Inside Amalie and Karandeep's stunning pre-pandemic Punjabi wedding in New Delhi

By Nupur Sarvaiya3 June 2020

Glimpses from this cross-cultural couple's engagement party in Lake Como, multi-event wedding celebrations in the capital and a host of designer outfits including Sabyasachi and Raghavendra Rathore

An academic project yields a once-in-a-lifetime personal and professional opportunity for Copenhagen-born Amalie Brandi Mikkelsen—meeting her business partner and now-husband Karandeep Singh Chadha. “We got acquainted in New York while studying at the Parsons School of Art and Design. During our final exams, I had hardly slept so I mixed up my slides while giving a presentation. Karandeep noticed me, and was quick to help me get back on track with it. We started talking thereafter,” the 29-year-old says describing her first encounter with the New Delhi-based entrepreneur. After a flurry of get-togethers with mutual friends, the couple went on their first date at a restaurant in the Big Apple.

The proposal in Florence

The couple dated for a few months, before sharing a long distance relationship, bouncing between New Delhi and London. In November 2018, Brandi and Chadha planned a romantic getaway to Florence, Italy over a weekend. “We had spent some time apart so we wanted to enjoy each others’ company and the beautiful city,” she reveals. On the first evening, Chadha surprised her by organising a dinner for two at an exclusive wine cellar that was tastefully decorated with roses and candles. “I felt like my heart was going to beat right out of my chest. Karandeep just kept dragging it on, just calmly saying that he wanted to do something special, but it didn’t mean anything like that,” Brandi laughs over the romantic setting that gave her butterflies in the stomach. It wasn’t long before “he got on his knees. It was quite a funny moment as the waiters were so excited and kept signalling if they should bring in the champagne behind my back, but he still hadn’t popped the question and had to try to rush them off while still sitting calmly at the table with me.”

The engagement party in Lake Como

Soon after the proposal, the pair made their way to Como to meet Brandi’s parents to share the good news. “My family was so excited that they suggested having an engagement party at Lake Como for our side of friends and family,” the bride discloses about the first leg of wedding celebrations. “Amalie and her parents are not religious so they did not want a Danish wedding, but still wanted to have a part of the festivities to take place in Europe,” Chadha adds. The bride’s family organised a celebratory weekend in honour of the couple’s engagement with a cocktail party and a formal sit-down dinner. “The weekend had some entertainment, speeches and a lot of dancing,” the pair tell us.

The wedding planning

Brandi and Chadha finalised last week of February 2020 to tie the knot, and the groom’s hometown, New Delhi was chosen as the wedding destination. “We wanted to revel in our courtship for a few months before we began the wedding planning. So, we started the process in June 2019,” the bride says. “Since the wedding was in India, we knew it couldn’t have been small in scale. But Karandeep and I ensured that the nuptials felt intimate and personalised to our guests.” The couple was hands-on with research and zeroing down the themes and decor for each of the events.

The sangeet and cocktail party

February 20, 2020 officially kicked off the celebrations with a sangeet and cocktail night. The sprawling lawns at MorBagh played host to the 400 guests. “We picked this venue for it’s openness in terms of the glass house structure,” says Brandi about their thought-process. A Moroccan vibe set the scene as the space was dotted with lanterns, candles, flowers, antique perfume bottles and a dark palette running gamut. A large centrepiece light installation took centre stage at the venue.

The black-tie event called for a glamorous number, so the bride found a winner in a custom blush pink gown by British designer Nikeen Asar that featured an OTT train. She paired it with Manolo Blahnik heels. The groom-to-be chose a white Tom Ford tux for the soiree. “I wore Louis Vuitton dress shoes with the tuxedo and changed into Nike Air Jordan 1 Chicagos eventually,” reveals Chadha, a self-confessed sneakerhead. “The sangeet had a host of dance performances including our couple dance. Since friends and family from both sides included 60 percent of international people who hadn't been a part of an Indian wedding, thoroughly enjoyed the choreographed dancing,” Brandi chimes in.

The mehandi

The mehandi sundowner on the next day was at Chadha’s family farm in the capital. The couple went in a colourful direction for the vibrant occasion—think hand-block printed canopies, pompoms suspended from the trees and a bar fully decorated with marigolds and fruits. Brandi and Chadha twinned with their ensembles. “We wanted to add a bit of colour without being eclectic, so we both wore pink.” The bride picked an Anamika Khanna lehenga and the groom chose a Sabyasachi sherwani. Brandi accessorised her bridal look with a multi-layered necklace, a matha patti and earrings, all encrusted with uncut diamonds. Not just the women, but the men followed suit and “thoroughly enjoyed putting henna too,” remembers Brandi. “Karandeep was the designated DJ for a few hours. His love of Deep House music set off the mood for the evening.”

The dhol night

On February 22, the couple hosted a dhol night for a small crowd at the groom’s residence. “It was a high-energy event filled with drums, lots of dancing and just letting loose. It was just the right way to spend an intimate evening with friends and family the night before the wedding,” Brandi reminisces about one of her favourite parts of the wedding celebrations. The couple went with a monochromatic look here, with Brandi in a white Sabyasachi anarkali and Chadha in a black Raghavendra Rathore sherwani.

The Anand Karaj

As an ode to the groom’s Sikh background, the couple decided to get married with an Anand Karaj ceremony. A tipping to the bride’s European heritage was the decor that featured pristine white and pastel flowers, the makeshift large ivory canopy under which the ceremony took place and the acoustic band. “It was important for me to get married in white, but I also desired an Indian outfit. Blending the two cultures was the ivory Sabyasachi lehenga I opted for. Karandeep matched me in an ivory sherwani by the same designer.” A statement diamond choker layered with a long necklace, earrings and bangles got her vote for the big occasion. Post the nuptials, the couple had their first dance, a classical waltz on a Danish song—an age-old tradition from Denmark. Speaking of her most memorable moment, Brandi revealed, “I won’t forget when we first saw each other.” For Chadha, “when Amalie entered for the Anand Karaj and sat down was a very intimate and emotional moment.”