Wedding | Keerti & Yoann

Tell us a little about yourselves!

Yoann is a French-English videographer and documentary maker based in Paris, and is originally from the seaside town of Pordic, which is in Brittany in France. He is creative, spontaneous, an amazing surfer and the most fun uncle to his 3 nephews and a niece. We met in Paris in the end of 2024 as I was looking for a creative to build inspiring marketing videos for the niche fragrance brand that I was working with at the time, with Estee Lauder.

In 2022, I moved to Paris from India, where I was born and raised all my life in New Delhi. When Yoann and I met, we were at a point where both of us had been single for a few years and had reached a point where we were keen on finding actual friendship before a ‘relationship’. After years of no movement in our love lives, we felt like our fondness grew fast and strong as we were simply such good friends to begin with. I loved making jokes and he loved laughing at them! I am super organised and planned and he is always going with the flow. But our family values and the need to be grounded in a crazy world somehow connected us both on a deeper level.

Why did you decide to get married where you did?

Our lack of foresight! When Yoann proposed earlier in the year, we thought it would be a great idea to get married when my parents were visiting us around Christmas time in Paris a few months later. Unfortunately, I had gone single for so long that I had long abandoned every Indian girl’s dream of a big fat Indian wedding or Pinterest versions of an Italian getaway. Our common vision was to have both our families with us and Paris seemed like the easiest place to organise a wedding within 3-4 months.

Once that decision was made, everything else somehow had to work itself out, I guess. Both of us knew quickly that art-deco, fancy, bourgeois Paris was… not us. Beautiful, yes. Our story? Not quite. We also found the idea of a traditional wedding being setup being all about us deeply awkward (two weird ones, one spotlight—no thank you). So we leaned into the one theme that brought us joy: dancing and genuinely enjoying the day with the very small circle of people we love.

How many guests did you have?

There was a lot of back-and-forth about keeping it to just our “closest few,” but I’m so glad we stuck to our guns. The wedding was planned so late that invites went out barely two months in advance, which honestly made it impossible—and unfair—to ask people to drop everything and fly across the world.

Yoann is half French, half English, my family lives in the US, and then there’s India… asking people to magically appear across the world on short notice felt wildly optimistic at best.

We had a total of 65 guests in Paris. We remembered talking to each one of them.

What was your budget?

We planned 3 events (an Indian ceremony the day before, a post signing cocktail afternoon called ‘Vin d’honneur’ in French and a dinner party). Our initial budget was EUR 15k, but we managed everything in around EUR 20k.

Tell us about your outfits.

This part was the easiest considering I was making 100% of the decisions on this front. The guiding idea was simple: buy outfits we’d wear again for the rest of our lives. No one-hit wonders.

For Yoann, (and sometimes for men in general) this was straightforward—a classic kurta pyjama for the Indian ceremony and a suit for the reception. For me though, even easier, because I wanted to wear a selection of traditional hand-embroidered sarees that I had been collecting over the years.

For the civil wedding, I went with the first saree I ever saw in my life. I was in love with my mother’s wedding saree since I was a child. It’s a stunning Benarasi with silver thread work. Deep burgundy is such a Parisian colour for winter mornings. When you live far from home, small details like this start to feel enormous. I didn’t want anything new. I wanted to feel like my grandmother dressed me. She had gifted this saree to my mother, and her mother—my great-grandmother—blessed me through the jewellery (a Kundan necklace) I wore to the evening reception, pieces from 1950s. My mum wore it in 1985 for her wedding, and I wore it in 2025.

For the dinner party, I bought a gorgeous gharara from a Pakistani designer that I had dreamt of for years, but I asked them to keep the length regular rather than exaggerated. (A traditional gharara has a trail like western wedding dresses do sometimes) Future plans? Gharara pants with oversized sheer shirts, and the tunic worn as a dress.

I was determined not to end up with a ceremonial ensemble quietly collecting dust in my closet. Clothes are meant to be worn, enjoyed, and complimented—especially in Paris, where people genuinely appreciate beautiful craft.

What was the most important aspect for you, in terms of planning your wedding?

Our planning philosophy was to treat it like a joint birthday party. We picked things we both loved, and even though traditional wedding venues would have made life much easier in Paris, we went with an experimental hotel courtyard instead. The “birthday” mindset kept everything personal and real—and far away from the idea of playing royalty for a day.

We wanted to be in the outdoors under the stars for the wedding and to our great luck- this beautiful hotel courtyard had a heated glass house inspired setting, with ferry lights and cosy seating. There was a bougie speakeasy style all-red cocktail bar alongside for people to get intimate and take photos. The bathrooms were selfie friendly for my girlfriends. We were kicked.

Yoann got oysters, I got a Bollywood/ bhangra inspired DJ playlist. His family planned a traditional Brittany dance that got everyone in a circle, my family brought typical Indian wedding favours.

Were there any elements that were important for you to incorporate?

It was important to us that we didn’t create a lot of waste as a part of the wedding celebrations and decorations. We focused on finding venues that were beautiful in their regular setup and invested in decorations which could be kept forever.

Any tips for couples getting married?

I do think people put far too much pressure on weddings, sometimes at the cost of their own happiness. I’ll admit, the time crunch got to me for a few weeks. We reminded ourselves that if there’s good food and good alcohol, your guests are happy.

Given how short our planning journey was, I took a chapter out of my experience as an ex-PR professional- I built a joint Powerpoint deck that carried all the details of our event and regularly shared that with our friends and family on the wedding planning task force. This was lifesaving. We had much less friction during our conversations with family to ensure our vision survived all the discussions.

What followed was incredible. His parents, my parents, and our closest friends jumped in and somehow made everything happen—and then some.

My best friend Anjali brought decor all the way from India and set up the entire Indian ceremony. His best friend Tina organised the vin d’honneur— with a friend who does events for Balenciaga! My mother prepared personalised gifts for every guest. His mother hand-picked pebbles from the beach near their home and painted them herself for our table decorations. Watching everyone work so hard, with so much love, to make this wedding happen was deeply moving.

For us, the wedding wasn’t about perfection—it was a genuine tribute to the people in our lives. And because we were so grateful for their presence, the joy in the room felt effortless.

Are there any vendors that you would like to tell us a little more about?

I liked calling them wonder women.

First, our event planner, Catherine at the Hotel Grands Boulevards Experimental was like a Californian surfer over all the waves I sent her way -- Imagine a bride with no time but who wants to go over all details thrice over! She reinvented her event food menu multiple times, reworked the bar ideas with us so patiently, and even gave us space when we were having those annoying planning debates at the venue. A big shout out to her!

Second, our wedding photographer, Marie Malandain. Every single photographer in Paris was doing the standard ‘kissing infront of the Eiffel tower’ reference and I was losing my mind thinking I will never find a photographer who takes photos of us just as is. Marie’s IG profile was a dream come true on that front. And finally, in her approach on the day, she was thoughtful, resourceful and really captured all the references we had shortlisted for her. We spent no time asking her for certain images and moments -- she had captured them all.

Photographer: Marie Malandain @MarieMalandainPhotography | Planning: (Dinner Party) Hôtel Grands Boulevards Experimental @grandsboulevardsexperimental | Flora: Saison for Bridal & Civil Wedding Flowers @saisongalerie / Hotel Grand Experimental for Event @grandsboulevardsexperimental | Videographer: Why So Serious Productions @whysoseriousprod | Ceremony Location: City Court | Reception Location: Hotel Grands Boulevards Experimental  @grandsboulevardsexperimental | Ceremony Space: Couple's home (Indian wedding rituals) | HMUA: Kelly Makeup Paris @kellymakeup paris | Catering & Beverages: Grands Boulevards Hotel Experimental | Cake: Notre Patisserie @notre

patisserie | DJ: Roman Couder | Saree Draping: @makeupwithanjouu | Engagement Ring: Salmon Paris 

@maison.salmon | Wedding Rings: Mehrasons in India | Other Jewellery: Bride's mothers jewelry, handmade in India | Wedding Party Attire: Mohsin Naveed Ranjha  @mohsin.naveed.ranjha