Indian Wedding Vendor Reviews, Atlanta

Photo by Slava Slavik Photography

Since I'm having trouble getting back into the groove of regular SoCal restaurant reviews (most of my at-home writing is for thank you notes these days, a surprisingly time-consuming task, though I know we're blessed to have so many to write), I wanted to go off on one more tangent: reviewing the vendors at my Indian (Hindu) wedding in Atlanta. I wish there had been a blog post like this when I was researching vendors, especially since there aren't many Indian vendor reviews at the usual suspects (like TheKnot.com), so hopefully this will help other South Asian brides.

To be frank, our wedding was AMAZING. It exceeded all of my expectations. If you wanted to go with every single one of my vendors, then I predict you'll have a spectacular wedding. I didn't even want to leave our reception for five minutes to go pee because I didn't want to miss a single second.

When it comes to my day-of vendors, if I had to do it all over again, I'd likely choose them all again. The only caveat is that we had a mid-priced Indian wedding. Had I had a sky-high high-end budget like some Indian brides do, then I'd likely have upgraded at least some of my vendors to higher-end, higher-quality ones. But for my budget, I was happy with my choices.

WEDDING VENUE: Atlanta Airport Marriott Gateway Hotel

Photo by Slava Slavik Photography

10 out of 10 Peppers = Extra Spicy

Pros: It's THE most convenient hotel to the Atlanta airport. There's a tram that travels from the airport to the hotel about every 30 seconds. The hotel is brand new and the interior is beautiful. Our event coordinator, Michael, was amazing -- detail-oriented, organized, accessible, calm, and flexible to meet our ever-evolving needs. A wedding website is included, through which all of our guests directly booked their rooms (at a discount). A hospitality suite for the weekend is also included, which was where the women got ready Saturday morning. There are mini-fridges in all of the rooms. The hotel takes pride in being environmentally-friendly. The hotel bar is open until 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Cons: Our salesperson, Cassandra, was mostly inaccessible, so the first few months (from the booking through when we got assigned to Michael as our coordinator a few months in) were unnecessarily stressful. There's only one set of guest elevators, which means a) if you're at the end of the hall, you have a looong way to walk, and b) if there's a lot of people waiting for the elevator, it takes a long time to get in. Yes, I resorted to climbing 6 flights of stairs a few times. There aren't microwaves in the rooms; there's a shared one in the gift shop, but it doesn't always work. The hotel is in Clayton, not Fulton, County.

WEDDING CATERER: Cafe Bombay

Photo by Slava Slavik Photography

8 out of 10 Peppers = Spicy

Pros: Delicious Indian food. (The food itself deserves a 9.) A tasting is included. It was all set up on time for our buffet with an appropriate presentation.
Cons: The owner was a bit cocky, probably because he has exclusive agreements with most of the major hotels that do Indian weddings in Atlanta (including ours, so we didn't have a choice). And he had a set idea of what food we should serve. We went with most, though not all, of his suggestions. They ran out of Ras Malai during our reception and were at least temporarily out of Chicken Tikka Masala.

PHOTOGRAPHER: Slava Slavik Photography

Photo by Slava Slavik Photography

10 out of 10 Peppers = Extra Spicy

Pros: Stunning photos -- amazing composition, terrific lighting, unique angles. (All of the photos on this post are from them--and we have over 1,000 more!) It's a husband and wife team, and both are so easy to work with and calm under pressure. Amazing work ethic -- they busted their butts to capture everything. They have a digital photos-only package, which is budget-friendly and great for the modern bride who wants to share photos digitally and doesn't care as much for physical prints (which she can get on her own with the provided high-res disc, if desired). Slava and Sara aren't Indian, but they've photographed a ton of Indian weddings so they understand what moments to capture. The turnaround time is quick. (We got our digital proofs while on our honeymoon.) They put a little "thank you" chocolate in the mail to us with our photo CD, but honestly they are the ones who deserve a thank you.
Cons: They don't have a videographer on staff, so you'll need to hire one separately.


MANDAP/DECORATOR: Mandap World

Photo by Slava Slavik Photography

8 out of 10 Peppers = Spicy

Pros: Our wedding was beautiful: the mandap, the Ganesh welcome table, the reception centerpieces. Just so lovely. And they got all of my selections right, based on what I'd picked during my showroom visit. Highly experienced. The showroom is amazing and has everything you could ever want for decor. They can contract out your garlands and bring them to the wedding for a fee. The fabrics and choices are stunning. Vasu is easy to work with.
Cons: The week of the wedding, a co-owner of the company, who we'd never spoken to before, called ME (the bride! as I was panicking about how I was going to pack all of my stuff and get on a plane!), and NOT my Dad, whose name was on the contract, to try to renege on part of the contract and get us to pay more for something that Vasu told us was included. It was appalling. I told her to call my Dad, but she refused. So Dad called her, and, eventually, she dropped the subject. Word to the wise: Set aside extra money for last-minute contract problems with Mandap World, as I've spoken to other Indian brides who this has happened to as well.

OFFICIANT: Shakti Mandir Priests

Photo by Slava Slavik Photography

6 out of 10 Peppers = Medium

Pros: To incorporate a Nepalese aspect into our wedding (since my husband is Nepalese), we went with Shakti Mandir, a temple in Morrow, Ga., because one of its assistant priests is Nepalese. The head priest, Sandeep Thakar (who was the primary officiant for our wedding; the Nepalese priest did some of the chants), is Gujarati, I believe. (I'm Bengali, but we didn't limit our search to Bengali priests.) They showed up on time for the wedding. They stuck to the time limits. Sandeep-ji was friendly, accommodating, offered some translations during the ceremony (one of our wedding party members also served as an MC, so she did most of the translations), and even made a few jokes. He's moderately experienced when it comes to being the head priest at Hindu weddings in the United States.
Cons: The temple got the dates mixed up for our in-person meeting to talk to Sandeep-ji, which we found out after I flew from L.A. to meet with him. Sandeep-ji speaks some English, but it's not perfect, causing a communication barrier since I don't speak Hindi or Gujarati. He took a long time to send over a list of what items we needed to bring to the wedding and to discuss the format. The temple still hasn't sent us our marriage certificate, even after repeated requests. (We got our official from the state quickly, so it's not a huge deal, but the temple has its own certificates too and it would be nice to have ours.)

DJ & MC: DJ Jaz 

Photo by Slava Slavik Photography

8 out of 10 Peppers = Spicy

Pros: His mix at our reception was amazing. I asked for a mix of upbeat Indian and American songs, and he made terrific choices. His voice works well for MCing. (Our friend co-MCed with him, and he was fine with that.) He specializes in Indian weddings and is highly experienced. He played all of our special moments songs at the correct times. He has suggestions for special moments songs (father-daughter dance, etc.) and a suggested timeline for the reception. His e-mail response time is good.
Cons: Getting him on the phone, even after we hired him, was difficult at times. He does all sorts of events (club nights, etc.) in addition to weddings, which is great for increasing his experience, but does make him difficult to get a hold of. He markets that he provides wedding planning/timeline services, but the only timeline help he gave us was a form that had a suggested order of events on it. (I got most of my timeline help from our photographers, from the venue, and from other recent brides.) He doesn't have a form for the MC announcements, so I wound up just e-mailing them to him, which worked fine. He messed up the order of at least one announcement and may have skipped another one, but it wasn't the end of the world. Nick was upset that DJ Jaz didn't play some of the requests he put in a few days before the wedding.

HORSE FOR BARAAT: Nottingham Shire & Carriage for Hire

Photography by Slava Slavik Photography

7 out of 10 Peppers = Spicy

Pros: The horse was beautifully adorned in red and gold garb. We choose the carriage option, which meant the driver was dressed up as well. They are experienced in Hindu weddings and were the most affordable horse option we found.
Cons: They were late to the baraat. In their defense, they actually weren't so much late as they were early but in front of the wrong building (I'm still not sure where they were, but it sounded like maybe in front of the convention center next door). That caused a minor panic. They called us the morning of as they couldn't figure out where they were supposed to be and eventually figured it out. It backed us up by maybe 15 minutes.

VIDEOGRAPHY: Passion PhotoVideo

6 out of 10 Peppers = Medium

Pros: The most affordable professional videographer we found. Farukh is Indian and is experienced with filming Indian weddings. Passion has options where you can hire a second videographer or a photographer. (We didn't and just got the most basic option.) The video quality, including the colors and lighting, was good. Clients can send a CD of songs to be dubbed into the video. He had a family emergency the day of our wedding and had to leave after our ceremony, but he got us a substitute videographer for our reception who did as good, if not better, of a job. Turnaround time was about 3 weeks.
Cons: He made us re-do our kiss because he missed it the first time. He aggravated Nick by making him walk reallly slowly during the baraat and into the ballroom so he could capture it. He doesn't include a custom edit (like the short 5 minute summary videos that many videographers do). It's not as well-edited as many of the more expensive videographers can do.

HAIR & MAKE-UP: Trio Makeup and Hair Design

Photo by Slava Slavik Photography

7 out of 10 Peppers = Spicy

Pros: They are strictly a mobile make-up and hair company, so they came to the hotel. A trial run for the bride is included. (I couldn't find that anywhere else.) Prices are reasonable. They are experienced and have a wide assortment of make-up (all colors, great for any skin tone) and hairstyles in their repertoire. They are open to changing things from the trial so that the bride is happy. (I changed my eyeliner color.) They are friendly. Courtesy of me and a few other brides, they are now experienced with Indian weddings.
Cons: I wish they'd told me they had another wedding to work immediately after mine because then I would have planned better. As it was, I felt bad because the hairstylist especially got annoyed because I'd asked her to stay and put my veil in, not realizing she had a set time when she had to leave. So when the Indian aunties were trying to put bracelets, bindhis, etc. on me, the stylist made some annoyed comments about did she have to stay to put my veil in. I didn't understand why until they told me they had booked another wedding on my day.

CAKE: Publix Bakery

Photo by Slava Slavik Photography

7 out of 10 Peppers = Spicy

Pros: If you're going the grocery store route, Publix is the way to go as they've made wedding cakes their niche. They are convenient and ubiquitous throughout the Southeast -- you can just walk in and order your cake whenever the bakery is open. If you call ahead of time (at least 5 days, I think), you can do a tasting. They will give you HUGE samples of 3 different cakes in a to-go box. Senior citizens get a discount on Wednesdays, so you can bet Dad ordered our cake that day to get a percent off! (The discount might only be available in Georgia.) They let us reduce the size of the cake (and thereby the price) a few weeks before the wedding, when we realized we didn't need one quite as large as we originally thought.
Cons: I'm not a big fan of Publix cakes, honestly. They're too dry (though everyone else seems to like them). You have to order and pay for your cake at the specific Publix store that will be making it in person. (They won't take a credit card over the phone for a wedding cake.) They don't have a huge selection of designs and no attractive cake toppers and especially no Indian or other ethnic cake toppers. (We opted to just put some strawberries on top of ours.)

SANGEET VENUE: Georgia International Convention Center 

Photography by Slava Slavik Photography

10 out of 10 Peppers = Extra Spicy

Pros: Convenient venue, right next to the Marriott Gateway and easily accessible via the SkyTrain from the airport. Pretty ballroom (we didn't even hire a decorator and I was happy with the default decor). Elisa, our catering/sales contact, was on top of things, detail-oriented, and friendly. Proof of the Pudding is the caterer, and, even without a tasting (not sure if one was included or not, but we didn't have time for it), we got many compliments on the Italian food we chose.
Cons: No outside catering allowed for almost all events, which means no Indian food. However, Elisa told us the venue DOES make exceptions for Indian wedding receptions. There are a lot of rooms available for rent, so your event will likely be one of many at any given time at the venue. Elisa was sometimes slow with e-mails.

PRINTED MATERIAL GRAPHIC DESIGN: MK Grafix

10 out of 10 Peppers = Extra Spicy

Pros: Experienced graphic designer with great skills (she did our save-the-date magnets, our RSVP cards, a draft of our invitation, and a poster for the sangeet), fast, friendly, flexible, easy to work with.
Cons: None -- yes, I may be biased because she is also a good friend, but if you want one-of-a-kind materials, I'd highly recommend Maria.

PRINTED MATERIAL ACTUAL PRINTING: Variety of Places
The ones worth mentioning are 48hourprint.com (magnets), 123Print.com (RSVP cards; we uploaded our own design by MK Grafix, as pictured), and we used office supply store tent cards (I think they were the Avery brand) printed at home for the reception place cards. I'd recommend all those sites. What I would NOT recommend is outsourcing the wedding invitation printing to a local India printer (via my relatives in India), which is what we did =P The paper stock and color were terrific, but, whoa, the typos. Not good for a professional writer and editor. Anyway, some other, probably better, options for Indian wedding invitations, where you get a proper proof before printing, include indianweddingcards.com and parekhcards.com.

MATCHING BRIDESMAID SARIS: Loveleen Sari Palace

6 out of 10 Peppers = Medium

Photo by Slava Slavik Photography

Pros: Best price (mine were $40/each, including having the fall sewn in; may even be better than prices in India!); had most choices of  identical saris for up to 10 people; there's a man who works there (I think he may be the owner) who's helpful and even told me my budget ($100 per sari) was too much for what I was looking for. (Other stores in Artesia tried to charge me at least $150 each for matching saris.)
Cons: Some of the pieces had to be brought in from the off-site warehouse, and I had to make multiple trips to get all of the pieces. The other employees are a mixed bag. One forgot to call me when the saris came back from having the falls sewn in. One muttered mean things (presumably in Hindi; I have no idea what she was saying, but I could tell it wasn't good!) when she had to re-fold the saris because I wanted to confirm the falls were sewn into the correct places. If I had to do it again, I'd probably order bridesmaid saris online. Sareez.com is one site that was recommended to me.

BRIDESMAID INDIAN-STYLED JEWELRY: BombayFashions.com

8 out of 10 Peppers = Spicy

Pros: Variety of Indian-styled (costume) jewelry at affordable prices. Have multiples of select items. Solid customer service and fast shipping.
Cons: The Kundan jewelry is all one-of-a-kind, so if you want that, you'll have to settle for similar, not identical sets. I originally couldn't figure out on my own which pieces were available in multiples, but when I called, the representative was able to tell me. The jewelry comes in bags, not boxes, so I had to buy the boxes separately (from Michaels).

Whew--that's it! If you have specific questions, just leave 'em in the comments section.

saagAHH is now on Facebook! Join us.