10 days later when she followed up with us is when we realized she was serious. The only brief we had was that the wedding was to be an extremely intimate affair, with a cozy atmosphere and preferably a location with open grounds and greenery.
Photographer: Stories By Joseph Radhik
The wedding happened in a stunning property at a quaint Italian village. How did that come about ?
With the brief received, we shortlisted countries and locations with:
- Suitable weather – not snowing, but not too hot either; and that were relatively easy to reach – either direct or flights with only one stop-over and convenient timings.
- We were also looking at venues that would not have too many tourists at the given time to maintain privacy.
- We looked at properties that had limited rooms as we not only wanted all guests to stay at one property but also ensure there were no outsiders at the venue.
We put together a list of top 5 properties for each destination basis the availability, weather, number of rooms, and of course numerous images. While there were a number of other countries, Italy was closest to their hearts and as reported in the media years back, Anushka always had wanted to get married in a Tuscan vineyard. Apart from that, Borgo Finnochieto was the apt location – a private village, a limited number of rooms, numerous outdoor spaces for various functions and located away from the main city. Apart from that, the managers at Borgo were a dream to work with, and understood the importance of client confidentiality in this case.
How in the world did you manage keeping this a secret?
For us, client confidentiality is one of the topmost priorities. Right from the word go, we were aware that in this case, this was going to be a huge challenge given the profile of the couple. Apart from us, and both the families, of course, no one knew about the wedding. Before we initiated any conversations with any vendors, we put together an NDA drafted by our legal team to ensure that no one can speak about the event, before or after it takes place. Even though every vendor had signed this, no one was informed about who the client was. It was only sometime in October that we disclosed the name to Devika Narain and Company who did the décor for the wedding and that too only because we needed the personal attributes of the couple to be visible in the decor. The rest were only told about the couple at the venue in Tuscany. Internally, only the core team of 5 people was aware of this as each member had a role and responsibility in the wedding.
It takes an army of professionals to pull of an Indian Wedding. How was this managed in Italy...
Apart from Sabyasachi, who designed the couple’s clothes, and Anushka’s hair & makeup team, all other vendors were recruited by us. We knew that it would be a challenge to not disclose the client name to people we bring on board. It was a mix of research and gut instincts that we selected all vendors. We just requested them to trust us and met with each team personally to give them our assurance.
While it would have been simpler to just fly down everyone from India, we very consciously chose not to go ahead with that option when it could be avoided. Apart from us, the only teams from India were the décor, videography and photography, DJ and Anushka’s personal team of stylist, hair & makeup. For us, even if a client does not have a restricted budget, it is important to recommend the most cost-effective options as long as the quality can be matched. Given the large Indian diaspora present across the globe, it is not very difficult to connect with vendors. For catering we worked with chef Ritu Dalmia’s team in Milan, the hair and makeup teams were from Florence, the dhol and saree drapers from Rome, and the Mehendi artists from London.
