Manifest Spotlight: Wedding Designers Vizha Medai 

Wedding planning is never an easy task. Everything from organising the different ceremonies that lead up to the wedding, to the details regarding the food, the outfit that you wish to wear on your special day, and the decor of the wedding that you want to have at your venue, is a valuable and unmissable experience. After all, you are deciding to spend your life with someone, and it is an occasion to celebrate and families to come together! 

This is why when we spoke to Tamil Nadu-based wedding designing company Vizha Medai’s founders, Sanjana Susaritha Ravi, Darshini Narayanan and Akash Muralidharan, we realised just how important it is to have your wedding tailor-made just for you. Vizha Medai makes it their priority to weave the bride and groom’s story into the intricacies of the wedding in a seamless fashion. Strong believers in conscious, local, farm-to-table and intelligent wedding designing and planning, Vizha Medai has truly been carving their own path in the wedding industry. Each of the founder’s diverse backgrounds and expertise always shows up in the work they do. Sanjana is a textile designer, well acquainted with fashion and art, Darshini is a graphic designer and artist and Akash is a food designer and 2024 winner of MasterChef India (Tamil). 

From having designed the weddings of Tamil actors Ashok Selvan and Keerthi Pandian and other notable names such as Pooja Kannan and Vineeth Sivakumar, Vizha has been on a roll and creating exceptional spatial experiences rather than Instagrammable backdrops with the projects they take on!

In Conversation With Vizha Medai, The Wedding Designing Company 

M: Tell us about Vizha, When did the brand come into conception and what inspired the three of you to start the brand?

Akash: All three of us met at architecture school. So, we’ve known each other since our college days. After studying architecture, though, we all parted ways for a while and pursued our own things. Sanjana studied fashion and textiles, I did a course related to food design and Darshini jumped into graphics and graphic design. We reconnected when Darshini got married in 2021. Since her wedding happened in between the first and second wave of the pandemic, it was a very intimate set up and they decided to make Darshini’s family farmland the venue. I came into the picture because Darshini’s parents wanted to use the ingredients from the farm for the food at the wedding. We prepared more than six meals and we made sure we used only local ingredients.  Sanjana came on board for the fashion aspect of the wedding, she was creating looks for the wedding, as well as the decor for it.

Darshini: Yes, they initially became a part of the process as friends. Akash recommended I connect with Sanjana as well, and I did that. But slowly with time, we ended up taking on offbeat wedding projects. For instance, the first bride we worked with said she did not like floral arrangements, so we pulled in an artist who creates paper-folded ornaments and decor!

Sanjana: It was also a really unique wedding experience for us. Along the way, we found out that all of us have similar tastes. The pictures of Darshini’s wedding created a buzz, and after a week, we got a query for a menu and decor for a wedding. That’s when we realised there was scope to start a brand of our own. We were still working at our respective jobs when we had our first four to five projects, and back then we weren’t a wedding company, we were a design brand. But presently, we curate the experience of a great wedding. From designing the space to styling the look and curating the menu and then ending the event by presenting the guests with gifts, everything amalgamates for the couple. 

M: What’s the most exciting part of your job?

Darshini: We all thoroughly enjoy the designing process. Secondly, seeing the final product, after having ideated and put everything together, is always very rewarding. 

Akash: Yes absolutely, after months of hard work, seeing it all come together, seeing the reaction the guests have to our set-up, is thrilling. 

M: Why do you think couples should hire wedding decor planners and designers?

Darshini: Indian weddings can easily become about the guests and family. They become more obligatory than an actual celebration. So, we aim to focus on and prioritise the couple’s story, and their sensibilities, so that we can inculcate every single detail about the couple in the food, the decor and everything else. Often, the couples getting married are left feeling overwhelmed, they don’t feel well-represented at their own weddings. So, if you want to feel like your wedding reflects your life and the journey you’ve shared with your partner, then hiring a wedding designing company is incredibly important. 

Sanjana: If I were to talk about how we operate, we create tailor-made, exclusive experiences for the couple. We do our best to understand the culture, the family and other small details regarding the couple. For instance, we worked with a couple who was really fond of their cat, so we included this in the name board and placed props that symbolized this aspect as a part of the decor at the wedding. Another instance of this was when we recreated a Thiruvizha (an annual festival where the village streets are filled with vibrancy and celebration) set-up at the resort where the wedding was to take place. So, we made the corridors of the resort resemble a South Indian village street during Thiruvizha.

Darshini: We’ve also used other elements of the South Indian village life like the kathadi (locally made paper fans) or even kites, as props in weddings. We treat wedding venues like spaces to add art installations in as well. 

M: Can you share a funny or interesting incident that has remained with you from any of the weddings that you’ve planned?

Akash: In 2023, we worked with clients who wanted a football turf next to their home to be the wedding venue. And halfway through the wedding, it started raining. Actually, the funniest part was that the previous day we’d covered the turf with a tarp (that we’d broken our necks to figure out how to cover the turf with) and we woke up to find the tarp completely blown away by the wind! 

M: We also noticed you designed and worked on Ashok Selvan and Keerthi Pandian’s wedding as well as Pooja Kannan and Vineeth Sivakumar’s wedding. Do you have any interesting or heartwarming anecdotes to share from their weddings?

Sanjana: Ashok and Keerthi’s wedding took place at Keerthi’s heritage home. We were responsible for designing her kanjivaram wedding sari as well. There was a huge image of ardhanareshwara, along with natural elements from the farmland, such as dogs and horses woven into the pallu of the sari. 

Akash: Yes and, the menu included many elements from Keerthi’s childhood, the ingredients and food she grew up eating. 

Darshini: In terms of decor, we visited the location months in advance, we asked Keerthi’s father to plant bougainvillaea and sunflowers around a tree on the property. We also used red soil to create the aisle and used the stones found on the land to style the stage. So the wedding venue was heavily influenced by the landscape of their heritage home. 

Sanjana: Pooja and Vineeth had a traditional Badaga wedding. Some of the decor at their wedding was inspired by tea plantations because their family-owned tea plantations and it’s a very big part of their culture. We also added a beautiful sentence from Tamil literature on their name boards. The main colour we used was white (to represent the Badaga community), everything was quite simple, calm and serene.

Darshini: The wedding took place early in the morning, we used an installation with small mirrors hanging from the top to catch early morning sunlight. The couple and family wanted an elegant set-up, nothing too ostentatious. 

M: Can a Big Fat Indian Wedding be sustainable? Please share some of your top tips for couples who want a big wedding but don’t want to cause a negative impact on the environment.

Sanjana: We were all naturally passionate about local art and artisans from the beginning when we’d met each other at university. And, indigenous art is on the verge of extinction, which made us even more conscious of and fond of local artistry. Having said that, we don’t think an Indian wedding can ever be truly sustainable.

Darshini: Yes, you can be conscious, but no wedding is truly sustainable, especially Indian ones. As for the weddings we organise, we never use plastic. And, we make sure we pay the artisans their full wage, we never bargain with them for it. So, one can try being more conscious by ditching plastic, and using stainless steel and reusable tumblers for the guests. I also think the couple has to have very strong boundaries and take a stand to be as conscious as possible. 

M: What are some decor trends that you foresee being big this wedding season?

Sanjana: We have noticed a shift towards curated experience, where the clients are now looking for custom-made gifts or props for their weddings!

Manifest Cheat Sheet

M: Who do you think should come to Vizha Medai to get their wedding designed? 

Sanjana: Anyone who wants to have a curated and fulfilling experience and wishes to have their journey reflected accurately in the details of their wedding.

M: What is your brand’s design philosophy?

Sanjana: Our design philosophy is that we do not follow trends. And we do our best to understand the client’s needs and create a good experience for them. 

Akash: We also emphasise using local and rooted elements and use them in a way that elevates the entire experience. 

Darshini: Also, we don’t approach the designing process thinking about how it will look on social media or in a photograph. We emphasize catering to the bride, groom and guests’ senses through the space rather than simply creating a background for an image. 

M: How far in advance should clients reach out to you?

Sanjana & Darshini: Six to four months in advance. 

M: Can you give us an insight into the pricing details of your services?

Sanjana: Yes, our services start from INR 5 lakhs. But it also depends on the kind of wedding you want, we can work on a plan to cater to your requirements as well.