One of our readers, Snigdha, a self proclaimed vivacious, adventurous, notorious and an absolute maniac “Bong” has sent in her wedding story for our real weddings feature. We are always super-delighted to receive these stories, and this one, in particular, is full of humorous and romantic little details. You are in for tons of entertainment…so grab your Chai and read on….
Bride and Groom: Snigdha&Jagdish
We met- On a windy evening, in a dingy coffee shop at the end of the street, I walked in with an eerie feeling wondering if the place was safe to be. A dim lamp glew over my head with some fireflies flying around. Not many folks sat there, but one guy with a charming smile and a guitar in his hand played to the tunes of “Country Roads take me home” a John Denver Classic and my favourite. He saw me noticing him and came over and asked if there was anything he could play for me. I couldn’t resist so asked him to play Bryan Adam’s Summer of ’69, and he was flawless and I was already in love! But for him, the thought that “he might be in love”, took a lot of time to strike. Days of meeting every evening, having loads of coffee and crazy gossips about everything under the sun from lame movies and crazy relatives to fast cars and rusted bikes helped him realise that I was more than a friend, a lover and a wife-to-be in waiting.
Our Proposal-If by the beach or a candle light dinner is on your mind, then I am sorry all that just didn’t happen. In fact, neither of us liked the idea of romance as it is type-casted. We were more of friends, all for the love of bikes and the vintage cars we are passionate about. But yes there was a proposal and a funny one in fact. He proposed to me on the highway to Nandi Hills in Bangalore, singing Bruno Mars “Marry me”. I thought he was just singing like any other day, but he popped out a ring and rest all is history.
Our wedding theme: When we think of a wedding in India, it’s always the bright colours and the bling, the glitter and the glow, but neither of us wanted the theme to be loud. So we chose white, a little of red and golden as the wedding theme. Being a Bengali cum Malayali wedding, the ladies were all decked up in traditional white and red Bengali saris and some in the traditional white and golden “veshti mundu” from Kerala. Men wore Dhoti and Kurta and they looked stunningly handsome to compliment their significant halves. The decor had everything red and white, right from the flower to the dais. The waiters were decked up in red and white as well. That was a wedding theme well implemented.
My Dress- Well I really didn’t know what to buy. With so many options available, I was confused about selecting the right attire. Thankfully, to my rescue came thebridalbox. A friend of mine recommended the site and I had it all sorted. My Sari was a traditional “White and Red Banarasi Silk Saree” by renowned designer Sabyasachi. Hand-woven embroidery with gold plated thread with the purest of silk; my wedding Sari will always be my master-piece and an asset I will always own.
Hair and Makeup-My Hair and Makeup was done at the “Lakme Salon” in Hyderabad, and they sure did deliver! I am little choosy and get extremely nosy when it comes to make-up. So with all their patience and love for me, their astonishing skills transformed me from a brat that I look to a beautiful bride for my Wedding.
His Wedding Attire- My groom wore a regal pure silk khaadi Kurta and dhoti for the Bengali Wedding that we got from Dhaka, Bangladesh. He looked amazingly Bengali with the “Topor” on his head to compliment the attire and carried it off so well. For the Kerala wedding, he wore a Mundu and Kurta hand woven by my Mom-in-law and looked splendid. I must say my mom-in-law is quite a designer.
Our Ceremony- On the night before our Big Day, we had our Sangeet ceremony. And it was not like the usual ones. All our family and friends were drinking in glee and dancing the night away. Sloshed too bad to realise that the day was finally there at 12AM, we hurried back home for the final ceremony in the morning (it was fun, imagine everyone you knew since childhood happy and tripping over each other as they hurried back to look sober enough for their little one’s big day)! The marriage ceremonies kick started at 5AM . Starting with the haldi rasam at both mine and his place. Then the ashirwaad ceremony was held at my place, where I was showered with gifts. And yes, the most important, the fish gifting ceremony, where my family received a fish decked up in gold from the grooms place as a token of love. At around 7, we had the mahurat for the Bengali wedding, which took 2 hours in fast forward mode (thanks to the Pundit) and then the Malayali wedding which took 10 minutes, thanks to their rituals (makes me love them so much more!).
All I did was smile throughout the wedding looking at my panic stricken husband (well, not that he was scared, he was simply terrified that’s all). ). My guests gazed at me baffled, wondering where all that confidence came from. I must say, it’s all because I knew my husband is a gem and that he will keep me happy forever …
Photographers- We hired two professional photographers, Akshay VanRao and R Manoj, to shoot our pre- wedding, wedding and post wedding pictures. We just didn’t want to compromise on this. Down the lane, it will be these photographs that will help us cherish the memories we made. I will be sharing the links below, they are treat for the eyes.
The Wedding Venue– We had moved two months prior to our wedding to Hyderabad. Our families live in Delhi and Trivandrum respectively. So it was just me and him , who had to fix the venue, and we lazed around only to realise there were too many marriages on the same day as ours. After a lot of scouting, we finally chose the “Taj Banjara” Hyderabad, and I don’t regret the choice at all. One of the oldest Taj hotels in India, it had its own vintage feel and added royalty to the wedding, just like we wanted.
The Menu- Being a fusion wedding, we catered to the flavours of both Bengali and Malayali Cuisines. Right from Dahi Vada to Doi Maach to Sambaar. We had seven varieties of fish delicacies to suffice our “love for fish”.And the chef definitely did stupendously fantastic job. The Bengali Paan at the end was like the cream on ice and all our guests loved it.
Our Honeymoon- After all the anxiety, stress and fatigue from the wedding, it was time we took a break from all this and head for our Honeymoon. After days of research, we just found the right place for us to go to- Borneo, an isolated yet beautiful island in South Asia. Lush green hills, deep blue sea and serene white sands, we had all that we wished for. A long 7 day trip, we ventured to Langkawi and Brunei for snorkelling, bungee-jumping and scuba diving. The time we spent there was the best time ever. It’s been a month since our honeymoon and I already want to go back again. I had the time of my life and will cherish it forever.
My favourite wedding moment- In the entire wedding, with so many rituals, the best time I had was at my Sangeet. When my husband went down his knees, in front of 1000 odd people and sang my favourite song “Tu hi re” from Bombay. I became very emotional and couldn’t stop myself from shedding tears. It was a moment, I will treasure for life.
Advice time for all would be brides : First thought that strikes every girl planning to get married is, “is this the right time to get married?” Well, trust me there is no right time to get hooked. If you are in love, and you are sure of spending your life with him, just go ahead and do it. Once you have decided, everything will fall in place and you certainly won’t regret the decision. There are ups and down in every relationship, but at the end of the day, you are sure to feel loved – so simply forget all the worries and go ahead!
As they say love cannot be expressed but only experienced and I am fortunate to experience the love and the magic of marriage. Happy Wedding in Advance! Thank you for reading!
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