This blog post is going to differ from my other posts as I am going to be sharing something rather personal about our lives. WARNING! It’s a lot longer than usual.

This story is the beginning of the second chapter of life in DaveNis diaries 👫. David and I were already engaged prior to embarking on this journey. I recall jokingly telling him one warm summer evening that I would love to get married in India and since we are heading there, why not kill two birds with one stone? Of course deep down, it wasn’t a joke and I had always dreamed of getting married in my native country. Growing up I watched numerous Indian movies, many of which involved big fat Indian weddings so of course I wanted my own. In fact, even before I met this amazing man, I had warned my friends to keep some money aside ‘because when I get married, it’s going to be in India’! Anyway, in response to my crazy idea, David smirked and brought me back to reality pretty quickly. He explained how it would be financial suicide given wedding’s are not cheap, specially one that lasts three days and let’s not forget that we were about to embark on a 10 month trip using only our savings. Oh and who wants to worry about planning a wedding while travelling? (Clearly insane me!)

I of course was not convinced. David was correct in his thought process, because he was rationalizing on a cerebral level. I on the other hand, (as always) stopped listening to my brain and my decisions were entirely emotional based. More specifically three emotional reasons. 1. My father has not been keeping well, he’s had multiple health problems in recent years and I just don’t know how long I’ll have him for. He also constantly harasses me to get married, and which daughter doesn’t want to give her father the pleasure of walking her down the aisle. 2. Since my mother passed away in 2010, our family has not seen any happy memories and I thought that this would bring us closer as a family. 3. I couldn’t stop thinking about being a bride in India 😂

I decided to share the idea with my family. I initiated the conversation with my siblings and although they supported my desire, they also understood the strain it would put on our journey. I reflected on the reasons I wanted to get married and quickly realized that more than a big fat Indian wedding, I wanted to celebrate my love with David in front of my family, have my father witness his daughter’s marriage and bond with my siblings. We didn’t need to break the bank to do this. With this, I approached David with my new proposal – a small and intimate affair, no frills, witnessed by close friends and family. – He agreed 😊.

Another two months passed before the subject surfaced again. I was in Auckland talking to my dad when he offered to take care of the wedding expenses. It was the first wedding in the family and he wanted to make sure I got everything I wanted. My older sister reiterated how special this occasion was to our family. It is not uncommon for parents to pay for their child’s wedding expenses in India however I had no expectations of this as my father has raised me to be an independent and self reliable woman. I reassured him that this was not necessary however dad always has the last word. I was ecstatic! It was still going to be a small intimate affair witnessed by close friends and family but now I could add a few frills ☺️.

Getting married in Goa was always in the plan as it’s the closest place to Mumbai that provides the combination of mountain, palm trees and ocean. I was really fortunate to have my younger sister Zee and my cousin Sam in Mumbai to help me coordinate the venue while I was busy travelling. They both travelled to Goa, saw a few venues and booked the one of my choice. Prainha by the Sea – a beautiful oasis in Panjim. It had the most perfect backdrop for our wedding and I was in love! Shout out to Manjula, the operations manager at the hotel who corresponded with me over hundred emails in an effort to make our wedding the most memorable experience.

Once the venue was secured I had to have wedding cards printed and mailed, find a Kazi to officiate the ceremony, a makeup artist, henna artist, photographer, event planner and finalize a menu. 😵 The list was endless and I did not realize the amount of work that goes into planning a wedding especially from a distance. I think I did a decent job of managing the wedding planning and exploring the six countries I visited prior to landing in India. A big smooch to my younger sister Zee for all the help. I couldn’t have done it without her.

I secured all the vendors after landing in India. For anyone that has done business in India, a lot is done last minute. This worked out well for me as I didn’t have to worry about securing vendors before physically meeting them and I work better under deadline pressures 🤓. Even with an event planner cancelling on me last minute, I was able to secure a lovely planner that gave us, or rather me (giggles sheepishly) the fairytale wedding I wanted. I feel tremendously lucky because we were fortunate to share this beautiful experience with my family, David’s lovely parents Manon and Robert, his adorable grandma, Lise and ten of our beautiful friends, many with their partners from Canada. Our Canadian guests were so enthralled by India, they all dressed up in Indian wedding attire and my friends even gave us a surprise bollywood dance performance.

The wedding took place over two days, 2nd and 3rd February. On the 2nd February 2017, we started with the Mehndi ceremony, where all our guests fed me and David loads of chocolate, applied some turmeric on our hands and feet and threw loads of cash on us for good luck.

This was proceeded by my hands and feet being filled with henna while I watched David and our families join in union through dance. On this auspicious occasion, I also had the opportunity to be fed by my brother given my hands were full of henna 😜. I sat and watched with awe as our loving families and friends danced away to Indian music while coconut trees swayed side to side in equal excitement and the ocean swelled a few metres away. Ill just let the photos speak for themselves.

Later that evening, we all dolled up and David and I were excited to see the family/friends performances and nervous to share our own little dance performance. The evening was filled with love, tears and lots of laughter and we ended the night dancing away till 2am.

The following evening, was nothing short of a fairytale. Our wedding ceremony took place shortly before the sun began to set. The lighting was perfect, the sun at a perfect angle and the gentle breeze just enough to keep us cool. As I walked down the aisle, I saw David waiting for me. He looked stunning. Standing there in his white and gold Sherwani like an Indian prince awaiting his princess. His face was covered with a sehra (veil of roses) as a form of respect. I peeked at him from the corner of my eye as I sat quietly opposite him with my veil over my head. The Kazi performed the prayers and before we knew it we were standing face to face reading our vows to each other. As I watched him read his vows to me, my eyes started to swell. I could feel the conviction of his words, the passion in his voice and the truth in his eyes. It was perfect, he’s the one for me.

And so it begins, the new chapter of our life together. Thank you for reading such an intimate part of our life. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed experiencing it.