The Leela Palace hotel was the stunning backdrop for Nikhil and Pooja’s wedding in Udaipur. It was a small and intimate family affair but nonetheless amazingly beautiful. For such a small wedding I was not supposed to have a problem making a tight selection of images for the blog but even after selecting only thirty I still feel that there are many pictures I would have liked to include in this post.

The location is of course incredible for a destination wedding and the views of Lake Pichola seen from every room are just the thing you want to see when you wake up in the morning. The wedding was fun right from the start. The first day, long and packed, started with Pooja’s mehendi, continued with Nikhil’s Ganesh pooja (which ended up with him and his brother being thrown in the pool outside the suite), followed by the mehendi in the inner courtyard and an evening dinner reception on the lawns. Traditional rajasthani dancers and Kawali singers added the colorful background music.

The morning functions started early as the wedding was supposed to be over by a certain hour but as it always is in India, time is a very fluid concept and everything was more than an hour late. The barat procession eventually started and although no horse or elephant were there for Nikhil to ride, it was no hindrance to the dancing party.

The wedding itself took place at the guava orchard facing the lake and was followed by a lunch after which everyone, exhausted from the long first day, simply collapsed and went to sleep. These are the moments that I always kick myself for forgetting my swimming costume at home. Seriously, I think I must add this to my packing list now.

We had about an hour on the morning of the last day before I had to leave for the airport and we used it to step outside the hotel to take some fun pictures. Some people feel very comfortable in front of the camera and some do not but I think that we managed to keep this morning session fun and relaxed and came out with great pictures that I have a feeling Nikhil and Pooja will not forget so easily.

From India Pooja and Nikhil went on and had another great party, this time a wedding at the Lanesborough Hotel on Hyde Park Corner in London. Go ahead and check out the beautiful images from the wedding in London by Mark & Marianne.