There were lights, cameras and definitely a lot of action. Riteish’s and Genelia’s big fat Bollywood fairy tale wedding was no different from a glamorous Bollywood film. First there was a friendship then a love story followed by some twists in the tale, a lavish series of wedding functions and ofcourse a happy ending! Read on to find out all the details.
The Love Story
Riteish and Genelia met first in 2003 for their debut film Tujhe Meri Kasam (DVD of which is yet to see the light of the day so you can stop Googling now!). Rumour has it that Genelia wasn’t quite keen on the project and signed up for it only after much convincing. They had quite the filmi encounter in which Genelia put in all her energy to give her new co-star all the attitude she could put together simply because she assumed the CM’s son would be a spoiled brat so she must get ahead in the game. Boy was she wrong!
But like a good Bollywood romance they soon discovered there was much to the other person than they’d assumed. At the time Genelia was in college in Ritiesh was in his 20s (there’s a 4 year gap between the couple) so no serious relationship talk was done but a sweet friendship was struck. She’d talk about college and exams and he’d gush about architecture.
It was only after they finished a schedule of their film together in Hyderabad that the couple realised that kuch toh baat hai as they soon started missing each other when they returned home. As the days progressed their friendship became stronger. The media hounded them for a confirmation of their relationship which we never got until the announcement of the wedding in early 2012, 9 years after they met.
Till date the couple maintain that they’re friends before anything else. Hence why the formalities in their relationship have been nil including no official proposal by Riteish nor an official engagement ring! (Ladies you can stop gasping now!)
And there you have it, the filmi tale of Riteish – Genelia’s love story in a nutshell! Now for all the details of their big day, or shall we say, big week!
Invitation
Buzz is that the wedding was being planned in a hush hush way for a long time hence the amazing turn out at all the functions. Apparently Riteish and Genelia had asked all their close friends and in particular their filmi friends to keep their work schedules clear for the weekend, as they didn’t want anyone to be absent for what was to be the most important days of their lives. We hear that many of their friends took time out from their busy schedules, flew in from far and wide to be at the events.
The invitation that was sent out to guests was a threefold card inviting everyone to the Sangeet (31st Jan), Shaadi (4th February) & Reception (5th February). A Bandra based design company crafted the invites for the couple, who incidentally also were involved in other celeb weddings such as that of Lara Dutta and Hrithik Roshan. The cards came inside a wooden box with the couple’s initials R and G engraved on it. Complimenting the card were handmade chocolates that also carried their intials on it. (Can we get a awwww…)
Pre Wedding Bash
Sajid Nadiawala, Fardeen Khan and their respective other halves planned the couple’s pre-wedding bash. The venue was Royality Bandra and the event saw an array of stars attending.
Sangeet
At any B-Town wedding the sangeet is the event everyone wants ALL the details of! Well here it is.
This was the filmiest of all the shaadi festivities as it was organised and directed by none other than KJO! (Karan Johar for the non-Tweeples). It all took place at the Taj Land’s End and the couple themselves had a very special performance planned for their guests.
Karan also gifted Riteish the outfit he wore for the evening whilst Genelia’s outfit was done by Manish Malhotra. Whilst the sangeet was a closed event paparazzi’s outside the venue made sure all the guests were snapped as they entered and there was much snapping to be done as B-Town arrived in all its glory! Word is that KJo even got some of the industry biggies to shake a leg on the night. There’s also a much talked about leaked video from the sangeet making the rounds on the Internet. (But do finish reading before you rush off to Youtube it!)
Marathi Wedding
Our dulhe raja (groom) set off with his band baaja baraat at 11am from his Juhi premises. As it turns out the Deshmukhs danced the whole way and didn’t mind being in the public eye for such a private event. The bridal party waited for their arrival at the venue, a suburban five star hotel and the wedding began at the auspicious time of 12.48pm.
Neeta Lulla was the designer of Genelia’s wedding saree whilst Neeta’s daughter Nishka Lulla styled Genelia for the big day. (They both are quite the close friends.) Luckily for fans the couple were all too glad to share their big day with the world and tweeted quite regularly throughout the whole day including tweeting a pic promptly after the ceremony concluded! (Don’t you just love tech savvy celebs!)
Compared to the political presence at the function the B-Town presence fell a little behind however some very notable personalities took time out from their schedule for the event such as Ajay & Kajol Devgn, Karan Johar, Shahrukh Khan, Akshay Kumar and Abhishek & Jaya Bachchan, to name a few.
Christian Wedding
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Ofcourse it is all too well known that Genelia is a Mangalorean Catholic who is deeply religious. Therefore it was no surprise that the couple followed up the Marathi ceremony with a Christian ceremony at St Anne’s Church in Bandra the following day.
The ceremony was rather private however the good’ol paparazzi managed to snap quite a few shots of the couple both in and outside the church, including some of the guests who attended. Amongst the few who attended the very private affair that had mostly family and friends were Karan Johar, Hussain & Tina Kujerwala and Siddharth. It is believed that whilst the Marathi wedding had a number of Riteish’s guests, the church wedding had more of Genelia’s crowd. Riteish’s parents were not present at the event however his brothers were. (One now wonders that perhaps the rumours of Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh initially being resistant to the relationship due to the cultural clash wasn’t completely ill founded.)
Genelia’s wedding gown was designed by none other than Shantanu & Nikhil who are all too well known for their fabulous gowns. The couple set off in a decorated car by which time word has spread that Genelia and Riteish were in the vicinity.
Reception
The reception at the Grand Hyatt Hotel was the celebration that saw the most number of B-town stars in attendance. Genelia opted for a Falguni & Shane Peacock lehenga for the star-studded event.
Guests present for the reception that we’d not seen earlier at any of the celebrations were Saif & Kareena, Anushka Sharma, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan, Sridevi, Arjun Rampal and Kangana Ranuat, to name a few.
Happily Every After!
And with that we wrap this all too familiar filmi journey of Riteish and Genelia’s, from pyaar to shaadi! It would definitely make for a lovely rom-com don’t you think?!
We hear the couple are now going to whisk off to an unknown location for a lovely honeymoon! Bollyspice wishes the happy couple all the very best for this beautiful new chapter of their lives they’re about to begin.
