Yaay! We need to break coconuts I guess! Here is our first ever mallu wedding feature! I have been wanting to feature the beautiful brides of God's own country, Kerala and finally happy that it has been made possible; that too with this cute little wedding at Guruvayur!
Hello everyone! This is Vidyalakshmi here; born and brought up in the lovely city of Coimbatore but paternally and maternally a Malayali. I got married to Nikhil in December 2014. I met him in early 2014 and engagement date was fixed for early February.
The wedding date was fixed for December. After my PG in April, I got 7 whole months to prep myself and other arrangements for the wedding. Thus started the planning and the shopping…
Ever since I was a little kid, my dream destination for the wedding had been in the presence of Lord Guruvayurappan at Guruvayur temple in Kerala. If a mallu wedding happens in a temple, the main function with the mangalsutra or thaali happens in the temple while the rest of the events happen in the wedding hall.
With as many as 100 weddings happening in the temple every day, booking the hall in Guruvayur was once of the first things that we did. We booked Rugmini Kalyana Mandapam as our wedding hall which is in the East Nada of the temple. They made all our arrangements-flowers, decorations, the wedding sadya, extremely smooth for us.
In Coimbatore, we booked Ponmani Kalyana Mandapam in Nallampalayam as the venue for our Coimbatore reception. It was the cosiest cutest place I had seen in quite a while and without a moment’s hesitation I okayed it. The owner of the place was extremely helpful in arranging everything for us. The decorations were simply marvellous – the transformation that they made was simply beautiful.
For the engagement and wedding, my sarees were from PSR Silks, Coimbatore. I take pride in being a quick shopper but in PSR I found it difficult to make a selection because of the amazing range of colours and patterns available. For designer sarees, I went to Sresht in R S Puram. My best friend gifted me my reception saree from @kalanikethan#, Chennai.
For years, our family has been going to Bhima Jewellers, Coimbatore & Kerala for our gold needs and so all my wedding jewellery was from Bhima. They have a wonderful collection that is a mix of both traditional and contemporary. I shopped for all my artificial jewellery from T.Nagar and Adyar, Chennai. I got my sandals from Lifestyle.
My Mehendi was done by Dina didi whose contact I got from a Shopzters patron. The makeup for my wedding was by Sumangali beauty parlour, Guruvayur. Their work was nothing short of fabulous. They made me look great but I felt absolutely comfortable with all the makeup and accessories (something I have never been comfortable with :P).
My Coimbatore reception make-up was by Meena Gopal aunty whose contact I got from Shopzters again and she was patient and liberal to incorporate my suggestions.
I spent majority of my time in the hunt for the wedding photographer. I wanted someone who could do both candid and traditional while be in the budget because my parents would definitely object to spending a lot on photography. I contacted over a dozen photographer and looked through their portfolios and finally fixed on @dmedia-designz#.
They are a team of photographers based out of Kollam and their portfolio caught my eye for the uniqueness in style. When I started my conversations with them, they made me feel at ease and assured me of the quality of deliverables. And sure enough, they have left me with wonderful memories of the wedding.
We also had a post-wedding outdoor shoot at Fort Kochi and the photos came out absolutely perfect. They had a lot of patience for the both of us – we were extremely shy :DOur catering for the Coimbatore reception was undertaken by Azhagar Mess based out of Saibaba Colony.
Every guest at the reception left raving about the variety and uniqueness of dishes at the reception.
We went to Dubai after the wedding, I wouldn’t call it a honeymoon more like a visit with my husband to where he works. We went around the city taking in the amazing infrastructure, sights and the Dubai Shopping Festival, of course ? The highlight of our trip was going on top of the Burj Khalifa – the world’s tallest building.
As for myself, I took regular facials and the like done at Green trends. I went on a no-fat diet regime. That was all. I kept it simple. ? To all the future brides, my advice is to keep things simple (not too simple because it’s your WEDDING after all) and well-planned. No experiments with beauty treatments at least a month before the wedding. Take your time in deciding the photographers and beauticians. And Wedding sure is a huge step but it’s the beginning of a flighty temptress adventure (to borrow the words of Dumbledore).
Shopzters has turned out to be the best wedding planner any South Indian bride could ask for. Hoping that Shopzters expands to other parts of South India as well which would be a boon for more brides like me from Kerala ?
