Thailand Wedding at Shangri-La Bangkok Photography & Films – Shreya & Ashish – Ramit Batra – Best Candid Wedding Photographer – Award Winning Wedding Photography

Thailand Wedding at Shangri-La Bangkok Photography & Films – Shreya & Ashish

02/03/2020 By Ramit Batra With 13 Comments

In Best Wedding Photography / Destination Weddings / Featured / Weddings

Shreya & Ashish have been the perfect couple – everything that a Wedding Photographer can dream of. It was such a pleasure to be a part of their celebrations, and interact with them before, during and now after the wedding.

Here is a short Q&A with the bride – Shreya, and their experience working with us, planning the wedding with Shloka & some of their favourite moments.

RB: Tell us about yourself – how did you meet, the proposal and the wedding.

Shreya : Our meeting was arranged by our parents in the beginning of September 2018. Once we met it didn’t feel like we were stepping into an arranged marriage. There was an instant connection which grew deeper and fonder as we spent our days & nights talking to each other.

We spent months deciding on a design for the wedding ring. Ashish being an impeccable jeweller himself, had already shortlisted 3 designs. When he saw me for the first time, he knew he will get me a flower ring. On the other hand, I always wanted a classic ring. I ended up picking what he loved, a sunflower ring, something I will proudly pass down to the next generation!

My excitement to see the ring increased with each passing day & along with our photographer, Ramit, Ashish planned the most perfect proposal. We were in Mussoorie for our pre-wedding shoot & we found the most perfect cliff with a view of mountains. That’s when Ramit distracted me & Ashish went down on his knees. I couldn’t believe what was happening because in that moment, everything was perfect! & the ring, it is the most beautiful engagement ring I’ve ever seen!

RB: Tell us about the destination(s) of the wedding? (Your thoughts on the location, why is it a great place to get married, what made it special etc)

Shreya : We tied the knot in Shangri-La Hotel, Bangkok. It’s a riverside hotel with beautiful views & some really great venues for various functions. My personal favourite venue at the hotel is Salathip. It has typical Thai style structures and interiors. We had our haldi function there & the venue along with the decoration left me speechless. We chose Shang as it has a great location and is a perfect blend of a luxurious hotel with a resort feel. The rooms are also spacious overlooking the river & the hotel had so many spots to relax and chill.

RB : Going back to the wedding, Can you describe each event briefly?Shreya:

6th July 2019 – We hosted a welcome lunch for our guests post check-in to the hotel. We had a hall exclusively for check-in, welcoming guests with dhol, chilled beer & thai massage. It was a relaxed lunch, meeting & greeting everyone.

In the evening, we sailed off on a cruise with all our guests on the Chao Phraya River. Everyone dressed in their tux & gowns danced their way through the evening. The youngsters party started later in the night to the tunes of classic 80’s Hollywood songs!

7th July 2019 – The theme for our mehendi and pool party was Caribbean. We had a live band, Los Latinos along with Ramona girls performing for our guests. The decor was vibrant. With lots of games and pool floats, exotic cocktails & girls getting beautiful mehendi, the entire afternoon was nothing short of a Caribbean carnival! I have always been very fond of mehendi & I knew I wanted my mehendi design to be extremely meaningful. My Aunt, spent over 10 hours doing my mehendi, all by herself. She did both, my hands and feet. I had beautiful figures from baraat to doli and then Varmala on my hands. We also had Delhi and Dubai skyline with a plane flying from Delhi to Dubai on my arms. On my wrist, I had “per sempre et toujours” written. It’s means ‘forever’ in italian and ‘always’ in French.

In the evening we had the Sagan & Ring Ceremony followed by the Sangeet. The sangeet started with Ashish & I performing on Tere Bin followed by our friends and cousins dancing on all the latest songs. The entire evening was all about ladkiwale & ladkewale drinking, dancing & enjoying the last night before we tied the knot. The decor of the evening was mesmerising & dreamy. The after party was a big hit as DJ Vicky made us dance to classic 90’s Bollywood songs!

8th July 2019 – After a night full of drinking and dancing, we had an Oktoberfest planned for our guests. Beer, they say, is perfect cure for hangover and we left no stone unturned to offer Bavarian beer & cocktails! Haldi & chooda ceremony being an emotional function for the bride was turned into a mad riot as the groom invaded the function and painted everyone yellow! All our friends and cousins were running & hiding and our haldi turned out to be extremely fun! The decor was full of blue and yellow drapes making the already beautiful venue even more surreal.

We had 4 venues for the eve of our wedding. The baraat entered the hotel with Ashish on a vintage car. After the Milni, all guests proceeded to the deck near the pier of Chao Praya River for the Varmala. My bridal entry was exciting as I entered in an authentic Thai boat. I was nervous because I didn’t want to fall off in the river but I had support of my sister, friends, Ramit & Yuvraj! I forgot all my stress once the spotlight was on me, an extremely melodious tune played in the background giving me goosebumps and the boat proceeded towards the pier.

Once I stepped out of the boat and walked towards Ashish, they played another romantic track and all I could see was him. We had such cute moments through the evening and they’re so fresh in my heart. We proceeded to our reception dinner for our first dance and cake cutting ceremony and a couple of hours later, we tied the knot. All our venues were full of beautiful flowers and their fragrance added to the aura of the wedding.

RB : Looking back at the photographs, what was your most memorable moment at the wedding?

Shreya : I think every moment, where Ramit and his team has captured the essence of the moment is interesting to us. The pictures reflect joy & happiness in its truest and purest form. To pick a few, it was interesting to see our haldi pictures. We had a few emotional moments seeing my pictures with my family and then we had a great laugh on how Ashish targeted all the youngsters and put haldi on them. Even before leaving my room for the wedding, Ramit & I had a fun posing session and we ended up getting some great shots! Each and every picture of our Varmala and pheras is also extremely touching. It gives me happy tears every time I see them. Every moment, captured so beautifully. We also loved how on 9th morning, we did a little shoot with our beautiful wedding invites & wax seals. Ramit & Kanishka knew from the start how excited & special our wedding stationary was to us and thus they decided not to miss the opportunity to capture it for us!

We had a window after the reception & before the pheras. All the guests were singing & dancing to classic songs like “o meri zohra jabeen” and Ashish & I were sitting on the stage. He was singing to me, we were smiling at each other and in the next moment we were making faces. And Ramit captured all of that. The pictures takes us back to the time where we both were taking this big step together and we were so peaceful, relaxed and were actually enjoying our own wedding.

“Ramit Batra was the first photographer we met. After meeting him for coffee, Ashish & I sat in the car, we looked at each other and knew that Ramit is our man! He understands the essence of the couple & he makes sure they are super comfortable around the camera. Also, nobody does candid shots better than Ramit! His entire team is marvellous.
We think it’s very important to have a photographer who has a vision to create magic. That’s what Ramit does. He had ideas popping all the time & we were on board with him. He didn’t make us pose all the time or didn’t ask us to pose for a candid. He captured the moment as it is & thats why we have so many pictures taking us down the memory lane! Having him around was like having a friend or a family member. Everything went smooth & relaxed. ”
– Shreya Kochhar Vedi

Oh, And you can’t miss watching their Wedding film!!

Artists Associated with the wedding:

Wedding Planner- Shloka Events

Wedding Photography & Films – Ramit Batra

Make up artist- Simran Takkar

Wedding invites & stationery- Naina Lamba Textiles

Hotel- Shangri-La Hotel, Bangkok

DJ- Dj Vicky (from Kolkata) , DJ Fred (for Oktoberfest)

Dancers- Ramona Girls Bangkok for all functions

Band- Los Latinos for Mehendi, Francois Pianist for Reception, Antonio Saxophonist for Yacht

MC- MC Rudy (from Bombay)

Bartender- The Flaming Trios

Food-

Shangri-La for all functions excluding the Yacht Party

Charcaol Bangkok for Indian

El Mercado for European

Nadimos for Lebanese

Decoration- POM

Mehendi Artist- Poonam Rawlley

Outfits-

Ashish’s outfits were from Vavci Dubai. His wedding achkan was from Raghavendra Rathore.

Shreya’s outfits

Yacht Gown- Falguni Shane Peacock

Mehendi- Custom made dupatta from Karachi, Pakistan. Lehenga was from Sitara by Anu Sawhney Dhodi

Sangeet & Sagan- Shantanu & Nikhil

Wedding- Sabyasachi

Pre wedding shoot- red gown by Falguni Shane Peacock, black gown by Karl Lagerfeld

Jewellery-

Shreya’s jewellery was conceptualised & designed by the groom Ashish himself. Ashish wore a beautiful neck piece on the wedding as a tribute to Shreya’s great grandfather. The piece was made by him and is about 120 years old.

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Author

Ramit Batra Destination Wedding Photographer based in India. Loves : Travel, Beer, Photography, Music, Books, Beaches & Pizza (*not necessarily in the same order)