Ishita & Rohan, Dehradun

Ishita and Rohan both grew up in Dehradun, which meant a guest list of 450 and very little debate over location. The families wanted two days at a garden estate on the city's edge: mehendi and sangeet on the first, the wedding on the second, with pheras fixed by the family pandit for 11:52 pm on one of the busiest muhurat dates of the season. Every florist, band and tent house in the city was booked several times over that night.

We had locked our vendors in June, with written call times and penalties for late arrival. The baraat route ran 1.2 kilometres along a main road, so we worked with traffic police on timing, hired marshals and kept the ghodi and band to a forty-minute schedule. The estate parked 120 cars and we expected 180, so we leased a neighbouring plot and ran a valet shuttle. Late-November nights reach 8°C, so dining was fully tented with heaters.

The baraat reached the gate at 9:40 pm, within five minutes of plan. Dinner opened on time, the varmala ran on a rotating stage so every side of the lawn could see, and the pheras began at 11:52 pm exactly, under a mandap of white chrysanthemum and orange marigold. The vidaai followed at dawn.