Some couples are stuck in the dating phase. They talk over the phone, skype for a long long time before tying the knot. While other couples who are fortunate enough to live in the same city, roam around and spend each minute together and they are stuck in the honeymoon phase. But very few get over these phases and start living a life together, understanding one another, learning each other’s flaws and traits, others breaking the society’s norms and stereotypes. Our couple, Shanthini and Satya are the latter and they lived together, of course, with their parent’s consent! Now, how cool is that!
Let’s hear it from the bride, Shanthini- “I met my husband Satya in college. We were classmates who were good friends. Eventually, we started dating and ended up falling for each other. After being in love for over 8 years, we moved to Bangalore for work and started living together. We knew each other well and we decided to be married to each other someday. Our parents were the most supportive and understood us. Eventually, our parents met each other and decided on a date for us to be married. They gave us enough time to execute the wedding.
We had a Tamil Brahmin wedding combining a few rituals from Telegu wedding ceremony. It was a simple wedding with a limited number of guests. We did not have a reception and wanted only a wedding ceremony.
When it came to wedding planning, Jayashree from Shopzters helped us in every step of the way. She helped us choose a candid photographer Anand Daga of @anand-daga-photography#, who did a wonderful job! Shopzters also guided me in finding a makeup artist in Coimbatore, Padma Varadharaj who did a fabulous job of giving me a natural-looking makeup.
I purchased my sarees from @varamahalakshmi-silks# and @a-s-babu-sah# Kanchipuram. Both the places have an amazing collection and overwhelm you with choices. We bought Satya’s clothes from @nalli-silks#, Chennai.
My blouses were by @sruthi-kannath#. She does some gorgeous work. We met one day and brainstormed on what pattern would look nice for each saree/ colour and she had so many interesting suggestions. All the blouses turned out just like I wanted them and I was super happy with her work.
The decor was done by the Suguna Manadapam guys themselves. I had picked some backdrops off the internet and they did such a good job of replicating it.
And the food was by Subiksha Catering. They have been our family caterers for so many weddings and my parents refused to go with anyone else other than Subiksha and their food was indeed so good.
The most emotional and memorable moment for me was the thali tying ceremony. I had goosebumps and it was very surreal and dreamlike for me!
As I knew my husband before, my whole wedding was a relaxed one. I have a good equation with my in-laws and we meet regularly. We used to meet during weekends for lunches and dinners and I was cool as I knew them earlier I did not have any stress and hence I looked bright and chill. I did not follow any diet as everyone wanted me to put on a few grams before the big day.
We are still planning our Honeymoon and we are planning on going to Turkey this year.”
In this day and age, more couples are breaking norms and stereotypes, doing what they feel is right. It is admirable that they followed their hearts and found their 'happily ever after'!
