Couple Hosts Rajasthan's First Fully Vegan Wedding

A couple in India celebrated their marriage by hosting what is believed to be Rajasthan's first entirely plant-based wedding. The event combined traditional cultural elements with strict ethical standards. Mishi Jain met Sunny Shah at a wedding in Alabama in 2016, where they connected over shared law degrees and a love for animals and justice. Both had been vegetarian their whole lives, and after Mishi’s family went vegan, she followed, soon convincing Sunny to do the same. When planning their wedding, they made it clear that the celebration had to be as ethical as it was epic. The wedding took place at Chunda Palace in Udaipur, India, marking the first fully vegan wedding in Rajasthan. The three-day event honored tradition while reimagining it through a compassionate lens. Real flowers were replaced with faux arrangements, and both sets of parents sat with the couple at the mandap. The festivities included a welcome dinner with folk dancers and henna, a turmeric-filled haldi ceremony, and a lively sangeet with music, dance, and a skit reenacting the couple’s love story. On the wedding day, Sunny arrived in a vintage car and participated in a symbolic oil pour instead of the traditional clarified butter ritual. The couple waited until the final day to inform guests that the wedding was vegan, wanting everyone to approach the food with an open mind. One cousin admitted he had never seen a vegan wedding before and was now eager to try it. The menu featured vegan versions of classic dishes, including crispy samosas, kadai tofu, coconut barfi, vegetable manchurian, and tofu lababdar. For dessert, guests enjoyed a chocolate lava cake alongside jalebi, boondi ke ladoo, and other traditional sweets. The couple commissioned vegan attire from Mumbai artisans and worked with Chunda Palace, which had never catered a plant-based event, to reinvent dairy-heavy recipes without ghee, milk, or paneer. In Houston, they hosted an encore celebration for 300 people, further showcasing the richness of plant-based cuisine. Their Instagram project, @plantbasedpyaar, aims to show that culture, family, and ethics can coexist. The wedding inspired their vegan food blog and highlighted how tradition and innovation can go hand in hand.

Read source: VegNews