The vibrant colour of love is celebrated in this traditional Hindu wedding
We met at campus in our first year of studies and became friends. There had always been a special relationship between us which grew stronger over the years, making us become the very best of friends. It was in our last year of campus that our feelings for one another had developed, this was completely unexpected and we were so unsure of how the other felt. The day of my last exam Vash had organised a surprise braai on the beach for just the two of us, it had been our first date together and oh boy was it magical. After the braai we were laying on the beach when the topic of feelings came up. Nervously Vash told me he had feelings for me and asked how I felt, I was so excited and relieved and immediately told him I felt the same way. This is how the chapter of our love story began…
After asking my parents for permission, and risking his life, he ordered a ring and began to plan on how to ask for my hand. I accidently managed to side-step five of his plans by flying to Jozi at the last minute for my nephew's first birthday, so the proposal plans had to be moved ahead to Valentine's Day. I didn't expect anything as he was in Ceres for three weeks on an audit. Secretly he worked through the previous night to drive home and begin setting up. He light up his entire house with tea-light candles and allowed me to believe that I was the only one with a gift. He fooled me into letting him open his gift whilst recording his reaction only to set up the camera to capture me. After a while he said he had a small gift and brought out a red box. The box had a story attached to it and inside that box was another with the second chapter to our love story… When I reached the 6th and last box, he asked me to decide how the story would unfold... the last box was empty and when I turned to him, he asked me to marry him. I said "YES", of course!
The planning process was fairly difficult. It is quite tricky to plan a wedding in Cape Town when traditional Indian attire is not freely available. We used SA Weddings' online bridal directory to get in touch with the right vendors.
We wanted our wedding to be strictly traditional and include the full set of events and ceremonies; we stuck to what we thought was important. Our heritage inspired our theme as we did not want to fall short on tradition.
I think for both of us it was the moment we received our first blessings from our parents, aunts and uncles. Straight after the ceremony is done, they shower you with flowers and rice. Our first Gods are our parents and to have them bless us as a married couple is what completed the marriage ceremony in our hearts.
Traditional Hindu - if you could call that a theme ☺ We wanted a simple wedding with absolute focus on the prayer at centre stage.
For a Hindu wedding you would not particularly have bridesmaids. The inspiration behind my wedding dress was traditional red, but with spice. The groom's family provided my dress and we were fortunate enough to have it brought from India.
Roses were the flowers of choice. Once again, we decided to keep it simple and use red roses as it was fitting with of colour scheme and symbolised our running joke of Five Roses Tea instead of a dozen red roses.
We definitely did, many last minute trips were made to the hardware store! For the wedding we needed a 'Harees' which is a carved piece of wood that needs to have 7 notches in it as we actually have 7 vows in our ceremony. This was carved late at night and painted just in time for the ceremony.
We chose the title soundtrack to a Hindi movie called Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. It is a story about best friends realising that they have fallen in-love and so we thought that this was best fitting our love story.
Always remember the most important factor – the person you are marrying! Not everything goes according to plan and accept help when it is offered. Friends and family are a great source of help and it will make them feel more special if they are part of getting you there.
We went to Thailand and Singapore, the beach in Thailand is amazing and the people are so friendly and helpful.
Riaan West is a Cape Town based international fine art wedding photographer who travels for local and International weddings.
