Navin and Abinaya had a typical arranged marriage! They met each other through their parents and decided at first sight that they wanted to spend their lives with each other. With around 8 months to plan the wedding, Abinaya shares with us how she planned the entire wedding! .
Our first function was on 16 th February, the Mehendi and Cocktail held at Gokulam Park in Coimbatore. My beautiful Mehendi lehenga was from Visaka Silks, Palani and the make-up was by Page3 where I decided to experiment a bit with my looks. Navin’s waistcoat was from P.N. Rao which is where he did most of his shopping from. The Mehendi artists were Nafeeza and Metha Joshi, both of who did a great job in making the day special. The theme for our function was based around being eco-friendly and so we had gifts planned for our guests, it included terracotta jewellery packed in cane baskets, with usage of straw. This was made possible by Miya Mika 'Terracotta Accessories' in Coimbatore, who had the patience to hand make the jewellery and give life to our idea. The Mehendi also had a professional choreographer, the talented Mr. Manoj Jackson who was the runner up of Ulangalil Yaar Adutha Prabhudeva
My mother was very particular about me wearing an Uppada saree for the main functions, so despite the complications that came with the Chennai floods we managed to find two beautiful tissue Uppada sarees at Tulsi Silks, Chennai. The blouses were done by Visaka Silks, Palani and I have to thank Mrs. Radhika for her brilliant work in such a short notice, she had just 15 days to work on three sarees. Navin’s Sherwani was from P.N.Rao and he looked so good that it fetched him more compliments than my long searched for saree. He was groomed by Mr. Anil from Posh Spa and Salon who did an excellent job. All the jewellery I wore has been collected by my mother over the years with such precision, including key pieces from Kritilal Kalidas, GRT and Zaveri bros jewellers. The diamond necklace which was a gift from my in-laws is an exquisite piece by Kirtilal Kalidas. My make-up artist for the wedding was Mrs. Chitra from Pollachi. Though I was a bit apprehensive since I don’t usually carry make-up very well, she made the entire look seem rather natural and it blended perfectly. However, the only issue that arose was the fact that she was overbooked so it’s better to tell her beforehand the assistance you will be requiring. We had no second thoughts about our caterers, it was done by our family friend Mr. Vimal, the son of Madhampatti Thanavel.
We are eternally grateful to him and his team for making the food the highlight of our wedding. Every single guest complimented and appreciated the catering to no end. Our invite and backdrop theme was a mix of the peacock and parrot tones, overall a bird theme that was bought to life by Sabitha and Divya from Saangyas. They relieved the burden off our shoulders and took care of every single detail that went into the backdrop and flowers for the function. Last but not the least, we would like to extend our appreciation to our photographers at Creative Wedding Photography, Hari has become Navin’s favourite photographer because of his talent when it comes to such effortless candid photography. Not just that though, Hari’s patience and humbleness really was a gift, especially with a family like ours that can never seem to stay still. His team did an amazing job when it came to our outdoor post-wedding photoshoot at Destiny Farms in Ooty. The costume credits for the shoot to go Visaka Silks, Palani being of great help, once again.
I strongly advice to-be brides who plan to get in shape to start working towards it as soon as you are fixed to get married because if you reach the goal post engagement, it can be very disappointing. Also, a week of fruit diet can work wonders on your skin and body. We decided to go to New Zealand for our honeymoon, it’s a beautiful place that everybody must visit. It’s very important that you go for a honeymoon immediately after the ceremonies, because it’s a part of the charm, so we decided to go on a trip nearby first and then abroad after a small gap.
