Ethnic Essence Inc.

Smita Smita Smita. If you want excellence you should hire Smita and her team. Smita is a creative genius who uses her art to execute your vision. What I appreciate most about Smita is her professionalism and charismatic charm that is so naturally exuded in the quality of work she produces. She is a visionary who masterfully executes your dream with precision and class. Every bride should be certain to know there are many other vendors attempting to prove to themselves and others their worth in wedding decoration & planning, particularly in the field of Indian weddings. Smita pillars over any competition, as her education in artistry and years of experience is the reason her work product is the only proof she endorses. My wedding décor exuded class, sophistication, attention to detail and above all elegance. The emotions evoked by our guests were synonymous to the hard work and dedication committed by Smita and her team.
With regards to wedding planning, Smita executed our requests and commitment to time in a flawless manner. As I read some of the comments here, I would emphasize to any future prospect, that Smita can only execute to perfection what is in fact conveyed to her, she cannot read minds. Hindsight is ²⁰⁄₂₀ and any bride that demands perfection must always appreciate that the origination of that execution is the responsibility of the bride, and it begins with what is conveyed and communicated to her vendors, prior to the event. With that being said, I thank Smita for executing what I conveyed to perfection. Both sets of parents felt absolute zero stress and instead simply focused on enjoying their children’s wedding, as they were humbled to know the responsibility was in the hands of a professional, who executed the wedding as if were her own children getting married. Thank you Smita for allowing our parents to feel that level of comfort, that security alone makes you and your team invaluable.
I must also give a special thanks to Nina, for being so wonderful to work with throughout the entire process. Nina thank you for your professionalism and allowing me to feel that I truly was a valued client of both you and Smita; I appreciate that immensely.
Final thought, your wedding is an investment that will last a lifetime, as it is an expression of your self worth and reputation. You get one opportunity, take that opportunity to invest in experience, professionalism and art, not a novice.
Thank you Smita and the entire team at Ethnic Essence! xoxo 1÷16÷16

We had a good time working with Ethnic Essence, the team was wonderful in creating a wedding for me that I had only dreamt of. The entire team is delightful to work with. They provided décor, lightening and floral arrangements that were wonderful. They also had different types of center pieces and entrance pieces that were created just for my wedding. Smita and her team was quick to follow up on emails and phone calls.
My only concerns were coordination. I felt there was lack of it during the day of the wedding. It was hard for me to get in touch with anyone from the team during the morning of my wedding. Also some details that were discussed before hand were not handled during the actual day. It was not anything that hindered the moment, but enough to remember that they were not done. Ethnic essence has a list of vendors they recommend which made it easy for us to choose from as far as DJ and photograph videographer and caterers. However, I feel there was lack of coordination among the photographers/​videographer and ethnic essence team. Ethnic essence provided a google doc where you can write things for the wedding and they share it with the vendors. But it’s hard to write everything on this doc. There are moments that needed to be captured but I couldn’t specifically write on the doc when they would happen.
So I tried to arrange a sit down meeting with ethnic essence and the photographer a few times so they could know all the exact moments to take pics that were important to me. But the ethnic essence team assured me such a meeting was not necessary and everything will work out, as they know to be around me and my hubby to take pics or get them taken. I trusted them with the decision as they have been doing this a long time. However the day of the wedding and reception, those pics were not taken. And many times I tired to find someone from the team to help me get the photographers during the reception but no one was around to see if I or my hubby needed anything. I have now received the pics from the wedding and reception and I don’t see many family member pics that were important to me. So there is a definite lack of coordination.
However, ethnic essence does a wonderful job in creating a wedding of your dreams. They fulfill desires as have a elegance and grandeur. And will listen to what you want and all the décor. But they just need a bit more coordination between vendors. As wedding planners it is their area of expertise to make sure all the vendors are on the same page. This is the area I felt they lacked. And perhaps arrange meetings between the bridal or groom party and important vendors and them, so all the details are on the table and nothing is missed. With all this being said, I did have an awesome time and the best wedding I could ask for. It’s are wedding that even guests will remember for years to come! Yes, I have missing pictures, which does make me upset. But the wonderful memories will last forever. And the awesome things you get to hear from family and friends make it even more special. Would recommend!

Smita and her team (special shout-​out to Iris who helped with all of the organization along the way) did an amazing job for our wedding last month! The floral centerpieces, bouquets, rentals, etc. were all out-​of-​this world-​AMAZING! I only had a few pinterest pins and verbal descriptions to give them about how I imagined my wedding to be, and the entire team just nailed it! I added a picture of the floral centerpieces, but the chivari chairs, gold chargers, blush napkins and the uplighting were also provided by Ethnic Essence. The flowers were fresh and perfectly arranged… they lasted us for quite some time! I highly recommend Smita and her team for any floral arrangements and rentals you need!

Smita and her team did an incredible job for my wedding. I hired them for both décor as coordination, and my 5 stars are for both elements.
For décor, Smita patiently spent time with me and my family as we went through different design concepts. I wanted my wedding to have a simple yet elegant feel, which she delivered 101%. Our mandap had her signature floral Ganesh with perfectly complemented color schemes of gold, pink, ivory and fuschia with the other florals and fabrics. I had a specific floral elephant in mind which she created from scratch and executed in exactly the way I wanted. I received endless compliments from all our guests about how amazing everything looked. She created a beautiful guest canopy as well that tied it all together.
For the reception, also excellent execution. She created 3 centerpiece styles that stayed with my simple yet elegant theme, with beautiful lush florals on each table. I also had her do the dance floor and lighting, which was a great idea. The whole room popped, felt connected and seamless, and was simply breathtaking.
Dealing with various wedding vendors is probably the biggest headache in the wedding planning process, so I am incredibly happy I chose to have Ethnic Essence do not only décor and florals, but also coordination. I chose the 1 month package, but I would suggest the full spectrum package based on my great experience.
On my wedding day, there was a 0% forecast of rain in the morning, but about an hour before the outdoor ceremony start time, it began to drizzle. The beautiful mandap was already set up by this time. Instead of getting flustered and panicking, Smita and her team quickly came up with 3 feasible options and presented them to me. We opted to do the wedding outdoors anyway because of how gorgeous everything looked, and because my husband and I really wanted to get married outside. Unfortunately the rain did not stop, so we got married in the rain. Smita covered our mandap with clear plastic so we would not get wet, coordinated with the hotel to have towels distributed to all the guests, swiftly redirected our food and beverages to an indoor space, and arranged to have our wedding favors passed out inside as well. It was seamless from end to end, and even with the weather causing trouble, our entire event stayed perfectly on time, and was very low stress for me and my family. We used the slight rain delay as an opportunity to take family photos while the team prepared to weather proof our ceremony site. Her experience, ability to troubleshoot on the spot, and fantastic organization made our wedding day a huge success in the face of a situation that could have been a disaster.
I highly recommend Ethnic Essence for any event, not just for décor but for coordination as well. It just makes sense to have big ticket items like coordination and décor housed under the same roof, especially since the whole team is simply fantastic from end to end!

I truly enjoyed my meetings with the Ethnic Essence team; my mother and I would spend hours with Smita Mohindra and her team, getting our creative juices flowing on how we can make each detail of each event something creative. We all truly loved planning the entire week of events together over the past year and I loved how enthusiastic her team was throughout each part of the process and really took creative ownership for each event. They really pulled off incorporating our desired elements while also bringing in their creative energy together very effortlessly and beautifully. It was so great to work with a team who was just as into the creative process as we were and were excited to push the envelope and try new things.
We worked with Ethnic Essence from concept to finish for each event. For our Sangeet both Ashish and I are HUGE bollywood film buffs so we absolutely knew we wanted to incorporate our love for it into our Sangeet. Ethnic Essence coordinated a cocktail hour with a large screen behind our circular bar playing reels from our favorite films, we bought mini rickshaws from Delhi that served as the center pieces, and they created table overlays that were a collages of our favorite films, bollywood themed pillows for the lounge area, a suspended dessert bar, a beautiful austrian curtain stage background to give a theatre affect, and a rickshaw entrance blew everyone away! For the Wedding ceremony I knew I wanted minimal florals as I really wanted the Mandap to be the star of the event, together with Ethnic Essence we envisioned a beautiful ivory structure with red and gold touches to complement my rose pink bridal lehenga. Ethnic Essence executed a Mandap and a Bridal Runway a mandap a bride can only dream of. The gold sequin touch on the bridal runway and mandap really enhanced the beautiful ivory structure that they created. For the reception, we worked with Ethnic Essence and built the inspiration of the entire event with around my custom made Red Ball Gown. We built the theme of the cocktail hour areas and the ballroom all around this inspiration with an elegant gold archway guiding guests to a step & repeat, digital escort screens, unique tray passed appetizers and stations, and gold tufted bars where guests enjoyed specialty «khara» «shah» themed drinks. Ethnic Essence truly transformed the ballroom to a classy, starry night, vintage hollywood themed ballroom room with star drop walls, a gold mirrored dance floor, elegant red rose florals, ice bar, suspended cake; and overall the style was truly magical and our guests jaws dropped when they entered the ballroom.
Overall Smita Mohindra and her team work really hard and truly put their hearts into each event and bring their own creative energy to the events while making sure to incorporate elements that you want. Each of our events were truly transformed and gave our guests unique experiences and overall her and her team at each event was always smiling, very positve, and there to ensure things ran smoothly!
To see more on their work be sure to check out our wedding video:

Please do not use for wedding planning. My wedding day was plagued by her rudeness and lack of attention to coordination of the entire wedding day.
On a side note, her décor and flower arrangements were done well.

Smita Mohindra and her team seamlessly help create a truly memorable experience. They are able to magically transform any event space to a one of a kind masterpiece! All details are always meticulously followed and executed with a great attitude and smile.

Ethnic Essence did amazing job for our family’s big event. They went above and beyond what was discussed. Everything was perfect and on time. Smita is very easy to work with. We would definitely recommend Ethnic Essence for all your floral needs.

My wife and I used Smita’s wedding planning and décor services. She did a good job on the décor and loved the flowers and how it looked on the wedding day. She did a horrible job on the coordination piece. All our events started late and she almost stopped our wedding entrance dance for our bridal party, when we told her 3 months in advance that they will be doing an entrance dance. We ran out of utensils at the pre-​wedding event and my brother-​in-​law had to go buy more when it was Smita’s job to make sure we did not run out of anything. She was no where to be found when we were looking for her. I would recommend her for décor but not for coordination. If I did it all over again, I would not pick her at all, would just coordinate on our own.

My husband and I are so glad we went with Ethnic Essence for our wedding! Smita is so creative and helped us create such a magical wedding! We were blown away with the décor for our wedding ceremony and reception.
Smita has such wonderful ideas and knows how to turn something ordinary to something amazing! My husband and I were blown away with what we saw at our wedding. Smita was able to work with us on what we wanted and was able to provide wonderful suggestions to blossom our ideas. She is extremely detailed oriented and I knew that we had nothing to worry about.
Smita and her team are amazing! They were very professional with setup and clean up. We will definitely be referring Ethnic Essence to all our friends and families.

My husband and I used Ethnic Essence for our wedding décor, and they were absolutely amazing. From our very first meeting, we felt comfortable and confident that Ethnic Essence would perform. In fact, they exceeded our expectations. We could not have asked for a more elegant and romantic wedding setting. The owner, Smita, truly understood and captured our vision. To this day, we receive compliments about our wedding décor.
Also notable, Smita works with your budget. If you give her a range and a vision, she will walk you through how to best meet your goals. She gives you options and tells you precisely what to expect. There is no guessing. Throughout the entire wedding planning process, we felt like Smita was on our side and was willing to do everything to make sure we were happy.
It goes without saying that Smita and her team are extremely professional. They promptly returned phone calls and answered emails (even on Sundays!). They were also very organized, which is vital to every aspect of wedding planning
I never had a single doubt or concern with Ethnic Essence. They are simply amazing and their work speaks for itself.

Planning a wedding can be exciting and overwhelming at the same time. What I loved most about Ethnic Essence is how versatile and creative they are! Every couple is different… some have a clear vision in their mind of what they want and others have no idea where to start. No matter where you are in your planning process, they are amazing at bringing your dream wedding to life! I was a very detail oriented bride and Smita Aunty spent hours with me reviewing every detail so patiently, not to mention drawing everything out! She would show me her illustrations to see if that is what I had envisioned. You can tell that she does everything possible to get the exact materials to make everything look perfect! She has such a kind and supportive staff and together, they make that special day flow flawlessly. If things become challenging the day of, she takes care of everything on her own. That meant a lot to us because we wanted our family to be able to just sit back, relax, and enjoy those days without having to worry about anything else. Thanks to Smita Aunty and her staff at Ethnic Essence, we had a blast at our dream wedding!

My wedding is in a month, and I’m using Ethnic Essence to help me plan the big day. So far, things have gone better than I can imagine. Smita Mohindra (aka Smita Auntie) has been a godsend! We signed EE on 3 months before the wedding. We only had 4 months in total to prepare, and I was understandably panicked about the truncated timeline. Smita Auntie and her team have helped allay my concerns.
I can not say enough nice things about her! She’s excruciatingly detailed and very well connected, which is exactly what you need in a wedding planner. After spending the day with me conducting site visits of my venues, she listened to me and got a sense of exactly what I was looking for. She then described and drew out her vision (even used colored pencils!) to help a non-​creative person like me picture what my day will look like. And she also knows EVERYONE in the industry — she connected me to some great people, who have also been incredibly easy to work with.
My parents live in Dallas, and I know they were initially nervous about having their *only daughter’s wedding* so far away because they couldn’t manage every detail. With Smita Auntie on board, none of us are worried anymore. My dad and I are crazy perfectionists, and I’m sure together we’ve bombarded her with calls and emails as the day is quickly approaching. She is quick and professional in her responses and immediately puts us at ease.

I cant begin to describe how much I loved the details and the whole experience with Smita and her staff. My husband and I love, love Smita. She was always an email or phone call away whenever I was stressed or confused. She was always there to make my life easy. I wanted a very unique wedding and the only thing i told her was i want my guests to come out of the wedding talking about it forever, and see a unique wedding with a «wow» factor. Till this day (a year later) i still have guests telling me that my wedding was one of the most unique weddings they’ve ever seen. It was exactly what i visioned, everything went smoothly and as expected. I didnt have to worry about a thing on my wedding day, everything went according to time, the décor was perfect, the lighting, the venue, everything was just wonderful. Smita became like family and was sad to say goodbye after the wedding events were over. She was heavily involved in my planning from the day i signed with her. If i ever have any other events in the future, she is the first person i’d call.
What is great is the minute we signed with her she was available right away. i sent her pictures from india of my outfits and she was already drawing up unique color schemes and already had a drawing of a sample mandap for me. It was awesome to just go into her office and have things ready for me to view. All i had to do was pick. For someone who loves to be unique, is a perfectionist but want someone else to help come up with unique designs, she is the right person! She took our proposal story, a proposal in paris, into a Parisian theme! So creative and my wishes of getting married in paris came true right in downtown LA :)
absolutely love her and would recommend her to any bride!

I am a person who is very perfectionist when it comes to my events. I recently had an event and due to lack of time, I had put all my trust in Smita and her team to do all the coordination.
I have to say, they did a fabulous job. All the guest very overwhelmed by the attention to details ethnic essence had put in. Smita is a wonderful person. She goes out of her way to fulfill client’s needs. I had great experience working with Ethnic Essence. Thank you Smita for all your support in making my event so special!

My husband and I absolutely LOVE Smita! We can not get over how wonderful she is. As the decorator to my wedding she did an amazing job. She took so much time and effort into making my dream wedding a reality.
Looking back, I would have used her for the coordination as well. The decoration was on time and perfect in everyway.
She takes the time to draw out your vision, and what she draws is what you get. I like how she always tried to save us money during our wedding. In fact, she is the ONLY person to say if you do it this way you can save some money, or please use an outside vendor, we will be to much for your budget otherwise. When Smita told me that, that was the moment I knew she should have been not only my decorator but my planner as well.
Thank you Smita and team for a beautiful wedding. My husband and I will never forget the amazing work you did and most importantly how much you made our special day amazing.

I always knew Ethnic Essence was the place where I was going to do the décor for my wedding. Working with Smita and her team was an absolute pleasure. The one thing I really wanted was that on the day of the wedding to not have to worry about anything at all, not just for myself but for my immediate family members as well and with Smita at the helm I knew that would be a reality. From day one, she understood exactly what I was looking for, her creative talent and amazing ability to sketch allowed her to in our initial consultation visualize exactly what I wanted. Her fabrics, colors and creativity are unmatched in my opinion in the décor industry. She brings a fresh, exciting and unique look to every event that she creates. When you meet her, she has such a classy and elegant presence that you immediately know that your event is in the perfect hands. When someone can walk in the room (as my photographer Aman (Samson Productions) did) and say, «Wow! This must be Smita» you know Ethnic Essence has a mark of quality that everyone recognizes.
Thank you Smita to you and your wonderful team for my making my event absolutely perfect in every sense of the word. I have three younger sisters who will be getting married and we can’t wait to come back and work with you again!

Smita Mohindra and her team at Ethnic Essence were fantastic! I live in Chicago but booked Ethnic Essence because I knew they would make my day perfect. My wedding décor was amazing thanks to Smita– her creativity, originality, and attention to detail will make your wedding stand out from others. Her ability to bring her beautiful design sketches to life is truly unique. She communicates her ideas well, makes sure to incorporate all of your suggestions and ideas, and the actual wedding day flows so smoothly because her team is very organized! Go with Ethnic Essence– you will be thrilled with the outcome!

Ethnic Essence is an amazing team! As a wedding coordinator, I am VERY particular about the vendors I refer to my clients. They have to be flexible, fit the client’s personality, budget, style, and demeanor. The Ethnic Essence team brings all that and more to the table.
We have worked with them a few times where they have exceeded the expectations of the bride, parents, and guests in all respects. They always bring plenty of staff, work flexibly with other vendors (including cooridnators, lighting vendors, and rental companies), always finish early, and add so many little details to bring out the client’s vision. Planning Elegance HIGHLY recommends Ethnic Essence to clients with even the most unique and/​or specific visions!

Ethnic Essence, and it’s owner Smita Mohindra, did not disappoint. My family hired her to decorate and manage my wedding day — she did a fabulous job in every way. I had given her overall themes and ideas of what I wanted for my wedding. Her decorations range from traditional to modern, and elegant to elaborate. She really can make your dream come true. She understood and created centerpieces that matched my descriptions perfectly!
If you’re not sure, just go meet with her. She gives reasonable quotes, stays within budget, and still makes sure to meet all your expectations! You won’t regret working with her.