It is difficult to describe Akshaya in one word because she is so full of life and has so many facets. Talking about her would be like reading a list of achievements. 'An entrepreneur, owner of three fitness studios in 'Namma Chennai', Akshaya is a health and fitness professional from Indian Institute of Sports Medicine, a licensed Pilate instructor, yoga and Zumba instructor and a nutritionist. The groom Anton Manuel is a Network Consultant at CGI where he has been living for the past ten years. When her mother asked Akshaya to put her profile on a wedding website if only to humour her, Akshaya had no idea how it might change her life. Soon Anton got in touch and in a single call, floored the bride.
Anton ticked everything on my checklist in a single call, Akshaya laughs heartily. There is a certain fondness in her voice which just proves how lucky she considers herself to be! After an amazing courtship period, Akshaya got engaged to the man of her dreams. And well since the engagement was a complete event in itself, which we featured here, we were eagerly waiting for the wedding and here it is! I began my shopping right after the engagement on November 15th. The wedding was held at the Santhome cathedral and the reception at Leela palace.
I originally wanted to fly abroad to get my gown, I wanted it to be perfect and was doubtful I would find anything that fit in India.However, to my surprise I found a beautiful gown at Juno Mari, which is originally from Bangalore but just opened up a store in Adyar. The gown was exactly what I wanted, A-Line with sleeves that I changed after the wedding, it was delivered on time a month before the wedding and perfectly tailored to my needs.
The jewellery I picked for my wedding consisted mostly of diamonds which I picked from Joy Alukkas. For my engagement, I did my own make-up but I really couldn't handle doing the same at the wedding because there was already so much for me to do. So I had the couple Viji and Sharad come in, where Viji did my hair and Sharad did a subtle make-up for me. Overall, this couple de-stressed me and left me in awe from the trial session.
My husband's Tux was from Gatsby, a navy blue that surprised me because I thought he would go for an ordinary black one but it looked great on him. The theme for almost everything at the wedding was pink and purple and so I wanted purple dresses for my bridesmaids. It seemed like a harder task than finding my gown, I looked for 5 months and finally found Fathima, who created the perfect dresses for my beautiful bridesmaids.
Floral Hut by Udata was the obvious choice for the flowers at the wedding, I'he seen his work before, all I had to do was show him a picture of what I wanted and it was done. The photographers for the wedding were Focuz Studios for candid photography and Nanda Kumar for the still photography. Both the photographers gave us some exceptional results, Chandru from Focuz studios was an absolute delight to work with. We didn't get the pictures we expected for our engagement and so we made it a point to co-operate with our photographers for these functions.
For the reception, the decorations were once again done by Floral Hut, the flower wall, bed which formed a photo booth corner had an amazing ombre effect on the wall which looked beautiful in pictures. Overall, we had purple led and laser lights installed at the reception hall, with a great DJ Vivek who also got us a dance floor and everything for the event.
My husband and I opened with a slow number, followed by two more performance by us and a champagne toast and cake cutting. Our first dance has to be my most memorable memory, even though my gown was a hindrance as he kept stepping on it but the moment was perfect. My cousin sang for us and danced too, which was a huge surprise for me, there was a three hour performance planned out for us which we had no idea about, it was so overwhelming.
I changed into a Kanchipuram saree for part of the function, from Sundari Silks cause I honestly believe they have the a wide range of unique designs, though they might seem expensive they are totally worth the money as the saree was light and easy to drape. My blouse to match was by Laxmi Tailors who did an excellent job. The temple jewellery I wore was from Joy Allukas once again. I need to mention the people at Leela Palace as they were very understanding, they did not make a fuss even though we danced till 2am with close family and friends who stayed late.
My family and in-laws surprised me with a bridal shower, it was so well thought and everybody wore pink and purple. It was held a day before the wedding at ECR and everything was brought in from Canada.
Our post-wedding shoot was done by @focuz-studios# at VGP, we had four dress changes and it the serenity of the place was captured brilliantly. The day after we had a home-coming function held for me at Green Park, which included only the close family and was meant to celebrate the wife's entry into her husband's home. Originally our honeymoon was planned for Bali since we both love adventure, but the month of May wasn't advisable and so instead we went to Kullu Manali which has its own adventure sports to offer. After that we visited Sri Lanka, which is his native and explored the cuisine, which had a lot of different variety despite me being a vegetarian.
