The Bride Wore Pink and the Guests Wore Ivory at This Fairy-Tale Indian Wedding in Malibu
Tiwinkle Khurana and Gurkirat Grewal’s romance didn’t begin as your typical love story. The pair first met in 2012 as undergraduate economics students at UCLA, and their initial impressions of each other were far from affectionate. “We did not like each other at all and thought the other was arrogant,” remembers Tiwinkle, laughing. “We didn’t keep in touch, even though we ran into each other a few times in college.”
A couple of years after graduating in 2017, Gurkirat decided to give their connection another chance and slid into Tiwinkle’s DMs, and soon after they found themselves together at a mutual friend’s party. “I decided to give him a chance,” Tiwinkle shares. “Once we hung out, we just clicked so well! It was so organic. We both knew this was something different.”
In December 2022, the couple mutually decided that they wanted to get married and they quickly began planning a wedding with a September 2023 date in mind. However, Gurkirat waited to save a more formal proposal until their families met in person—just a few months before their wedding day. For the surprise, the groom, who works in finance, told Tiwinkle he won tickets for a yacht ride through an office raffle. “When we got to the dock in Marina del Rey, I thought it was strange that we were the only ones there,” says the bride. “So I got an idea he might be proposing, but I didn’t want to be disappointed if it wasn’t happening. I even asked if he would propose because it was such a romantic setting, but he said, ‘No, it’s too cheesy.’
“There was a photographer there who said he had to take pictures for the company,” Tiwinkle continues. “I went with it and tried posing cutely for the pictures. Then he got down on one knee. I was so excited and happy! I said yes and put the ring on my own finger out of excitement. People on other boats saw, cheered, and congratulated us.”
Since the couple would have a week full of events to reflect their Hindu and Sikh cultures, it was a good thing that they started the planning process early. Tiwinkle explains that her family—particularly her two brothers, Suraj and Varun—was instrumental in organizing the wedding. “I was not prepared for how much care they would put into the wedding week,” she says. “They found and coordinated the different vendors, helped with decor, and handled and coordinated the entire guest list, hotel accommodations for guests, RSVPs, transportation, and food for 350-plus guests throughout the seven-day stay. We had external help, of course, but my family went above and beyond what I wanted, which made it that much more special.”
As her brothers focused on organizing the details of the celebrations, Tiwinkle took a trip with her parents to Delhi to choose all her wedding outfits and jewelry. “All my friends know how extra I can be,” the bride jokes. For the Sagan ceremony, an exchange of gifts between the bride’s and groom’s families, Tiwinkle wore a silver sari by Tarun Tahiliani. “I have been watching his work for a while now, and I knew I had to buy at least one outfit from him. His work is so iconic that I was even considering wearing a Tarun Tahiliani lehenga for my wedding day,” she remarks.
For the sangeet, the bride took inspiration from one of her longtime style icons—her mother. They both ended up wearing outfits by Sabyasachi for the celebration. “She’s so beautiful, and we have such a close relationship,” Tiwinkle says. “She wanted a rich, heritage outfit—no one does it better than Sabyasachi!”
When it came to the concept for her wedding day, Tiwinkle wanted it to feel like a pink Bollywood fairy tale. “I was on Pinterest planning my wedding for years before I knew I was going to be married,” the bride says. “I grew up watching Bollywood movies, and I always wanted to dress up the way the main actresses did during the wedding scenes. They always wore Manish Malhotra!” While she tried on looks from other brands, nothing felt like the perfect fit until she visited the iconic designer’s salon. “As soon as I tried the Manish Malhotra pink lehenga, my parents were in awe. I felt like a princess, and all the customers in the store, as well as the staff, were also in awe. That’s when I knew it was the one. I had to buy it!”
Tiwinkle finished off the rosy look with an emerald set by KK Jewels, which coordinated pieces for all her major wedding events. “Going wedding shopping in India really made me look at jewelry differently,” says the bride. “It really pushed me to pursue jewelry with more fervor than I had before.” The jewelers also worked with Tiwinkle and her family once she returned to California to create a custom tikka and nath that coordinated with the original set they purchased in India.
Tiwinkle wanted to complete her wedding wardrobe with an “American bridal moment” in a white gown for the reception. For this, she chose a beaded Gaurav Gupta gown with a thigh-high slit and a flowing cape as her final look.
Ahead of the main wedding week, Tiwinkle and Gurkirat celebrated their upcoming nuptials with two different religious ceremonies—a jagrata and a havan. The celebrations with their guests began with the Sagan ceremony. As a nod to the proposal, the couple set sail with their guests on a party yacht from Marina del Rey. The next event to follow was the sangeet. Hosted at the Landmark in Mission Hills, the laid-back evening was filled with “music, dance, and joy,” says the bride.
Their wedding photographer, Mili Ghosh, also joined in for these early celebrations. “Mili made art with the pictures she took,” reflects Tiwinkle. “I told her from the beginning that I wanted to blow up big black-and-white photos from the wedding week and frame them on my wall. She has captured pictures that will move me and anyone else who looks upon her work.”
The mehndi and haldi took place over two days at a large estate on the outskirts of Los Angeles. “It was a more intimate and peaceful setting with my side of the family,” shares Tiwinkle. For the mehndi, an artist applied henna to the bride for good luck from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. “It was a long day for me!” Tiwinkle laughs. The haldi is a ceremony where turmeric paste is placed on the bride and groom and then showered away to cleanse the body and remove impurities. “The haldi is an auspicious event as well as a skin care tradition before the wedding,” explains Tiwinkle.
