Raj Palace Wedding : ATHENA VOOGHT & THOMAS VOOGHT
An Enchanting Raj Palace Wedding in Jaipur
India has never been short of heritage properties and forts, home to many majestic buildings since time immemorial, India stuns the world with its varied heritage. From the Dravidian architecture and the Nagara Architecture to the Buddhist, Indo-Saracenic and Indo-Islamic architecture, etc., its beauty is one of a kind.
These incredible works of art have boggled tourists’ minds which makes them come back from time to time. Tourism and Wedding industry have always benefited from these architectures as they serve their parts in both.
New age couples are vividly interested in marrying at heritage properties. We’ve brought one such cross-cultural wedding experience in our journal’s fifth edition. This story covers their wedding at an underrated yet luxurious setting at the Raj Palace, Jaipur.
If you’re also set on Rajasthan as your destination, and planning for a palace hotel as your wedding venue, then this article can give you some insights in it.
In our dialogue with Athena, the bride gave insights on her wedding couture, preparations, themes and more.
“Thomas and I met on Hinge. We had both had some long, but not great relationships. He swiped right on me first, and then I swiped right on him. He was the first date I had actually been on Hinge. We were very open and honest with each other. We were actually looking to get married and settle down. We both wanted kids, and on the first day itself, we spoke about all this, plus our value systems, what's important to us, and so on. I'm pretty sure both of us, after the first date, deleted Hinge and decided that we only wanted to be with each other, and things moved pretty quickly after that.”
THE PROPOSAL
On her surprise wedding proposal she says that she knew at one point the proposal was on the way but never expected it coming right away, the way it did. A beautiful memory that she shared with her beau and his family. She shares,
“We decided within six months of being together that we wanted to get married. I knew he was going to propose at some time pretty soon. And he was quite keen on a surprise. My guess was that he would propose during my birthday weekend back in 2020. So in October 2020, it was his birthday and we weren't doing anything too major. We were actually just going down to London to see his parents in Devon. They liked me and told me that they're organising a black tie dinner for Thomas and I andI shouldn't tell Thomas and I should make sure that we pack some nice clothes.I was not telling him. On a Sunday, Thomas said to me, why don't we walk by the beach? Kevin is the English countryside. It's really gorgeous. At the hill nearby, there's a very nice hotel deck. We decided that we should climb up the hill. As soon as we got to the top of the hill, it was gorgeous. Me being the typical instagram person, I started taking photos. I saw him with the ring…I started shaking. It was a sweet moment and he proposed. It was a very private proposal. There weren't many people at the top of the hill, but when I said yes, I thought we were going to go back to his parents house, but he'd actually booked a suite at that really nice hotel in the private island and his parents had made sure that all the fancy black dye clothes, were delivered to our room. It was wonderful.”
WEDDING STYLE
On her wedding style, Athena told us about choosing The Raj Palace, Jaipur as their wedding destination.
“Given that we both lived in London, it was quite tough to organise, especially in the middle of covid. But thankfully my parents lived in Delhi, so they were a major help.”
“I couldn’t physically see the venue before booking. But my mum and my friend did a lot of research for me and actually visited the venues, before we finally settled on Raj palace.”
On her destination she says,
“I would define our destination as “understated, authentic elegance”. For us, it was important that the venue was an original palace (not just another hotel built to look like a palace), and that it was small enough to feel intimate, but large enough to have multiple outdoor venues for all our events. We chose Raj Palace because it fulfilled all these criteria. The rooms could hold up to 110 guests, which was perfect for us. And they have four different outdoor event lawns - which is great because we wanted all our events outdoors.”
THE FUNCTIONS
About all the functions and themes she says,
“The functions leading up to the events were traditional. The first was Haldi and mehandi. I wanted a very typical Rajasthani type mela, with colourful tents and vendors like ChuliWalas and carnival games.
On day two, we had the wedding, at around 11:30 am, followed by lunch. I was wearing a light pink Sabyasachi lehenga, and I wanted the atmosphere to be pastel and soft.
CREDITS
Location: The Raj Palace Jaipur(a heritage fort hotel in rajasthan)
Make Up: Pooja Khurana Beauty,
Photographers: ShutterDownPhotography
Bride outfits: Sabyasachi (wedding), Falguni Shane Peacock (Sangeet) and Agunj by Gunjan Arora (Mehendi)
Groom outfits: Shantanu Nikhil (Wedding and Sangeet), Unit by Rajat Suri (Mehendi).
P.S. This is one of many real wedding experiences that we share in our Destination Weddings Journal. Get access to DWJ’s wedding editions if you enjoy reading more of these experiences.
More about heritage sites in Rajasthan
Q1. What are the venue options available, considering the Forts and Palaces in Rajasthan for wedding?
Rajasthan is full of heritage hotels and forts where you can visit as a traveller or set up your wedding in these majestic mansions and forts. Here are some of the forts, to name a few:
The Taj Umaid Bhawan palace, Chittar Hill, Jodhpur.
Samode Haveli, Jaipur
Shiv Niwas Palace, Udaipur
Ranbanka Palace, Jodhpur
The Raj Palace, Jaipur
Narain Niwas Palace Hotel, Jaipur
Gorbandh Palace, Jaipur
Diggi Palace, Jaipur
Suryagarh, Jaisalmer
Alila Fort, Bishangarh
Rambagh Palace, Jaipur
Taj Lake Palace, Udaipur
Hotel Fateh Garh Palace, Udaipur
Mihir Garh Hotel, Jodhpur
And the list goes on and on with these beautiful jaw dropping forts and palaces in Rajasthan.
