Where did you meet?
A mutual friend introduced us, we oganised a first date and the rest was history.
What is your proposal story?
We went to Hamilton Island for a getaway and during the trip we took a seaplane to a secluded area of White Haven beach. Suraj then pretended to capture drone footage and dropped down on one knee to propose.
How did you know he/she was the one?
We had begun dating during Covid lockdown times, which subsequently made our relationship much stronger. After this period, certain life-changing situations occurred in both our lives and our bond continued to grow. There was no doubt we were head over heels for each other.
In three words, how would you describe your wedding?
Vibrant, energetic and memorable
What made you choose Hyatt Hotel Canberra for your wedding?
We were after a destination wedding however still wanted to do something close to home. Coming from Sydney, we found Hyatt Hotel Canberra to be a classic, stunning venue that also allowed us to have our well-known vendors from Sydney help us with our wedding.
Did you have a theme? How did you incorporate this into the day?
Our wedding was spread across three days and each event had its own theme. This was incorporated throughout the different venue spaces at Hyatt Hotel Canberra, complimenting it with décor to showcase our visions.
What style of dress did you choose and why?
Each event’s theme was put together based on each garment I (bride) wore for each event. For the cultural events I went with different South Asian styles, including Sri Lankan kandiyan sari, Indian lehenga and traditional Gujarati sari.
For the civil ceremony I chose to go with a strapless corset bodice A-line gown as I wanted to feel like a princess. I then had an outfit change during the reception to a sleeveless form-fitting midi dress with pearl tulle gloves, allowing me to pull off my dance moves.
What flowers did you choose and why?
Each events theme had a different colour schemes based on the garments worn by us - from ivory white for the Poruwa Ceremony (as white is traditional for this ceremony), to yellow/orange for the Manglik Prasango (as this event focuses on cleansing the skin with turmeric), to orange/cream for the Hindu Ceremony (matching our outfits) to finally snow white (as we had a black-white theme).
For us it was important we had a consistent theme, from the décor, to the outfits, to the stationery such as the invitations and programs.
Did you work with a stylist/planner?
We hired a venue stylist named Décor-A-Shaan, whom are based in Sydney. We also hired a wedding planner named One-plus-one (Tanve Kaley), whom are based in Canberra.
How did you choose your photographer?
We had chosen Rolling Canvas as our photographer based on our experience with them in the past (other family members have used their service). They are also a well-known business in the South Asian community that offers additional services like videography and especially a same-day edit video to project at the events.
What was your favourite part of the day/most memorable moment?
It’s quite hard to pin-point a moment throughout all six events, however the Civil Ceremony would have to be our favourite, as amongst the chaos off the multiple events and celebrations we loved that we were able to find an intimate space in the hotel to share our vows and conduct our legal ceremony.
From start to finish, how long did it take to plan your wedding day?
Roughly 18 months
Do you have any advice for future brides?
Plan ahead – I know that’s easier said than done, but creating a Gantt chart for actionable items really helped us. It was also useful in setting deadlines and knowing when we needed to make decisions by.
Pinterest vision boards also definitely helped us figure out what we wanted visually and helped drive new ideas.
Use Canva for DIY items – we did a fair bit of DIY as we really wanted to stay within budget, so using Canva for things like preparing invitations, programs, signage can go a long way!
Share the load – we were both well invested in our wedding. The more I think about it, my husband was actually the driver for planning and coordinating our big day.
Communicate - during planning it can be sometimes frustrating or overwhelming when one or the other doesn’t comprehend the situation, so we made sure we set expectations on how to deal with scenarios and made sure to communicated clearly to one another to avoid (or limit) conflicts.
Have fun - we also made sure to allow date nights here and there to take a break from wedding planning, as sometimes it can feel like wedding planning is all you both talk about.
