Liana and Vivake
Wedding date: December 3, 2017
Ceremony Venue – Parents’ House
Reception Venue – V&V Contractors (Transformed Garage)
Photographer – A Williams Photographs
Gown designer – Modern Bride, CLD
Planner – Trisha Ragoonanan and Illusions Mas
Decorator– Ravi Moon
MUA – La Cara
Cake – The Brown Box Cake
Mehindi – Anessa Karim
“Our parents wanted the traditional 3 day Hindu wedding but Vivake and I wanted something different and unique to us. All in all, it turned out to be a magical 3 day wedding celebration. What helped was that Vivake lived two houses away!
Thursday was the Mehindi night at my house and I celebrated with my sister, girlfriends and dogs. I requested that the mehendi artist draw my dogs – Onyx and Colby, who I love dearly, on my hands. She also drew a bride and groom on the inside of my palms. On my feet, she wrote a message in Spanish, which translated to: “To new beginnings.” I wanted to link the 2 years I had spent in Spain (2014-2016) somehow, to my wedding.
Friday was the Maticoor night and was also my mom’s birthday. Both the bride and groom’s houses entertained guests with classical singing and tassa. Guests went back and forth via foot between both houses keeping the competition going for best tasting food and liveliest dancers!
Saturday was our Farewell night. My dad arranged Dil-E-nadan from 10pm until 2am Sunday morning. Vivake also arranged a music truck which did not stop playing music until 530am on our wedding morning. It was literally a music street festival. So, no sleep for me!
Sunday was our wedding ceremony and reception. Some of the details and highlights we had were:
- We avoided the usual hall or customary venue for the reception as we transformed a garage and used floating umbrella décor
- Local jam and teas, as wedding favors for the ceremony. Our jam supplier was Terre Benie. I chose exotic flavours like: Papaya Jam with Ginger, Passion Fruit, Sorrel and Guava. I wanted to use our wedding as an opportunity to showcase local entrepreneurs and highlight our local talent rather than purchase a mass-produced item to give as our wedding favor. This was also the reason we gave out plants, so someone could nurture a plant afterwards. I’m a tea lover and the tea supplied by Tea Spott was amazing. We provided an assortment of pumpkin spice, earl grey cream, lavender earl grey and chocolate rooibos chai. Guests were calling weeks after, to obtain the contact info for the tea, since they wanted to purchase as well.
- We gave out “live” plants (an assortment of rosemary, poinsettias, marigold and chrysanthemums) for the reception.
- Instead of guests signing a photo frame, we had a globe and puzzle guest book.
- My bridal outfits were not the traditional colours.
- For the ceremony, we offered traditional curry dishes, whilst at the reception we had sushi, doubles, corn soup and live pasta stations (vegetarian, chicken and lamb) as well as a table of our favourite desserts (éclairs, fudge, pawpaw balls and cupcakes).
- For reception entertainment, we had a unique DJ Booth with a music trailer truck (I tossed my bouquet from on the truck! ), belly dancing byN9 Dance Company, an aerial silk performance, a rhythm section and then fireworks. It was a real celebration!
- Our photo-booth was built by my dad and we placed disposable cameras around for guests to have fun.
- We also had a kids’ zone/table.
- My 77 year old grandmother made a speech, which I felt so blessed about.
We really wanted our wedding weekend to represent our unique characteristics and we wanted to keep our guests surprised. Indeed we did, as lots commented that is was a unique wedding, full of LOVE but still elegant, classy and full of vibes! I would tell all future brides, whatever you want…you can have it and I would recommend a Wedding Planner!” – Liana
