In pictures: Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh’s multicultural wedding in Lake Como, Italy

“The way Ranveer held my hand on the day we got married, November 14, was different from the way he used to hold it earlier. Or maybe it was just a switch in my head. There’s a sense of responsibility, which I can’t explain,” Deepika Padukone once revealed in an interview, on the emotions on the day of her wedding to Ranveer Singh. Even today, the power couple’s 2018 nuptials held at the Villa del Balbianello in Lake Como, Italy remain as one of the most double-tapped ‘I dos’. Here, we relive their love trajectory that began on a Bollywood film set and was followed by a secret engagement and two traditional ceremonies. 

Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone's love story

Singh first met Padukone at the Zee Cine Awards in Macau, back in 2012. When quizzed by a fan if he remembered what she was wearing (a silver gown), he quickly responded, “How can one possibly forget the sight?” The duo got better acquainted on the sets of Goliyon ki Rasleela… Ramleela a year later, and sparks flew. The budding romance was kept under wraps at the time, but Singh couldn't resist spilling the beans recently, on the movie's first anniversary. “Don't we look great together?” he raved in an Instagram throwback to the making of the period drama.

The secret engagement

The two never made their relationship public, but over the years they checked off several couple-y milestones with PDA and outings together. According to Deepika Padukone, the couple never broke-up in their six-year long relationship. “But now when I look back, six months into it I was pretty much emotionally invested in us. After that it was: ‘when do we get married?’ I was never unsure about him,” she revealed. Padukone went on the add the couple got engaged in 2014. “No one knows this. Only his parents and my parents and our respective sisters knew about it.”

The wedding planning

The couple decided to get married after Padmaavat, which was set to release in 2018. “We knew it was going to happen, it was just a matter of time. When the film was released, it just felt correct,” Padukone said. To get started, the pair enlisted the help of wedding planner Vandana Mohan of The Wedding Design Company to plan the two-day extravaganza. From making guests cover their mobile phone cameras with stickers to commissioning patrolling powerboats to chase away paparazzi, no stone was left unturned to keep their two weddings a private affair. The venue, Villa del Balbianello in Lake Como, is a beautiful property that served as a monastery more than seven centuries ago. It is surrounded by its terraced gardens, and features exquisite glass paintings and artefacts inside.

The bachelorette party in Orlando

Instead of a predictable bachelorette, Deepika Padukone hosted hers in Florida at different theme parks. “We were in Orlando for a week and the aim was to get on the scariest roller coasters, to feel that rush of adrenaline, like you're flying. We went on the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit [at Universal Studios], which Ellen DeGeneres posted about a while back. And the VR Avatar rides [at Disney's Animal Kingdom], for which we had to stand in line for two-and-a-half to three hours, were phenomenal,” she disclosed in an interview. “The bachelors crashed my bachelorette! Eventually, it became one big party with all our friends,” she added.

The mehandi

First in line for Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh’s wedding celebration was a vibrant alfresco mehandi ceremony on November 13, 2018. As magical as the pictures looked, a day prior, it was raining in Italy. “But on the morning of November 13, when I was getting my mehandi done the sun came out. Suddenly, it was a clear blue sky,” the bride remembers about how everything fell in place. And her henna design was as lavish as her celebrations—it went all the way up to her elbows, and featured everything from paisleys, lotuses, peacocks and lace detailing, among other beautiful intricacies. One of the sweetest details was the fact that the groom got 'Deepika' written on his right palm with henna.

For the occasion, the couple coordinated their looks with Sabyasachi kurta sets in shades of red and blush pink. Singh picked a printed angarkha layered with a maroon jacket, whereas Padukone went with an embellished kurta set, which she wore with a matching net dupatta and a deep red shawl. The bride paired her romantic ensemble with oversized earrings and a panchlada haar.

The sangeet 

Prior to their intimate wedding, the couple also hosted a sangeet party at Casta Diva, a luxury resort on the east side of Lake Como, in the pretty commune of Blevio. It seemed like quite a bash as the playlist included several Punjabi and Bollywood tracks. The evening also saw guests and the couple-to-be shaking their leg to the dhol, along with live vocals by singer Harshdeep Kaur along with musicians Sanjoy Das, Bobby Pathak, and Firoz Khan.

The Konkani wedding ceremony

From their wedding wardrobe to the rituals, Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh decidedly honoured both their distinct cultures for their union. The guests made their way on a boat to the venue for the Konkani ceremony on November 14—a fitting nod to Deepika Padukone’s south Indian roots. The nuptials went on for more than five hours, against a backdrop of the gorgeous lake. The venue was decked in thousands of white flowers flown in from Florence. In fact, the theme even extended to the wedding party’s dress code, who all opted for white ensembles for the special occasion.

As a part of the Konkani rituals, the nuptials included a tikka ceremony after the varmala, which is considered auspicious and signifies the start of newlyweds’ journey together. Like in most Hindu cultures, the couple also shared their first meal together, in their case it was served on banana leaves. This was followed by the bride and groom grinding black gram. The custom is practised to welcome the bride into the kitchen of her new household, and the groom partakes as a promise to take good care of his wife and help her with household responsibilities.

The afternoon also included post-wedding games, including ‘who finds the ring first’, where the bride and groom douse their bands in a bowl filled with milk and rose petals. Speaking of her most memorable moment, Padukone revealed it was her kanyadaan performed by her mother, Ujjala Padukone.

The Sindhi wedding ceremony

A meaningful ode to Singh’s Sindhi background was the Anand Karaj held on November 15, 2018. The series of self-portraits released by the actors show the couple much in love. Deepika Padukone’s bridal march was richly nuanced with a phoolon ki chaadar, held not by just her brothers, but her close girlfriends too. In keeping with the Sikh traditions, the ceremony included an ardaas (the final prayer of the ceremony) and four pheras. The wedding was said to have been followed by a grand lunch at the villa, with several cuisines for the guests to relish, including a medley of desserts baked by chefs flown in from Switzerland. 

“Everything was perfect. After the Anand Karaj ceremony was over, there was one boat to take Ranveer and me back to the hotel from the venue. The sun was setting… it was the first time after our marriage that we were alone. We listened to our favourite song on full volume and literally rode into the sunset,” remembers the bride of her fondest memory.

The wedding wardrobe

In keeping with the bride’s south Indian heritage was her Kanjeevaram wedding sari for the Konkani wedding. Deepika Padukone picked a brocade silk Kanjeevaram sari from Advaya by The House of Angadi, which was crafted using pure zari threads, and took approximately 45 days to complete. The six-yard had the Gandaberunda leitmotifs running all over it. “The Gandaberunda, a mythical two-headed bird seen on the orange sari, is symbolic of Deepika’s home state of Karnataka. The bird is part of Indian legend and folklore and represents prosperity and wisdom,” K Radharaman behind the Bengaluru boutique revealed to us. Bringing convention to her timeless weave was her temple jewellery. She layered a statement choker with a Guttapusalu necklace along with jhumkas, a stack of kadas, rings, and an elaborate matha patti. The actor’s makeup, in contrast, was unconventional. Her long-time makeup artist Sandhya Shekar eschewed dewy, rosy-cheeked, highlighter-heavy skin for a strong matte look with a smoky eye and taupe lip. The groom wore a pared-down white silk kurta.

For the Sindhi wedding ceremony, Padukone chose a creation by her favourite couturier, Sabyasachi Mukherjee. Her pick: a sindoori red and gold lehenga. Her dupatta’s borders bore the incantation: ‘Sada Saubhagyavati Bhava’ (which roughly translates to ‘may you always stay married’) in Devnagri script. Speaking of the design process, Mukherjee told us in an exclusive interview, “Deepika wanted to wear something which was very traditional. Coming from a south Indian family, she desired staying true to her side of the family, and also wanted Ranveer to have his identity as well. In both cases, it was quite a marriage of equals. Deepika was very specific that she knew exactly what she wanted to wear, she said ‘I am a traditional girl, I like fashion, I like flirting with it but this is one day that’s going to stay with me for the rest of my life, I want it to be cultural, timeless’.” And Singh complemented her in a vermillion brocade sherwani, also by designer Sabyasachi.

Scroll through to check out Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh's wedding album

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