Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas’s Wedding in Jodhpur, 2018
Two faiths, two ceremonies on consecutive days, a Maharaja’s palace in Rajasthan, a Ralph Lauren gown with a 75-foot veil and a crimson Sabyasachi lehenga. The wedding that showed how to honor both families.
Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas were engaged in the summer of 2018 and married that December in a celebration that joined two families, two countries and two faiths without asking either to give way. Over a long weekend at Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur, the couple held a mehendi, a Christian wedding and a Hindu wedding, each with its own clothes, customs and setting within the palace. It remains one of the most elegant answers to a question many couples face: how to have both.
| At a glance | |
|---|---|
| Date | December 1, 2018 (Christian ceremony); December 2, 2018 (Hindu ceremony) |
| Place (ceremony) | Umaid Bhawan Palace, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India |
| Reception | At the palace, followed by receptions in New Delhi and Mumbai later in December |
| The dress (designer) | Ralph Lauren (Christian ceremony); Sabyasachi (Hindu ceremony) |
| Guests | Both families and close friends |
| Officiant | Paul Kevin Jonas Sr., the groom’s father, a pastor (Christian ceremony) |
The couple
Chopra, a former Miss World and one of India’s biggest film stars, had also become, with the ABC series Quantico, the first South Asian to headline an American network drama. Jonas, a singer and actor, had risen to fame with his brothers in the Jonas Brothers. They began dating in May 2018, and he proposed that July on the island of Crete. In August they held a roka, the Punjabi engagement ceremony, in Mumbai. Before the wedding, the couple described it as a merging of two families who respected each other’s faiths and cultures.
The ceremonies
Umaid Bhawan Palace was built between 1929 and 1943 for Maharaja Umaid Singh, in part to provide work during a famine, and designed by the British architect Henry Vaughan Lanchester in golden-yellow sandstone. It is still part royal residence, part museum and part hotel, run by Taj.
The weekend began with a mehendi, at which Chopra wore Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla. The Christian ceremony, on Saturday, December 1, was officiated by Jonas’s father, Paul Kevin Jonas Sr., a pastor. The Hindu ceremony followed on Sunday, December 2, in a different part of the palace. The photographer Jose Villa documented the weekend.
The dresses
For the Christian ceremony, Chopra wore a custom Ralph Lauren gown: fitted, long-sleeved and embellished with more than two million sequins, worn with a 75-foot veil. Jonas also wore Ralph Lauren.
For the Hindu ceremony, she wore a crimson lehenga by Sabyasachi Mukherjee, made from hand-cut organza flowers, French knots in silk floss and Siam-red crystals; it took 110 embroiderers in Kolkata 3,720 hours. Jonas wore a coordinating look by the same designer.
After the ceremonies, she changed into a custom crimson gown by Dior with a fitted bodice and a full tulle skirt, worn with diamonds.
For more of the gowns that shaped modern bridal fashion, see our guide to celebrity wedding dresses.
The receptions
The couple then held receptions in New Delhi and in Mumbai, including one in Mumbai hosted by Chopra’s mother, Dr. Madhu Chopra. At the Mumbai reception she wore a sapphire-blue and gold brocade gown by Sabyasachi. “This has been an extremely special chapter in my life,” she said, thanking the guests who had shaped it.
Why it mattered
Many couples bring two traditions to their wedding, and the Chopra–Jonas wedding gave them a model: separate ceremonies, each done properly, rather than a single blended service. It put Indian bridal design, and Sabyasachi’s craftsmanship in particular, in front of a global audience, and its 75-foot veil became one of the most widely shared bridal images of the year. The couple’s daughter, Malti Marie, was born in 2022. For another multi-day celebration in India, see Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant.
Borrow the idea
Hold two ceremonies. If your families have different faiths or traditions, consider separate ceremonies on the same day or consecutive days, each led by someone from that tradition. Our guide to wedding traditions around the world is a good place to start, as is the order of the ceremony.
Change for each ceremony. Different clothes for different rites show respect for each, and give each ceremony its own photographs.
Commission one heirloom piece. A hand-embroidered veil, lehenga or shawl, made by artisans, can be worn again or passed down.
Give guests a guide to each ceremony. When many guests will be attending a ceremony from an unfamiliar tradition, a short printed program or a note on the wedding website explaining the rites, the dress code and how long each part lasts makes everyone feel welcome. Our guide to dress codes can help with the wording.
If you want a long veil, plan for it. A dramatic cathedral veil needs attendants, still air or a plan for the wind, and a photographer who knows when to shoot it.
Written and edited by the Today’s Weddings editors. How we research and check what we publish is set out in our editorial standards. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
