An Istanbul wedding where the baraat arrived by yacht

Every great modern love story has a chaos test—the trip where everything goes wrong and you find out if you’re dating for the time being or a future spouse. For Sagiri Gidwani and Ankur Patel, that test arrived early: a first holiday to Antigua that featured a flat tyre, torrential rainstorms, and the sudden realisation that they were the only brown, under-65 guests at their hotel. “It was a series of unfortunate events,” Sagiri laughs. “We were just laughing the entire time,” Ankur adds.

That ability to find humour in the unplanned would become a defining theme of their relationship—from Omicron-era puppy play dates with their mini Bernedoodle in Central Park to wine trips through Piedmont, a friend-moon in Tuscany, and eventually, a rain-soaked proposal at a château in the south of France.

So, when it came to planning their wedding, the New York-based couple took a different approach: to plan meticulously and celebrate freely. The result? A four-day destination wedding in Istanbul featuring a yacht baraat, a Moroccan-oasis-inspired sangeet, and a palace reception that ended at 5 am. Below, they take The Nod through it all.

Planning the proposal

Ankur: I figured out the ring situation in the fall with help from her sisters. I even made a full spreadsheet mapping out how the day would unfold.

Sagiri: I was in Milan for work and we were planning this trip to the south of France. But Ankur kind of framed it as his birthday trip, so I genuinely thought we were celebrating him.

Ankur: We were at the Hôtel Château de La Chèvre d’Or and I really wanted to propose in their sculpture garden. But on that day, it kept pouring. The hotel is kind of built into this cliff, so the cobblestones and staircases get very slippery when it rains.

Sagiri: We got ready for dinner and I was wearing heels. And he was like, “Well, why don’t we go for a walk in the garden?” I suggested we just sit by the bar and head straight to dinner instead. But he was insistent. The hotel itself is like a maze, so we were wandering around not entirely sure where we were going.

Ankur: I was holding an umbrella and texting the photographer on the side because she set up in a different location and I was freaking out. We finally got to a covered area overlooking the sea. I couldn't see the photographer anywhere, but I decided to go for it, so I just got down on one knee.

Sagiri: Then I saw two people running toward us with an umbrella and I was so confused. I realised it was the photographer and assistant sprinting up to try to catch us in the moment.

Ankur: It was just hilarious. The rain stopped and the clouds opened up literally five minutes later. It didn’t go according to plan, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Planning the wedding

Ankur: Originally, our moms had gone to Rajasthan to scope out venues there. We wanted a place that also felt like us.

Sagiri: We’re both Indian and we’ve spent summers there growing up. But when we saw our venue in Istanbul, we loved its heritage yet modern feel, and it allowed us to host the types of events we envisioned. Istanbul felt like the perfect city—vibrant, beautiful and centrally located for our guests.

The best part about the planning process is that we’re both very type A; we both love a spreadsheet and need an agenda for every meeting. Both Ankur and I were very involved and took ownership of certain elements of the planning. Ankur was handling music and other logistics. Design and decor are very important to me, so I took charge of that aspect. It all took about 10 months of planning.

Ankur: Every Sunday was spent on calls with the wedding planner and our parents and working out details. I remember my friends would ask me, why are you gone every Sunday? How hard can this be? But someone told me it’s the one time in your life where you’re going to have all your friends and family in one place, so make sure you’re invested in it.

The arrival in Istanbul

Sagiri: The wedding started with the welcome dinner at Madhu’s [a restaurant at Swissôtel The Bosphorus] and the night was a lot longer than we anticipated.

Ankur: It went on till 3 am. We had a Darbuka performer after dinner,  which instantly got everyone on the dance floor. The next day was free for our guests to explore Istanbul during the day. In the evening, our guests were picked up by boat and sailed over to the Mandarin Oriental, where we had our sangeet on the terrace.

Sagiri: The decor was inspired by a Moroccan oasis, so we had open cabana lounges, hookahs, lanterns, and draped fabrics along the ceiling. It had a cool, relaxed vibe. Our entrance for the sangeet was to this song we had just discovered called ‘Yala Habibi’. It’s very popular now but it became the soundtrack of the wedding. It was played each night on the dance floor, and everyone fell into it instantly.

Ankur: It’s one of those core memories for everyone.

The baraat on the yacht

Ankur: I’ve been to a lot of Indian weddings, and the traditional baraat never felt very personal to me. So instead, we gathered about 25-30 of my cousins and closest friends and did a 45-minute boat ride to the venue. We got off the boat, entered, and my whole family was there. That was probably the moment when I was the most overwhelmed.

Sagiri: Meanwhile, my bridesmaids and I were in my suite, sipping champagne and calming our nerves. One minute before stepping out, I nearly spilled an entire iced coffee on my lehenga. Thankfully, it missed or it would have been a complete disaster!

In traditional Indian weddings, the bride is walked down the aisle by her brothers under a phoolon ki chadar. I don’t have any brothers, and I’m incredbily close to my two sisters—they’re literally my best friends. So, I had my sisters walk me to the mandap. The ceremony was right on the Bosphorus. We were all surrounded by water and it was breezy, sunny, and breathtakingly beautiful.

Ankur: A flautist played during the ceremony. Sagiri walked down the aisle to an instrumental rendition of ‘Jashn-E-Bahara’—it was a moment I’ll never forget.

Sagiri: That evening, we had a sundowner cocktail hour outside on the terrace at the Çırağan Palace. Violinists played classical music as the guests entered, and the reception was outdoors under the night sky. We chose an enchanted garden theme—greenery, chandeliers, candlelit tables. Each table was named after a city meaningful to us. Once everyone was seated, we made our entrance to ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ played on the violin.

Ankur: Our first dance was to an acoustic version of ‘Lifetime’ by Justin Bieber—Sagiri’s a huge fan. There were hearftfelt speeches, lots of tears. Once the speeches wrapped, Paris-Select stepped in and we danced all night.

Sagiri: They were incredible. They even surprised everyone with a couple of Bollywood songs, which the family loved.

The outfits

Sagiri: I went to India three times in a year from New York. I knew I wanted to wear Sabyasachi for the ceremony, but I wasn't sure about the other functions. I found my wedding lehenga on my first trip to Mumbai. It was a sage, celadon colour. I initially imagined I would wear ivory, but the moment I tried it on, I knew this would be it.

Ankur: I knew what I wanted—I don’t really like a lot of embellishment, so I wanted something classic with subtle threadwork. The sherwani that I ended up with was perfect because it had a stole with intricate detailing, but overall, it felt refined and not too over the top.

For the reception, I chose a Ralph Lauren Purple Label tux. Thankfully, that fitting was in New York. For the sangeet, I had spotted a look by Varun Bahl online and loved it. I showed it to Sagiri and my family. Everyone thought it looked great on the runway but wouldn’t translate in real life. We went to several stores, and I disliked almost everything I tried. But the moment I tried on that same Varun Bahl look in-store, everyone agreed—it was perfect. It actually ended up being my favourite outfit.

Sagiri: For my reception outfit, I wanted a fishtail silhouette, but I couldn’t find one anywhere. I was really freaking out. Luckily, my sister was in India for work in March and she ended up finding my reception outfit at Natasha Dalal. She tried on a similar version for me, and I finalised custom elements and measurements over a video call, which was very stressful. When I finally tried it on in May during my last trip to India before the wedding, it fit perfectly!