Inside Tarini Manchanda and Archit Chenoy’s intimate wedding celebrations in their hometown, New Delhi
Tarini Manchanda and Archit Chenoy’s love story is the result of breaking two cardinal dating rules—‘don’t date anyone at work’ and ‘don’t get back with your ex’. Manchanda first met her now-husband in 2013 while working at digital media agency RepIndia (of which Chenoy is now the CEO). They parted ways after dating for a few years, only to get back together just before the first lockdown in 2020. “We spent a lot of time together last year, which solidified our foundation as a couple. Moreover, the pandemic brought newfound perspective,” says Manchanda, who is the founder of a personalisation brand, The Initial Studio. The wedding was photographed by Dhanika Choksi Photography.
Tarini's bridal look was hyper-personalised. She wore a red chiffon sari, the fabric for which her mother purchased in Paris over a decade ago. It was sprinkled with mukaish work, hand done by artisans in Lucknow, and antique borders passed down by her great grandmother. The dupatta featured excerpts from letters her grandparents had written to her over the years, and with love stories she grew up on. This was embroidered by her karigars at The Initial Studio. “It was an outfit I could never found in a store, even had I tried.And that is the true definition of luxury for me.”
All her bridal jewellery was repurposed — her nani’s necklace restrung with bits from her mother’s jewellery, one kaleera that is a family heirloom, a ring from the groom’s grandmother, and an antique gold bangle gifted by her sister-in-law. After the ceremony, the bride changed into an ivory lehenga with metallic detailing, custom-made by her close friend Arjan Duggal under his mother’s label, Simar Duggal. Manchanda said yes to a Rohit Gandhi + Rahul Khanna emerald green mermaid gown for the reception, worn with emerald jewellery to match. “This was the only outfit I actually got to try on before the wedding. I bought it within five minutes of seeing it!” For her make-up, she turned to her friend Manan S. Sawhney for the bachelorette, and Shradha Luthra for the wedding events.“The brief was (as it always is for me) less is more.”
After an unexpected proposal (“I’m very hard to keep a secret from,but this was truly a surprise!” says the bride), the couple was left with the tall order of planning a wedding in the middle of a pandemic. “Archit is practical and wanted to go to court. I, on the other hand, wanted to celebrate the milestone in whatever way possible at this time. I didn’t like the idea of it being merely clerical,” reveals the bride. After much back-and-forth, the couple ultimately decided on one party and an intimate ceremony, choosing the dates based on when the bride’s sister and aunt could fly down from London.
This left them with a little over three weeks to pull off the November wedding. Manchanda’s mother turned planner, and worked with vendors they knew personally — Eventfully Yours Design for the décor, and CCi and Kwality Caterers for the food —in light of their tight timelines. But it wasn’t all grey skies without any silver lining. “Since it was so last-minute, we did not have time to overthink anything. This actually helped us to just go with the flow. There is beauty in spontaneity and going with what feels natural in the moment — that is how I live life, and it would have been unauthentic for the wedding to be any different,” says Manchanda.
Tarini Manchanda childhood home turned into the altar for the 60-people wedding. The bride walked in to the song What is Love by Ashanti and Fat Joe Ja Rule (“much to the pandit’s horror!” she laughs), and her siblings and best friends walked her down the “aisle” aka her living room. “I had never thought aboutthe kind of bride I’d be, so I just decided to be myself. I picked traditions that meant something to me, and was fortunate enough to drop the ones that I did not resonate with.I am not one for heavy mehendi, chudda, sindoor or a mangalsutra, so we did away with those.”
