Top Indian Celebrity Destination Weddings
Many celebrities go to extreme lengths to make their wedding day a memorable one, and Indian celebrities are no exception. While many Indian celebrities, such as Bollywood stars, cricketers, and TV presenters, have had beautiful weddings in popular wedding destinations inside India, such as Goa, Udaipur and Jaipur, some of them have opted for destination weddings outside India.
In many cases, Indian celebrities who have had destination weddings, whether in Italy, Thailand or the UAE, hold additional wedding receptions in India when they are back home inviting their wider families, friends and acquaintances.
Here are some of the Indian celebrity couples who tied the knot in a destination wedding:
Rani Mukerji and Aditya Chopra, Italy
Rani Mukerji and Aditya Chopra chose Italy as their wedding destination. The wedding took place on 21 April, 2014, in the presence of very few close relatives and friends. She was the reigning queen of the silver screen, while he was the biggest film producer of Bollywood.
With only 12 close friends and family members present on the occasion, Rani and Adi tied the knot in Italy’s Cortona, away from the glare of Indian media and fans. It was reported that Aditya had meticulously planned all the details of the wedding, which was conducted in traditional Bengali manner. Rani’s close friend and designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee planned their wedding trousseau.
John Abraham and Priya Runchal, USA
Indian film actor, film producer and former model John Abraham found love in his long time girlfriend Priya Runchal whom he got married to in Los Angeles,on 3 January 2014. Priya Runchal is a financial analyst and investment banker from the US but native to McLeod Ganj, a suburb of Dharamshala in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh in India.
Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma, Italy
Anushka Sharma got married to her long-time beau and cricketer, Virat Kohli on 11 December, 2017 in Tuscany, Italy. They shared this sweet surprise with everyone on social media saying: “Today we have promised each other to be bound in love forever. We are truly blessed to share the news with you. This beautiful day will be made more special with the love and support of our family, fans & well-wishers. Thank you for being such an important part of our journey”.
Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma's wedding was one of the most talked about weddings of 2017. After their fairytale Italian destination wedding, the couple had 2 receptions in India -one in Delhi and the second in Mumbai.
Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh, Italy
Bollywood power couple Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh got married at Villa Del Balbianello in Lake Como, Italy, surrounded by their close friends and family members on 14 and 15 November 2018. On the first day, the marriage took place according to the Konkani rituals followed by a Sindhi wedding on the second day. After their fairytale destination wedding in Italy, newlyweds Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh jetted off to Bengaluru, India in the morning for their wedding reception.
Spread over a couple of weeks, the nuptials began with a sangeet, and were followed with a Konkani wedding and a Sindhi ceremony in a luxurious villa at Lake Como. The celebrations rounded off with a grand reception at Padukone's hometown, Bengaluru, and 2 receptions in Mumbai that saw some of Bollywood's biggest stars, from Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor Khan to Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Anushka Sharma and many more, in attendance.
Kunal Kapoor and Naina Bachchan, Seychelles
The heart-throb Kunal Kapoor tied the knot with his fiancee, Naina Bachchan in a private ceremony on 9 February, 2015 in the Seychelles. The wedding was a very private affair, with only the immediate families attending the function in the idyllic locales of Seychelles Islands. The couple opted for a lavish beach wedding with only the closest of their friends and relatives in attendance. Kunal and Naina had been dating for the almost 2 years before they got engaged in 2014. Later, they had a beautiful wedding reception in Delhi.
Vir Das and Shivani Mathur, Sri Lanka
Stand-up comedian, Vir Das, married his long-time girlfriend Shivani Mathur on October 19, 2014, in a hush-hush ceremony in Sri Lanka. The low-key affair was attended by just 100+ guests. The wedding saw a pool party, a rock concert, sangeet ceremony, and the pheras. Vir had been quoted by a leading daily, confessing that he deliberately wanted to keep it all private, that is why he had even banned usage of cell phones during the three-day wedding celebrations.
Amrita Puri and Imrun Sethi, Bangkok
Film actress Amrita Puri and restaurateur Imrun Sethi had a grand destination wedding in Bangkok, Thailand on 11 November, 2017. The wedding took place as per Sikh rituals, with multiple ceremonies leading up to it. While the bride wore a light peach lehenga by Sabyasachi, the groom donned a classic cream sherwani and turban for the nuptials.
The decor centred on light pastel shades and flowers. The bride walked in for the Anand Karaj ceremony under a canopy of exotic flowers.
Akshay Marwah and Aashita Relan, UAE
Filmmaker and entrepreneur Akshay Marwah got maried to Aashita Relan, a restaurateur, in February 2017 with a lavish three-day event held at Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi.
The Abu Dhabi event started with an intimate dinner for family and close friends at the St Regis Abu Dhabi, followed by the mehendi the next day at the Emirates Palace Hotel ballroom. The party carried on with a cocktail and sangeet with a ‘majestic’ theme. The following day saw a very different kind of event – a hangover brunch ahead of the main ceremony, serving up cheese dosas, enchiladas, sushi, dimsum and burgers.
The culmination of the celebrations, the wedding ceremony, saw the bride in a classic red-and-gold Sabyasachi lehenga for the special occasion. Held on the Emirates Palace terrace, the decor was complete with zardozi velvet drapes, chandeliers and a flower mandap. “I’ve always wanted a palace wedding and my husband a beach! Abu Dhabi, given its proximity to India, was the perfect destination,” says Aashita Relan of her extravagant wedding festivities held in the Middle Eastern city earlier this year.
The wedding planner was Dubai-based Red Velvet Events.
Mohit Marwah and Antara Motiwala, UAE
2018 started on a bang with the star-studded lavish nuptials of Bollywood actor Mohit Marwah at the Waldorf Astoria in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE on 20 February 2018. Mohit Marwah got married to Antara Motiwala, a celebrity stylist.
The destination wedding shenanigans were attended by the entire Kapoor clan and many other celebrities. The wedding planning was done by MTOM Weddings in India while the design/decor and production was done by Dubai-based wedding planners, Fete Events, who created a wonderland of florals with a modern mandap topped with pink blooms, and a tropical garden teeming with flamingo motifs for the Latin American-themed mehendi.
For her mehndi, Antara Motiwala chose a custom-made Manish Malhotra chikankari lehenga that featured floral artwork and pearls which was teamed with aqua blue dupatta. She wore another creation by Manish Malhotra for the Sangeet.
With a 550 strong star-studded guest list and a team of more than 100 working behind the scenes, Antara and Mohit's wedding was truly an occasion marked by splendor and extravagance. Karishma Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Manish Malhotra, Karan Johar, Sridevi, Boney Kapoor, Janhvi Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Siddarth Malhotra, Athiya Shetty, Kunal Rawal and Sanjay Kapoor were some of the Bollywood celebrities who were spotted having a blast at the duo’s wedding celebrations.
