Marriage Wows

Day two was a traditional affair. The morning of the wedding began with an exchange of gifts between families and several poojas. Narabla Devi,86,and four generations of her family,known for singing traditional Rajasthani prayers at weddings,were roped in to sing folk prayers. “The most importance thing for us,” said NK Singh,“is to look after the convenience of our guests,” as he rushed off to attend to his invitees. A sea of jeweled bandni turbans followed Abhijeet Singh in an antique beige Buick towards Umaid Bhawan,where the main ceremony was to take place. He entered the venue on a horse,with an entourage of close to 200 guests,traditional Rajasthani folk singers and a wedding band.

The wedding was a quick traditional ceremony,following which the guests were ushered to the sprawling backyard lawns,where the reception and dinner were hosted. Executive chef Gitendra Bhatnagar of Umaid Bhawan and his hand-picked team of 40 chefs had been planning the feast for over a month. There were almost 85 main courses in the five sections of the buffet — Mughlai,Marwari,South Indian,continental and Rajasthani. “I had to keep into account the very different tastes of the non vegetarian Rajasthanis,the Marwari vegetarians,the foreign guests,and also the preferences of the bride and the groom,” he says. The couple had a private reception on Thursday night,before leaving for Europe.

Spotted at the wedding were politicians,diplomats,socialites and film-stars,in addition to members of royal families. The list included Gaj Singh and Arvind Singh of Mewar,Shabana Azmi,Javed Akhtar,Praful Patel,Jyotiraditya Scindia,Vijay Mallya,Mukesh and Nita Ambani,Rajeev Shukla,Montek Singh Aluwalia,Digvijay Singh among others.