blissful chat: Amy and Manish's Wedding, a Bollywood Chic Supper Club

Guest Writer: Travis-Lee Moore, CPCE, The Functions Event Group

In the months leading up to September 28^th, City Club and I had the pleasure of working with a truly amazing couple – Amy Chappell and Manish Kotecha. Manish is a partner at Radiology Associates of Tarrant County and Amy, after having a great career as a professional country singer in Nashville, culminating in a stint on Nashville Star, is a new student in the School of Nursing at TCU. They’ve known each other since they were three, worked at Dairy Queen together in high school and some years later Manish proposed using an Oreo Cookie Blizzard as the presentation vehicle for the ring. The blending of their Christian and Hindu family’s cultures and customs made for a brilliant demonstration of the beauty of interfaith proceedings and provided a wonderful colorful, eclectic palette of elements with which to design.

Monday’s floral delivery included over 5,000 stems of red and orange organics – fragrant gardenias, cherry love and orange unique roses, deep red cocks comb, mango calla lilies, ginger blossoms, golden orchids, dahlias and tons of exotic greens to be woven into yards and yards of lush garlands for use on the Mandap.

Starting with a casual, whimsical Mendi Party on Thursday, Mehnaz Ranmal arrived early in the day to apply Amy’s henna. Then, as the guests began to arrive from all manner of sophisticated destinations – London, India, of course from all over the US – they stopped at Amy and Manish’s wonderful downtown Fort Worth loft apartment in the Sanger Lofts Building for a casual reunion, glass of wine and to also have their own henna applied if they chose.

Friday was a whirlwind of deliveries to the Club and ensuring that the Hindu ceremony was set for the next day, the items for the turn of the room for the reception staged in an adjacent piece of the ballroom and pulling together all of the personal flowers. Amy, Manish and entourage arrived for rehearsal and instruction about the next days activities and were then off to Joe T. Garcias for some great Mexican and margaritas!

Saturday, game day, the Club’s set is finished. The Oak Room is set for the Christian ceremony making use of the gorgeous glass paneled screens that reside there. Ready rooms are standing by for hair, make up touch up, suit changes and the whirl wind of activity that will ensue when attire is changed between the two ceremonies.

Manish is met by a crowd of wedding goers under the portacachet at the Worthington Hotel, where he climbs onto a white steed. The Barrat Processional is lead by a Bentley blaring hip Indian tunes, followed by Jolly Singh the BEST dohl player, the crowd of attendees and finished with a grinning Manish waving to the crowd and gaining revelers as they process down 2^nd street.

The remainder of the guests are waiting at the Club and Amy can see the whole scene from her changing room four stories up. Guests and bridal party make their way to the Hindu ceremony upstairs which was a moving commitment ceremony including Jaimala - Exchange of Garlands, Vivah Havan - Lighting of the Sacred Fire, Mangal Phera - Circling the Sacred Fire to symbolize commitment to respect for each other, caring for each other, patience for each other, honesty and faithfulness to each other, building a happy and strong family together, traveling the journey of life together with harmony and love and remaining lifelong friends.

After the couple is showered with petals by their parents, guests adjourned to the Terrace Lounge for wine and champagne while the bridal party, after a few quick photos at the altar, rushes off to make the change from their traditional Hindu garb to beautiful Christian attire and the entire bridal party is transformed and back for the Christian ceremony in the Oak Room within forty five minutes.

While all of this is going on, the ballroom is being changed from ‘gorgeous Hindu ceremony’ to ‘amazing fusion supper club’ – no small task, but with the continued, never-ending energy they’d already brought to every other preparation, the team including four floral designers, two production assistants, M&M Staff, City Club Service and Culinary staffs, myself and Ricardo – the reset is completed with minutes to spare and with spectacular results. Amy and Manish spend a few minutes alone in the gorgeously appointed ballroom before guests are welcomed back into the Bollywood chic, supper club setting and are met with spicy specialty drinks and a great collection of passed hors d’oeuvres including Shots Of Mulligatawny and Spoons Of Shrimp Tikka On Mango Chutney. The bridal party is presented to the room followed by an amazing Bollywood dance troupe, Blue Flame, performing for the crowd and dinner is served by the bite. A series of specialty stations scattered throughout the room offer miniature entrees assembled by efficient culinarians who’s orchestrations are over seen by Chef Gilbert’s genius.

After toasts are made and the stunning, orange spice wedding cake by Delicious Cakes was cut and served, it seemed like fifteen waiters filed out of the kitchen with silver trays of Oreo Cookie Blizzards tagged with “Marry Me!” and toy engagement rings. Amy snuck away and changed back into that beautiful lehenga for the rest of the evening. Limo Zilla arrived and guests showered our couple with gold mylar streamers as they ran for the getaway.