Pratibha and Ranun

When Pratibha Gandhi and Ranun Khanijow envisioned their wedding, they had the unwavering support of their parents. They didn’t plan for an earthquake of such strong magnitude to be the unexpected guest. By the grace of the heavens, it left them unscathed but united them forever.

Before you tied the knot, how did you envision your dream wedding? Which parts of that vision made it into the big day?

Long before the wedding prep started, we’ve always had a vision of what we envisioned our wedding to be. This vision soon turned into a mood board full of ideas I had thrown around, out of which we would say that most of it made it to the wedding due to the unwavering support we had from our parents. The stuff that didn’t was either not feasible or unrealistic.

What made you decide to celebrate your wedding in Thailand, and why did this particular venue feel like the one?

A big fat Indian wedding in Thailand just hits different, and having most of our friends and family here itself made it easier for us to decide. As for the venue, choices were quite limited due to the large number of attendees that we had. Nonetheless, the venue was beautiful and ticked all our boxes.

Was there a special moment that felt uniquely Thai during your celebration — perhaps through music, décor, or the welcome experience?

When people think of Thailand, they think of the iconic dessert of mango sticky rice. We incorporated this into a cocktail form so that people around the world who visited us during this precious time could enjoy an Indian wedding with a touch of Thailand.

Looking back, which moments from the wedding truly stayed with you?

⁠Going into this wedding, none of us would’ve thought that we would be hit by an earthquake of that magnitude. By God’s grace, it happened after the phere, and it is something that will stick with us forever.

Which bridal designers did you pick and why?

As for designers, we wanted to go with the bigger names like Sabyasachi, Seema Gujral, Rohit Gandhi & Rahul Khanna, whilst also branching out and looking for designers that had not been taken up here in Thailand, such as Qbik and OSA by Adarsh.

Any tips for other couples looking to tie the knot?

Wedding planning is often looked at as a hassle and a waste of time. Nevertheless, our advice to other couples would be to make the most out of it, to trust the process, and know that everything will turn out to be for the best.

Did you have any theme(s) for your wedding event?

Being crazy sneakerheads and having a flair for sports and street fashion had made us decide upon a theme involving jerseys and sneakers. We also incorporated this theme into the decoration and alcohol, creating a unique environment with cool cocktails with the help of the decoration and flairmix teams as well. We were ecstatic with the fact that everyone was looking forward to this theme as well.