Palazzo Versace Dubai plays Host to this 5-Night Mega Wedding by Studio Neelabh

by  Madiha Khan Weddings | March 15, 2018 | News

Palazzo Versace Dubai Studio Neelabh

The wedding festivities were planned, designed, produced and executed by UAE and India-based, Studio Neelabh Luxury Weddings & Entertainment!

Over 157 artists and performers, 500 skilled manpower, 110 chefs, and butlers from India, 47 agencies and suppliers,150 skilled professionals from the Studio Neelabh team worked on the Grand Wedding which catered to over 1500 guests from across the globe. 

Welcome Dinner and Youngsters Yacht Party

The events of the wedding started off with a formal, silver spoon sit-down welcome dinner, followed by a late night youngsters Yacht Party! Exclusive experiential designs were created to give each event a very elegant and royal feel. The Yacht Party had a retro theme, with a Billionaire Retro experience through LIVE artist performances and a mix of large LED screens and special lighting playing their part to create a mobile nightclub experience.

The ‘Sajjan Khot’ – Where Traditional Indian met European Style
The next day’s festivities started with a traditional Indian sit down, family lunch - ‘Sajjan Khot’ as referred to traditionally. The setup for this lunch was created outdoors, on the opulent lush green creek side lawns of the Palazzo Versace. Based on a concept of a White-Green House, space was designed on the lines of the ‘Palace of Versailles’. 

Black and white checkered carpet flooring, with white, sleek pillar structures around, to create a warm house look. The outdoor ‘living room’ was a fine-dine experience with floral lotus and peacocks in the décor, acted as the auspicious symbols to kick start the wedding celebrations. Indian traditional ‘Ghoomar’ dancers and ‘Bhangra’ performers added the flavour of authenticity to the whole experience. The main glasshouse stage acted as the backdrop for the fusion band — the Collective Project.

Candy and Pop-up styled Poolside Mehendi
On the offset of the gorgeous Palazzo Versace, sits the large oval pool overlooking the Marina and creek. The design demanded that it gel in with the whole European architecture and speak a common language. While the Mehendi is a very colourful event in an Indian traditional wedding, Studio Neelabh wanted to take a new approach to combine Indian sensibilities with the European flavour. 

So the idea of a Candy and Pop-up styled Mehendi was conceptualised to create the required balance. Large floral, origami tulips with floating white swans, a moving floral carousel made for the perfect photo-opp. Musical, colourful ribbon strings around the tall coconut trees added a fun element. While the colourful, larger-than-life picture frames set the floating stage backdrop for the band performance. Candy bars with large flamingos all around, cake-shaped nail bars with hanging colourful umbrellas were planned as a ‘pop-up’ in the F&B marque, creating a celebratory fun feel, on a sunny day. 

360-degree Experience for a ‘Gatsby meets Bollywood’ Sangeet
The Versace ballroom was the chosen venue to create the most happening evening of the wedding — the Sangeet. A customized 360-degree experience was created utilising the entire space was of the lower-level ballroom, by segregating the pre-function area to hold the lavish buffet and live counters. The Ballroom was solely kept for the headliner performances on an Oscar Awards shaped arch-LED stage with 360 degree LED screens wrapping the entire ballroom to create more depth with visuals and give a night-club feel to the ambiance. 

A ‘Great Gatsby meets Bollywood Bling’ concept created a unique fusion where large white feathers on tall golden candelabras made it look most luxurious and opulent. Black and gold with a dash of white, created a perfect contrast. Large crystal bird cages with larger than life, feathery peacock installation acted as the perfect photo-opp backdrop.

A Majestic Royal Wedding Reception
A Punjabi-style ‘Baraat’ procession leads to the poolside wedding dinner, followed by late night ‘pheras’. The Wedding functions had the look and feel of Majestic Royalty while creating an experience to remember and cherish for a lifetime. The wedding decor concept was based on Royalties of the Golden Era. Creating a feel of the richness of Royal Modern India while blending contemporary styles with a new design twist.

Studio Neelabh was the Wedding Planning Company for the complete project, including being the one point of contact for the Hotel as well. Speaking about how lending expertise to every aspect of each celebration, allowed for ease to the client, in addition to the tremendous opportunity for every function to come alive seamlessly, Neelabh Kapoor elaborated: “We were involved from day one in advising and identifying the perfect destination, to the selection of the hotel, closing of all contracts, to managing the complete wedding accounts and finalizing all suppliers while managing the logistics with all guest movements and facilitating of all required licences and permits. That’s what being a Destination wedding planner entails! Ensuring the delivery of a stress-free experience for the family to sit back and enjoy the Grand Affair.”

“The client had such great trust in us, and believed in every creative concept so greatly, that our every involvement including designing the entertainment and curating the F&B experience came through for the overall affair. We had great support from Catering Consultant Kumar Sambhav on this. We were also working closely as fashion consultants to the Bride and Groom wear, along with Dubai-based Zene Bridal, which involved all leading celebrity fashion designers Sabyasachi, Manish Malhotra, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, and many more,” added Kapoor.

“In all my 14 years, I’ve had the unique opportunity and been blessed to work with the most prestigious personalities, who have kept me involved through all the detailing and planning of the events. Even in this case the Goel Family, especially Prerit Goel, entrusted me with every decision and supported my vision for every element of this grand celebration fully", concludes Neelabh.

"Two things attracted us the most to work with Studio Neelabh as the sole Wedding Planning Company on the overall project: One was Neelabh’s ability to work on this project in a complete turnkey basis, from advising & helping us choose the right Hotel & Venues, with the highest level of design and decor sensibilities to managing mega production, logistics and softer elements of curating the F&B and advising on the couture. The second was definitely the ability to work on such a high-profile event, together with the minutest attention paid to protocol, security, and confidentiality. We have never brought on a wedding planner for any privacy function in our family, but I’m elated we had the opportunity to work with Neelabh & team. We have no regrets from entrusting him this mammoth celebration", says Prerit Goel, Group Director G P Global Group.