This designer bride turned her wedding into an immersive art experience
Niomi Shah and Kushal Dagli’s two-day weekend transformed a golf course into a space of colour, couture and unhurried moments
By the time Niomi Shah and Kushal Dagli began planning their wedding, they had already lived several versions of life together. Across coasts, cities and eventually a shared home, their relationship had settled into something steady. “For us, getting married wasn’t really about starting a new life together,” Shah says. “It was more like, we love what we have, let’s have more of this.”
That thought shaped a wedding that unfolded over two days at the KBG Golf Club in Ahmedabad; intimate, considered and guided by design as a way of thinking.
Shah, a designer who completed her master’s at Columbia University and worked in New York City before moving to San Francisco, met Dagli, an engineer, at a jazz bar in New York. They were living on opposite coasts at the time. “I distinctly remember wearing a sharp navy blue overcoat, which he instantly fancied,” Shah recalls. That night stretched into long conversations about cities, art and shared sensibilities, eventually leading Dagli to ask her out on a date in San Francisco.
A month later, Shah flew west. A weekend in California, among redwood trees and a quiet brook, became their first real stretch of time together. Over the next year, they moved between cities, staying in Airbnbs, talking about life goals and eventually moving in together during the pandemic.
The proposal, too, followed their instinct for privacy. Shah proposed to Dagli in Joshua Tree National Park. “I wanted it to be just the two of us,” says the bride. The moment was never posted online, shared only with a few close friends. “It’s rugged, raw and open,” she adds. “That felt authentic to us.”
When it came to the wedding, the couple was certain of two things: it would be in India and it would be planned together. “The 50–50 partnership really defines us,” Shah says. They explored venues across Gujarat and heritage properties in Rajasthan, but kept returning to the same question–how would this feel for their guests? “We wanted people to be able to actually join us, not just attend,” she explains. The KBG Golf Club, with its uninterrupted green views on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, offered exactly that.
They planned the entire wedding themselves, remotely from the US. For Shah, design became both process and anchor. “I designed everything: the invites, the decor, the outfits, the jewellery, all of it,” she says. The mood board was rigorous and exacting, guiding vendor selection, styling and spatial decisions. Dagli was an active collaborator throughout, even creating a detailed Excel matrix comparing photographers before they chose Eshant Raju and his team.
The celebrations began with a cricket match that became an icebreaker. Friends wore custom T-shirts reading ‘Pav Bhaji meets Kale Smoothie’, and each one came with a new rule drawn at random: bowling with the non-dominant hand, batting with hands tied.
That evening, the wedding party transformed the club into an immersive, monochromatic environment. “I didn’t imagine a traditional function,” says the bride. “I imagined an experience.” Guests entered through a 220-foot walkway lined with billowing organza drapes dyed in a custom crimson, illustrated with artwork inspired by the couple’s invitations. Inside, the venue was washed entirely in red light, while guests dressed strictly in black and white, becoming part of the visual composition. A DJ and percussionist played a continuous set as dancing took over the night.
The Haldi the next morning was hosted on the clubhouse terrace overlooking the golf course, relying on the setting rather than décor. White and yellow accents framed the space, while local dholis led the music into energetic garba.
The wedding ceremony itself was brief. Set against the greens, the mandap featured four palm trees, kansa elements and rose petals, all kept deliberately minimal. Guests were asked to dress in shades of ivory. “I wanted the landscape to lead,” Shah explains.
Rituals were chosen selectively. “We kept what felt true to us and removed what didn’t,” Shah says, adding that the pandit was asked to explain meanings and skip anything misaligned with their partnership. For the wedding party, Shah worked with Reik on a custom ensemble; a structured jacket with cascading pearl strands paired with an organza skirt designed to move with the music. Atomica earrings by Julia Vaughn and jewelled gloves from Outhouse completed the look. Dagli wore a custom double-breasted suit from Jade Blue.
On the terrace for the Haldi, Shah chose a custom blue wrap skirt and corset from Yam, offset by bold temple jewelry by Bhavya Ramesh and heirloom pieces from her mother. For the ceremony, she wore a soft mauve Sabyasachi lehenga with emeralds, keeping her hair and makeup clean. Dagli opted for a stone-coloured Indo-western sherwani from Tisa, finished with brown peshawaris from Artimen. All of Shah's footwear across events came from Aparajita Toor.
One of Shah's favourite moments when she was on the balcony overlooking the lawn and spotted Dagli in his sherwani. She called out; they exchanged a few brief kisses–unscripted, unexpected, entirely theirs–before letting the world back into their space.
