Luxury weddings are no longer defined by how spectacular they look alone—they are increasingly being measured by how deeply they are felt. From highly personalised hospitality and immersive entertainment to destination-led storytelling and curated gastronomy, the focus is shifting towards creating celebrations that guests experience, remember and talk about long after the last event.
At the forefront of this evolution is Aakash Doshi, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Zesst Events & Weddings, who has been part of more than 600 celebrations across India and international destinations. With a philosophy centred on passion, constant learning and treating every guest as a VIP, Doshi believes the most memorable weddings are those where every detail serves a larger emotional narrative.
In this conversation with EVENTFAQS Media, Aakash shares his perspective on what luxury wedding clients are prioritising today, why hospitality has become central to the guest experience, how destinations can become part of a couple’s story, and how Zesst is exploring technology, gastronomy, entertainment and immersive experiences to create celebrations that go beyond the beautiful.
1. As luxury weddings become increasingly experience-led, what are you seeing clients prioritise today across décor, entertainment, hospitality and guest experience? Which of these shifts do you believe will have lasting relevance?
Luxury weddings today have become increasingly experience-driven. While décor continues to be an integral part of a wedding, we’re seeing clients place a much stronger emphasis on hospitality, guest experience and entertainment.
There’s a growing focus on how guests feel throughout the celebrations—how well they’re looked after, how engaged they are, and the experiences they take back with them. Entertainment, too, has evolved beyond simply having a great artist or performance; it’s about creating moments that genuinely connect with the guests and add to the overall energy of the wedding.
Décor will always play an important role in setting the visual language and ambience, but I believe guest experience and entertainment are the shifts that will have the strongest long-term relevance. Ultimately, people may admire beautiful décor in the moment, but what they really remember is how the wedding made them feel and the experiences they shared.
2. Zesst’s weddings often move beyond a beautiful setting to create an entire world around the celebration, from themed experiences to immersive entertainment and curated gastronomy. What is the thinking behind this approach, and what makes a wedding feel truly transportive rather than simply well-decorated?
At Zesst, our approach begins with a very simple philosophy: every guest is a VIP. It’s never about creating an exceptional experience only for a select few; we want every person attending the wedding to feel genuinely special and looked after.
For us, creating a truly immersive wedding is about constantly breaking boundaries, innovating and introducing experiences that guests wouldn’t ordinarily encounter. Whether it’s entertainment, hospitality, gastronomy or the smallest personalised detail, everything is thoughtfully planned around how it will make the guest feel.
That is what makes a wedding truly transportive rather than simply well-decorated. Beautiful décor creates an incredible setting, but an experience creates a memory. Guests may or may not remember every décor detail years later, but they will remember how they were treated, the food that was curated for them, the moments that surprised them, and most importantly, how the celebration made them feel.
When guests leave genuinely happy and continue talking about that experience long after the wedding—and even recommend us because of it—that, for us, is the real measure of a memorable Zesst wedding.
3. You often speak about hospitality as an essential part of the wedding experience. At the luxury end of the market, what are today’s couples and families expecting from guest experience that goes beyond the traditional welcome, gifting and logistics?
Hospitality, for us, is one of the most important pillars of the wedding experience. It begins much before a guest enters the first function—it starts from the moment they arrive in the city or country where the wedding is being hosted.
We look at the entire guest journey and find opportunities to make it more personal. Even something as simple as an airport transfer can become an experience—having newspapers, games or thoughtfully curated food hampers in the car, or even a personal voice message from the family playing during the journey. These are small touches, but they immediately make a guest feel that their presence genuinely matters.
The same thinking continues throughout their stay. Beyond traditional gifting and hampers, it could be a handwritten note, a personalised photograph or newspaper waiting in their room, or a different turndown surprise every evening. If we’re in a destination like Bahrain, for instance, we might bring in something culturally relevant like oud as part of that experience.
And then every event has its own hospitality narrative. We build these experiences around the theme and storytelling of that particular celebration—from the way guests are welcomed to the food, décor, entertainment and interactive or DIY experiences they encounter.
At the luxury end today, I think families are looking beyond flawless logistics. They want hospitality to feel personal, thoughtful and almost intuitive—where every guest feels that something has been created specifically for them.
4. Your destination weddings often bring together the couple’s story, the character of the location and a contemporary design language. How do you make the destination an integral part of the celebration while keeping the experience deeply personal to the couple?
For us, a destination wedding is about bringing together the couple’s story, the character of the destination, and the overall design and aesthetic of the celebration. The destination shouldn’t simply be a beautiful backdrop—it should become an integral part of the experience.
We try to bring the culture and traditions of every city or country we work in into the wedding in an authentic yet contemporary way. If we’re hosting a wedding in Rajasthan, for example, the sense of place begins right from the welcome, incorporating elements of Rajasthani culture and hospitality. Similarly, in South India, it could mean creating an authentic banana-leaf dining experience as part of the celebrations.
We carry these local influences through the storytelling of different events—whether through the welcome, food, entertainment, design or smaller cultural experiences. The idea is that from the moment guests arrive, they should genuinely feel connected to where they are.
At the same time, everything is filtered through the couple’s personality and their story. It’s never about recreating the destination literally; it’s about taking what is distinctive about that place and interpreting it in a way that feels personal to the couple. That balance is what makes a destination wedding feel both rooted in its location and uniquely their own.
5. With Zesst having delivered more than 600 celebrations, what do you believe is the company’s distinctive creative and executional DNA? What do you consciously do differently from other luxury wedding planners when a client chooses Zesst?
We’re incredibly proud of where Zesst is today—600+ celebrations across India and internationally, over more than 11 years—but one philosophy we’ve always believed in is to never stop learning. As a founder and managing partner, I continue to learn from my team, my colleagues and even my peers and competitors. It’s an industry that constantly evolves, and I think staying curious is extremely important.
If I had to define the Zesst DNA in one word, though, it would be passion. Zesst started as a passion project, and even after 600 celebrations, that hasn’t changed. We genuinely enjoy what we do, and that passion finds its way into every aspect of a wedding—from the larger creative vision to the smallest detail of the guest experience.
I also believe that passion makes the entire planning journey more enjoyable and personal for our couples and families. We don’t want them to feel like they are simply another wedding on our calendar; we want to be as emotionally invested in creating their celebration as they are.
And food is a big part of that DNA as well. We’re personally passionate about F&B, so gastronomy is never treated as an afterthought. It is thoughtfully curated and becomes an important part of the overall experience.
Ultimately, I don’t think our differentiation comes from trying to be different from another planner. It comes from remaining passionate, constantly learning, and bringing that same energy and attention to every celebration we create.
6. As the upcoming wedding season takes shape, what are you experimenting with at Zesst? Are there new formats, technologies, culinary concepts or immersive experiences you are keen to introduce?
At Zesst, every year is different, every season is different, and most importantly, every wedding is different. With a combination of hard work, passion and constant learning, we’re always exploring new concepts—whether through technology and AI, culinary innovation, immersive experiences or new formats of entertainment.
I often describe our role as being the cherry on the cake. A cake can be beautifully made, but it’s that final element that gives it its own identity. And for us, that “cherry” can never be the same—it has to look different, feel different and create a different experience each time.
That requires us to constantly expose ourselves to what’s new. We attend exhibitions, conventions, gourmet festivals and industry showcases, both to discover emerging ideas and to understand how new products, technologies and services can be thoughtfully incorporated into our celebrations. We’re fortunate to be part of an industry where so many talented people are constantly innovating, and we love finding ways to bring the best of those ideas to our clients.
But perhaps what we’re most focused on going forward is storytelling. We’ve reached a stage where we want every element of a wedding to connect back to a narrative that is personal to that couple and their families. Technology, food, entertainment and immersive experiences are tools; the story is what brings them together.
For us, it should never feel like just another beautiful wedding. Every wedding is a new story—and our job is to find a new way to tell it.
Creating Celebrations That Stay With You
The future of luxury weddings is moving beyond visual spectacle towards experiences that are personal, intuitive and emotionally resonant. As Aakash Doshi highlights, the most powerful celebrations are not necessarily defined by how much they contain, but by how thoughtfully every element comes together—from the first airport welcome to the final event.
For Zesst, that means treating hospitality, gastronomy, entertainment, design and technology not as individual components, but as tools to tell a story. And as every couple brings a different story to the table, the ambition remains the same: to create weddings that guests don’t simply attend, but genuinely experience—and remember long after they leave.
