“We ran into each other at a friend’s dinner a couple of months ago, connected on social media, and just kept talking,” says creative director and stylist Hoorvi Valaya of how things began with restaurateur Gurpawan Singh Chawla. With Chawla based in Ludhiana and Valaya in Delhi, their early days played out over very long phone calls. “Our first proper call lasted almost two hours,” she says. “We somehow had so much to talk about. It just felt very easy.”
The proposal didn’t go quite as intended. Chawla had orchestrated something elaborate with Valaya’s mother, meant to unfold on one of her sets. “But I fell sick and cancelled the shoot a day before,” she says. What took place instead was a laid-back evening, with just the two of them. “I came home one day, and there were candles everywhere. It was just him. No photographers, nothing. It was simple, but I think that’s what made it special.”
If the couple had it their way, the Sikh wedding would have followed suit. “We wanted one afternoon, very private, very limited people,” Valaya says. “But Indian families don’t work like that.” So, there was a multi-event celebration in Delhi that, in true Valaya fashion, was extraordinarily visual.
They began with a mehendi that leaned into colour and chaos. “JJ Valaya as a brand is very royal and muted,” she explains. “So this was the one event where I wanted to go all out.” Think neon pinks, oranges, and yellows layered into a carnival-like setting, complete with a Moroccan bazaar-inspired installation designed for portraits. For the occasion, she wore a vintage-inspired gharara by Ameeran, its old-world zari work offset by a sharper, more playful palette. Her jewellery stayed classic—a polki set by Kirti Mukha—paired with floral accents by Floral Art by Srishti, while intricate mehendi by Sona Mistry completed the look.
The engagement dialled things back into a more formal, black-tie mood. Held at Canvas Farms, the evening followed a strict black-and-ivory dress code, with décor imagined as “very classic, very muted, very international,” as Valaya puts it. She wore a chevron lehenga by JJ Valaya from the brand’s Autumn/Winter ’26 collection—still under wraps and part of a tradition where only one chevron lehenga is created per collection—a perk of being the couturier’s daughter. She styled with emerald-and-diamond jewellery from Shriram Jewellers, Raipur. It was one of the few moments she consciously stepped away from her signature polki. Chawla complemented her in a black embroidered bandhgala by JJ Valaya, finished with subtle Mandarin-style details. “It’s very him—classic and understated, but still interesting if you look closely,” she says.
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