Real Wedding: Sunil & Lakshmi (Part 1)

Gazebo at the Omni Shoreham Hotel

In the fall, we had the opportunity to assist Sunil and Lakshmi at their Hindu wedding. This was our second time working at the Omni Shoreham but it had been a long time since Richa and Deb’s wedding in 2006. Luckily, we were very familiar with the hotel from other events. By far, this was the most extensive wedding we had coordinated to-date beginning with the Sangeet the night before, and then breakfast, baraat, ceremony, lunch, hospitality, cocktails and dinner.

We had an extraordinary team of professionals to pull of this 300+, multi-day event.

Venue: Omni Shoreham Hotel (Catering Manager William Grace). William is single handedly the reason I love working at the Omni, besides the beautiful gardens and ballrooms. His professionalism and experience make the whole process so easy. The Omni really is the perfect venue for an event that requires many rooms. Being a historic hotel, each ballroom is beautifully decorated with such character, a quintessential DC hotel. The one drawback is that it is a huge hotel and the ballrooms are split between two sides of the hotel so signage is important for your guests. With Sunil and Lakshmi’s wedding need rooms for breakfast, lunch, dinner, ceremony, hospitality, and cocktails, the facilites at the Omni worked out really well.

Decor & Floral: Prabha Bhambri. I had just worked with Prabha at Soumya and Tejus’ wedding the month before so we got along really well. Prabha is very creative and did an excellent job providing the decor for the entire wedding weekend. I assure you that it was no easy feat. For the reception, Prabha created a very modern design dripping in crystals. You’ll see in the photos in Part 2 of this series.

DJ: Ravi.

Sound & Lighting: PSAV (Omni’s in-house)

Dance Performance: Dhoonya Dance. This group of dancers provided the entertainment during the baraat and got the energy of the guests way up!

Horse for the baraat: Harmon’s Hayride and Carriages. Pretty easy. They choose a very mellow horse to deal with all the noise and commotion during the baraat and the handler is there the whole time.

Bar Rental: Gala Inc. At the last minute, we need a substantial South Beach style bar that would become the centerpiece of the cocktail area. Gala was so easy to work with on this late request and everybody loved the result.

Lounge Furniture: Cort Furniture. To complete the South Beach lounge look, we rented several ottomans and banquets in white. Guests enjoyed lounging on them all night.

Photography & Videography: A1 Action Photo & Video. This family owned business does it all and was super flexible the day of the wedding as things changed on the fly by the minute.

Chair & Linen Rental: DC Rental. We had different chairs and linens for each event of this wedding and DC Rental did a great job of getting it all right.

Sangeet Catering: Aroma Restaurant.  Great to work with. Responsive and was familiar with the rules and processes at the Omni. This was smooth sailing.

Reception Catering: Tandoori Nights. Not recommended.

Cake: Fancy Cakes by Leslie. The 7 tier cake was a stunning focal point in the ballroom.

Stay tuned for Part 2 – the photos!