“Over the years, it’s become clear that luxury does not equal costs. True luxury is about guest experiences,” says Dhillon-Bains. But planning big, fat weddings wasn’t always her main gig. Born in Africa, schooled in India, and based in the United States for the last three decades, the entrepreneur started her career in healthcare consulting. “I wanted to be a good Indian daughter, so for many years I worked a full-time job designing healthcare forms for the state of California, all while pursuing my passion of running a wedding planning company,” she shares.
It was only after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 that the founder shifted her sole focus to weddings and lo and behold, Anaïs has won Over The Moon’s ‘Top Planner’ title for three consecutive years since 2023. Today, 20 years into the business, the planner for the wildly wealthy reveals the most outrageous, bizarre, and consequently, most memorable events that she has worked on. Get your wads of cash ready, stick that kaala tika on and pray that one day, she could be bringing your biggest, fattest wedding dreams to life too.
The big ticket spend you never saw coming…
“We were planning a Sikh destination wedding in Hawaii and the Baba ji at the couple’s gurudwara said the Guru Granth Sahib cannot travel commercially. The bride and groom were so dedicated to not only having the wedding outside California but also ensuring that the rituals are carried out in a sacred way, that they actually chartered a private plane only to fly the scripture from California to Hawaii.”
A peculiar decor request that stays with you…
“After a wedding shopping trip in India, a bride brought back 27 solid gold beads. She was very specific about the number—that’s why I still remember it. She wanted us to hang the gold beads from ribbons on her mandap. And she wanted every one of them back of course, because she also wanted to make them into buttons for the groom’s sherwani later. It was such a silly request—we had to have someone stationed at the set up always watching without ever letting the florist know that real gold beads were being used as decor.”
The wedding party favour that you will never forget…
“A groom’s mother was very clear that she wanted to give back to the craft community in India with their giveaways so we decided to gift everyone pure, handwoven pashmina shawls. She even designed a pattern that was hand-embroidered on each shawl using traditional Kashmiri techniques. It was really nice to see that thought come together to support the financial health of weavers while giving something so unique to guests here in the Bay Area.”
One thing only an NRI wedding planner would know…
“Okay so in India, people usually hand over the envelope of cash to the couple or their family directly at a wedding. But in the States, there’s usually a gift box in which people drop the envelopes. There’s been a lot of stories coming out of Canada of someone walking into the hotel, pretending to be a guest and walking out with the entire box of money without anyone noticing. No one knows if it’s actually happened—it’s like an urban myth—but this has spread from Toronto to California. Now, families get oddly panicked about this, so we’ve developed a whole process where multiple people are always watching and managing the gift box without bringing in overt security. I can’t give the secrets away but trust me, it’s a whole thing.”
The most outrageous request you have ever received…
“We had a bride who wanted to hire an artist to come into her bridal suite on the night of the wedding and paint an intimate portrait of the couple. Obviously, she didn’t want to have a conversation about this with her Indian parents. But since it required an outrageous budget, a chat was needed for approvals. I was in the awkward place of mediating this request and bringing in a painter for their first night.”
A wedding decor feat you are proudest of…
“For a 700-person wedding at a golf club in Stockton, California, we custom built an entire structure on a sloping piece of land. The idea was to recreate the couple’s trips to Dubai, and the Armani Hotel was the inspiration for the facade. Imagine a 24,000 sq ft lawn converted into a large open plan structure with luxurious chandeliers for one night only. I will never forget the look on people’s faces when they walked in, each guest felt like a VIP that night. We got emails and messages from Canada, Australia, and India telling us how much they loved it.”
The one time you refused to be a yes man…
“I’ve had so many theatrical requests. One time, the groom’s father was insistent that he and the groom’s two brothers should also be on horses in the baraat. Just imagine four horses—no one would know who was actually getting married. After a lot of back and forth, I managed to pull them away from the idea. There’s just no way we could upstage the groom.”
