For modern brides and grooms, multiple events are all part of the fun of having a wedding, with everything from welcome drinks to the rehearsal dinner, the after-party to the next-day debrief (otherwise known as brunch!). Each occasion requires a different look, which can be both a lot of fun and a lot of work for the bride. When one of our brides-to-be, Anjuli, came to The Stylish Bride, they got really excited because she said on the intro call that she was fashion forward and liked to take fashion risks. That’s not a profile they often get for weddings, so they knew it would be a fun one to work on.

With dual Indian and American heritage, Anjuli’s welcome drinks had an Indian bazaar theme, with colorful decor and a dress code to match. When it came to finding a dress for the occasion, Julie and the team looked to Indian-American designer Naeem Khan, whose bridalwear is world-famous. They fell in love with a long-sleeved, high-neck embroidered wedding dress, which they had custom-dyed in the most vivid shade of sunshine yellow, perfect for the vibrant color scheme. In a sweet touch, Anjuli’s mother, who is American, wore the ultimate American designer Oscar de la Renta, with its lemon-print acting as the perfect complement to her daughter’s look. Meanwhile Anjuli’s father, who is Indian, wore a traditional johdpuri suit, but crucially forgot that it needed a collarless shirt to go underneath. “So we went into his closet, found a shirt that would work, and I just cut the collar off right then and there,” laughs Julie. “It looked perfect.”

After their Indian wedding (for which the bride had worn a Sabyasachi Mukerjee dress sourced during a trip to India with her mother), the couple’s American wedding took place at their home in Los Gatos, California. In a nod to her American heritage, Anjuli turned to Oscar de la Renta. “She knew she wanted something really spectacular and dramatic,” says Julie. The end result was a super romantic strapless gown with a full skirt and train featuring layer-upon-layer of tulle. “It was just total frothy gorgeousness,” remembers Julie. The only issue with such a dramatic dress? “It required its own handler!” says Julie. “I was stationed at the altar with Anjuli throughout the ceremony to help arrange it.” Her shoes were classic open-toed Jimmy Choos, and jewelry was borrowed from her mother.

Anjuli’s mother, meanwhile, wore a dress inspired by vintage Dior which was designed by The Stylish Bride’s in-house designer Peter Soronen. “She had an incredible jewelry collection and we knew that she wanted to highlight her necklace,” Julie remembers. “So we chose to do an open v-neck to show off the piece and the dress had the most elegant A-line shape with a side swish detail to define her waist. It was super flattering and elegant.”

Inspired by her mother’s wedding, Anjuli was very specific about the bridesmaids dresses. “She wanted them to each be a different color of the rainbow,” says Julie. “Her mom had done a pastel rainbow, but Anjuli loved bright colors so she decided to do jewel tones. It was a lovely nod to their family history.” Not many designers can orchestrate this well, so Julie turned to Galvan London to make them. “We wanted to keep the silhouette the same for all of the dresses so the overall look wasn’t messy. I had worked with them before, and knew that Galvan’s shapes fit really well, and came in lots of colors.” After a lot of back and forth, Anjuli and Julie finally chose the perfect colors to complement each other and make a beautiful rainbow. From there, to avoid any confusion, the bridesmaids were assigned their shade and a dress was produced for each bridesmaid. One last challenge was that Anjuli’s sister was pregnant with twins, so it was really hard to anticipate her dress size at the time of the wedding. But luckily Galvan sent additional panels of fabric that the team were able to add to the dress, and that did the trick of accommodating her bump.

When it came time to let their hair down for the reception, Anjuli turned again to Naeem Khan, but this time quite by accident. She landed on the Gatsby dress – ideally named for a party – with its mini-dress length and layers of swishy beading and sequins, which looked incredible on the dance floor. Amina Muaddi provided the dancing shoes, acting as her ‘something blue’. Meanwhile, her mother wore a custom-made dress inspired by the Norman Hartnell gown that Princess Beatrice borrowed from the late Queen Elizabeth II for her wedding.