The Bride Wore 13 Custom Looks at This Four-Day Wedding Extravaganza on the Turkish Riviera
Anisha Patel and Arjun Mehta’s relationship started when she slid into his DMs in 2018. “She DMed me,” Arjun, who works in private equity, happily admits. “I had seen her and her Instagram handle on a dating app, and soon enough was consistently liking her photos from her various trips—she loves to travel.” While on vacation with a few of her girlfriends, Anisha, who is currently pursuing an MBA at Johns Hopkins, decided to message Arjun. “You look familiar," she wrote. “Do I know you from somewhere?”
Arjun was riding the subway home from work when he got the message. “I knew I had one shot to get this right, so I turned around, went back to the office, opened up a Word document, and wrote out a three paragraph response that began with: ‘I don’t think so, but I was hoping to change that’ and a promise to have her laughing throughout a first date. I spell checked and proofread it, then copied and pasted it into Instagram and hit send.” They messaged back and forth for a week, and their first date was at a Japanese restaurant shortly thereafter.
“After we sat down, Arjun began ordering in fluent Japanese,” Anisha recalls. “You can imagine my surprise, and it was only then that I found out he was born and grew up in Japan. We had our first kiss that night, and the rest is history!”
Arjun had originally planned to take Anisha on a trip to Japan in April of 2020 to show her where he grew up in Tokyo and propose in Kyoto, but that was canceled due to Covid. “By mid-June, my parents—who perhaps like Anisha more than they do me!—jokingly told me that if I didn’t propose to her, they would for me,” Arjun remembers. “So I planned a trip to a beautiful boutique hotel in Amagansett called the Reform Club and began making plans.”
“Arjun was acting strangely the entire way to the Hamptons,” Anisha remembers. “And when he got there he wanted to get out and go for a walk—by himself!—and I’m the one who drove him there. As a city boy he still doesn’t like to drive, so I was already very suspicious.”
“I had coordinated with our photographer an optimal time and spot to propose for photos so I went to look at the location,” Arjun explains. “We then got ready. I told her to get dressed for a nice dinner at the restaurant—they had no restaurant open at the time—and to wear heels—to go walk in the grass. Suffice to say, I’m not very good at keeping a secret and she saw right through it.”
As they walked to the spot where Arjun planned to propose, he was so focused on rehearsing what he wanted to say that he forgot to make any small talk. “I got down on one knee, and I couldn’t get the ring box out so had to get back up, then I got back down again and proposed,” he remembers. “She was laughing so hard that I had to remind her that she had to officially answer.”
Not long after the engagement, the couple began looking for wedding venues. With family located across India, the United States, and Europe, they knew they wanted to choose a place that was centrally located and that would feel like a fun vacation for their guests. Following countless hours of research and one scouting trip, they finally landed on the Mandarin Oriental in Bodrum—a beautiful beach city on Turkey’s southwest coast. “Bodrum struck us as a place that would be entirely new for many of our guests,” Anisha explains. “It has deep historical and cultural roots, stunning scenery, and a very fun vibe.”
The couple enlisted SJS Events for help with planning, and they—alongside Anisha and her parents—handled vendor selections. They ultimately put together a team that included Dilara Events, who oversaw decor, Formation Band, CGA Events, and Chef Gaurav Anand and an itinerary that spanned four days and included a welcome party on Thursday, the Mendhi on Friday morning, a Sangeet on Friday evening, the Vidhi/Haldi in the morning on Saturday, followed by a Turkish Night that evening, and finally, on Sunday, the wedding ceremony, with a reception and after-party later that night.
The couple and designer Dilara Sel from Dilara Events created themes inspired by each location, Anisha and Arjun’s own cultures, and the Mediterranean. “The idea was to build from each event and conclude with the wedding and reception,” Anisha explains. “We incorporated my outfits into the designs. Dilara and I wanted to also create immersive spaces that people could walk into and experience.”
The Sangeet drew inspiration from the blues in the Mediterranean and yellows from the lemons of Capri. The next night was Turkish themed, with a recreation of a local bazaar as well as traditional music, dancers, and decor. And finally, the wedding and reception paid homage to their current hometown of New York. “I wanted my guests to be reminded of where Arjun and I fell in love, which is why we kept it classic with lush florals, all white decor, and black tie attire,” Anisha explains.
