KYNAH bride, Anina had her wedding post poned by Covid, so she planed a gorgeous intimate "minimony." She looked stunning in the Flora Dress which was the perfect understated yet stylish. The asymmetric cut, cold-shoulder and the embellishments give this dress a unique look perfect for a backyard wedding!
If you had to choose one moment from your wedding, what would it be?
My husband is a talented vocalist (he was the lead singer of a heavy metal band in another life!), and a couple times throughout the course of our relationship, I've told him how much I love the song "River" by Leon Bridges -- and that I wanted him to learn it. I never thought he'd really do it, but on the night of our wedding, he surprised me by singing a beautiful, slightly modified version of the song that he'd personalized for us. Surrounded by (almost) all of the people nearest and dearest to us, it was a super sweet moment that quite literally brought tears to my eyes.
Why did you choose the Flora Dress?
I had originally ordered the Flora Dress for my bridal shower, which was supposed to happen in May 2020. After COVID hit, we made the decision to postpone our formal wedding reception from June 2020 to July 2021 - and as a result, we also rescheduled all the pre-wedding events, including the bridal shower, to 2021. Over the summer, we made a somewhat last-minute decision to get legally married in 2020 and hold a "minimony" in my parents' backyard in September. With less than a month to plan, and having not been able to wear the KYNAH Flora Dress for my shower, I knew it was the perfect dress for the occasion.The dress is effortless, elegant and ethereal all at the same time. Though I absolutely love Indian bridal-wear, I've also always dreamt of wearing a classic white dress (I'll be wearing traditional Indian garb at the formal festivities later this year), so this 'bonus' wedding gave me that chance. The fact that the Flora outfit has an Indo-Western look made it even more perfect because it felt representative of both my culture and my husband's (he is a Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican). The dress has an understated elegance that makes it so unique - from the asymmetric cut to the beautiful pearl and glass bead embellishment at the neckline. KYNAH pieces are all so modern, gorgeous and one-of-a-kind (fun fact: I wore the KYNAH Ophelia Kaftan for my engagement party, so I was already a big fan of the brand). Not only is everything super high-quality, but the best part is most of the pieces are made-to-order, so you can customize colors and sizes -- it's hard to find that with a lot of Indian clothing brands.
What was the inspiration behind your wedding theme/aesthetic?
I was inspired by a backyard, 'garden chic' type of aesthetic. My parents' deck, where we were holding the ceremony, is surrounded by a lot of lush greenery, so I wanted to play that up a lot through the decor. I wanted the day to feel very romantic and whimsical - and because it was a Bengali/Boriqua wedding, I also wanted it to be very vibrant and colorful. Bistro lights, dozens of candles, bright summer florals, soft ivory linens and shimmering gold accents helped bring that vibe to life. The end result was kind of like Father of the Bride meets Secret Garden meets Hum Aapke Hain Kaun.
If you could have invited one celebrity to your wedding, who would it have been?
Maybe Adele. She has a beautiful voice (I would've loved to have her sing some of our favorite love songs), and, in general, she seems like she'd be a fun wedding guest.
Did you enjoy planning your wedding?
I work in PR and though I'm on the media side of things, I've been involved in the planning and execution of a bunch of small and large scale events over the years - so I genuinely did enjoy planning our micro-wedding. Of course, there were tons of stressful moments - wedding planning in the midst of a global pandemic is no walk in the park. Considering everyone's health and safety was our biggest priority. On top of that, not only was I still dealing with shifting things around for the big, formal wedding being rescheduled to 2021, but as mentioned earlier, we made a very last-minute decision to go forward with a 'minimony' in 2020, so I basically had one month to plan everything. That said, planning for an intimate 35-person wedding is definitely easier than planning for a 300+ formal wedding.
It was very much a DIY, family affair in a lot of ways. I scoured dozens of websites to order all the flatware, cutlery, glasses, linens, candles and more. We had to call 10+ tenting companies because everyone was renting tents for outdoor events at the time. The morning of the wedding, I was hand painting escort cards for seating arrangements while my mom folded napkins into elaborate designs and my sister-in-law baked and piped gorgeous cupcakes. The chaos added to the fun - it's definitely something I'll always remember. For certain details that were especially important to me - like florals, invitations and photography - we turned to an incredible team of vendors. One of the really nice things about the micro-wedding was being able to work with some totally new vendors. For example, we had a tough time choosing between all the wonderful florists out there for our formal wedding, and while we absolutely love the team we'll be working with in 2021, it was so fun to work with Twisted Willow Florals this time around. Our micromony photographers, Peaberry Photography, were referred to us by another photographer and we couldn't have been happier being introduced to them - and we can't wait to work with them again for some of our pre-wedding events in 2021.
The other really fun part of planning this micro-wedding was being able to do things very differently than what we have planned for the big celebration in July 2021. There were so many decor styles and aesthetics I had a tough time choosing between for the formal wedding, so the micro-wedding gave me the chance to go in a totally different direction and experiment with some of those other styles I'd originally been considering. For example, this time around we opted for much bolder, brighter florals than what we have planned for our 2021 festivities. For our custom invitations, we went with much softer details for the micro-wedding than the other suite our amazing invite designer, Design by Laney, created for 2021.
Finally, the absolute best part was being able to celebrate our love with such a close community of friends and family. Because it was such a small affair, we were able to infuse some really sweet personal touches throughout: my brother officiated the ceremony, my cousin sang one of our favorite songs, one of my friends captured the wedding video for us, my friend's husband curated the playlist, etc. While there were definitely a lot of family and friends who we missed, it was an enchanting, unforgettable day that brought us so much joy. And now I get to choose a different KYNAH dress for the bridal shower later this year!
Photography: Peaberry Photography (@peaberryphoto)
Florals: Twisted Willow Florals (@twistedwillowflowers)
Invitations: Design by Laney (@designbylaney)
Welcome Sign: Birch Hill Designs (@birchhilldesigns)
Shoes: Valentino (@maisonvalentino)
Make Up: Sally Duvall (@sallyduvallmakeup)
Hair: Tease Salon (@tease.salon)
Catering: Minar (@minarnyc)
KYNAH is a bridal company based in Los Angeles. All of our clothes are made with love, in India. For our full collection, go to www.shopkynah.com.
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Read more about Anina's wedding featured on brides.com here.
