Luxury destination weddings are no longer defined solely by palatial venues, elaborate décor or larger-than-life celebrations. As couples become more travelled and discerning, the focus is shifting towards experiences that feel deeply personal, culturally rooted and intrinsically connected to their destination. This evolution has also transformed the role of luxury wedding planners, who are increasingly expected to create celebrations that are as meaningful as they are magnificent.
For 7X Weddings, which has worked across some of India’s most celebrated wedding properties and international destinations, this evolution has meant looking beyond the spectacle to understand what truly makes a wedding memorable. From heritage palaces in Rajasthan to celebrations in international markets such as Vietnam, the emphasis is increasingly on creating experiences where destination, design, hospitality and storytelling come together seamlessly. Through its bespoke wedding planning services, the team approaches every celebration as a carefully crafted experience shaped around the couple, their guests and the destination itself.
In this conversation with EVENTFAQS Media, Rajat Sogani and Devang Shah, Co-founders of 7X Weddings, discuss what makes a destination work for a luxury Indian wedding, the balance between creative ambition and restraint, designing within heritage properties, bringing Indian weddings to international destinations, and how changing guest expectations are redefining the role of destination wedding planners.
Q. 7X Weddings has worked across some of India’s most iconic properties, from Rambagh Palace and Jai Mahal Palace in Jaipur to The Oberoi Udaivilas and Fairmont Udaipur Palace. When you evaluate a destination for a luxury Indian wedding, what makes you see potential beyond simply how beautiful the property is?
Over the years, We have learnt that a beautiful property is only the beginning. A venue is a canvas; the destination is the story.
When we evaluate a destination, we look beyond the photographs. We want to understand what the property and its surroundings can allow us to create for the couple and, equally importantly, for their guests.
We look at the architecture, the landscape, the privacy, the hospitality, the movement of guests, the culinary possibilities, the number of distinct experiences we can create and even the opportunities that exist outside the property.
Can we take the guests somewhere they have never been? Can the local culture become part of the experience? Can the history of the destination influence the celebration? Can we create moments of intimacy within something that may otherwise be very grand?
For us, that is where the real potential lies.
We have always believed that luxury is not simply about having access to the most beautiful things. It is about creating an experience that could not have been replicated somewhere else.
That is what we look for in a destination.
Q. Luxury destination weddings today demand a balance of scale, personalisation, design and flawless execution. As founders, how do you decide where to push the creative ambition of a wedding and where to exercise restraint?
One of the things experience teaches you is that more is not necessarily more.
When you are working on a luxury wedding, there is always an opportunity to add another element, another installation, another performance or another visual. The real creative challenge is knowing whether it adds to the experience or simply adds to the production.
We personally start with two questions: Who are we creating this for, and where are we creating it?
Once you understand the couple and the destination, the creative direction becomes much clearer. We like pushing boundaries when there is an opportunity to create surprise, emotion or theatre. But we also believe strongly in restraint.
Luxury needs breathing space.
If everything is designed to be a “wow” moment, eventually nothing feels like one. There has to be a rhythm, moments of grandeur, moments of intimacy, moments of celebration and moments where you simply allow people to enjoy being together.
Over the years, our philosophy has become quite simple: don’t try to create the biggest wedding; create the most meaningful one for that particular couple.
That is where creativity becomes relevant rather than merely impressive.
Q. When designing at heritage properties such as Rambagh Palace or The Oberoi Udaivilas, how do you create something distinctive for the couple while allowing the architecture, history and character of the destination to remain part of the experience?
We have always felt that when you enter a heritage property, you are entering a story that existed long before you arrived. Our job is not to erase that story; it is to add another chapter to it.
At properties such as Rambagh or Udaivilas, the architecture already gives you something incredibly powerful. The mistake would be to compete with it.
We spend considerable time understanding the property, its proportions, courtyards, gardens, sightlines, textures, colours and historical character. Then we build the wedding around those elements rather than trying to hide them.
Sometimes the most sophisticated design decision is actually to leave something untouched.
The couple’s identity comes through the details, the design language, the flowers, the music, the food, the stationery, the guest experiences and the way the celebrations transition from one moment to another.
We like to think of it as a dialogue between the personality of the couple and the personality of the destination.
When those two come together naturally, the result feels timeless rather than temporary.
Q. When taking an Indian wedding to an international destination such as Vietnam, how do you incorporate the character, culture and local possibilities of the destination into the celebration without losing the cultural identity that makes an Indian wedding feel authentic?
When we take an Indian wedding overseas, I don’t believe in simply transplanting India into another country.
The magic lies in creating a conversation between the two cultures.
The emotional and cultural soul of the wedding must remain Indian, the rituals, the family, the music, the food, the celebrations and the traditions. Those are what make the wedding authentic.
But the destination should be allowed to contribute its own character.
Vietnam, for example, gives us an extraordinary palette, its landscapes, architecture, cuisine, craftsmanship, history and hospitality. These can influence the guest journey, welcome experiences, excursions, culinary experiences and design without turning the wedding into a superficial “Vietnam-themed” event.
We are also very conscious that when we work internationally, we should experience the destination respectfully rather than simply use its culture as décor.
The ideal outcome, for me, is when a guest can say:
“There was no doubt that I was attending an Indian wedding, but this was an Indian wedding that could only have happened in Vietnam.”
That is the sweet spot.
Q. As luxury destination weddings evolve from elaborate celebrations into highly curated experiences, what are couples and their guests beginning to expect that was not part of the luxury wedding conversation a few years ago?
We think the biggest shift is that people are no longer simply attending weddings; they are experiencing them.
Earlier, the conversation around luxury was often centred on the obvious things, the venue, décor, entertainment, scale and celebrity performances.
Today, couples are thinking much more deeply about what their guests will actually experience over those two or three days.
They want personalisation. They want discovery. They want great food, but they also want a story behind the food. They want entertainment, but they want it to feel relevant. They want beautiful spaces, but they also want moments where they can sit, talk and reconnect.
There is also a growing expectation of effortless hospitality. Guests should feel that everything has been thought of without ever feeling that the experience is being managed around them.
This is a very interesting evolution because it changes the role of the wedding planner.
We are no longer simply designing functions. We are designing the guest journey. And ultimately, the most luxurious thing you can give someone is the feeling that you thought about them personally.
Q. Having worked across established palace destinations in India and emerging international markets, what do you believe the next generation of luxury destination weddings will demand from planners, and how is 7X preparing for that evolution?
We believe the next generation of luxury weddings will demand much more from a planner than simply the ability to execute a beautiful event.
The planner will have to become a storyteller, curator, destination expert, hospitality strategist, cultural interpreter and, ultimately, the person responsible for bringing the entire experience together.
Today’s couples travel extensively. They have experienced some of the world’s finest hotels, restaurants, events and destinations. So they are not comparing their wedding only with other weddings anymore. They are comparing it with the best experiences they have had in their lives.
That raises the bar considerably.
At 7X, we are preparing for this by looking at destination weddings as an experience ecosystem rather than a series of functions. We are strengthening our international partnerships, studying emerging destinations, building deeper local knowledge and constantly looking at how design, hospitality, technology and storytelling can work together. Sustainability will increasingly become part of luxury rather than something that sits separately from it. The next generation will expect celebrations to be beautiful, but also more conscious about resources, local communities and the environment.
But despite all the evolution, one thing will remain unchanged. Technology will change the way we plan. Destinations will change. Design will change. But weddings will always be about people, relationships and emotion.
And that is what we believe 7X must never lose sight of.
Our ambition is not simply to create weddings that people photograph and remember.
It is to create weddings that people were genuinely happy to have been part of.
Creating Celebrations That Live Beyond the Moment
For Rajat Sogani and Devang Shah, the evolution of luxury destination weddings is ultimately less about how much can be added and more about how meaningfully every element comes together. As destinations become more diverse, couples more discerning and guests more experience-driven, the role of the wedding planner is expanding from execution to curation, storytelling and experience design.
From India’s heritage palaces to international destinations such as Vietnam, the focus remains on creating celebrations that feel rooted in their setting while reflecting the individuality of the couple. The future of luxury weddings is increasingly about bringing together scale and spectacle with personalisation, cultural sensitivity, thoughtful hospitality and emotional resonance.
Because long after the décor is dismantled and the celebrations are over, what remains is not simply what the wedding looked like, but how it made people feel and whether they were genuinely happy to have been part of it.
