So Shameer and I first met in undergrad at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan and we became really good friends after we went on a medical mission trip together in Honduras. We have honestly grown up together and seen each other throughout all the stages of our twenties with school, graduation, long distance moves, career achievements, and hardships. Eight years later, our love blossomed and we were ready to get married! We’re both desi, but I’m Malayali and he is Pakistani Punjabi so there was definitely a lot to navigate with our families and cultural traditions. But it was really important to us to represent both cultures during the day. In the morning, we had a Christian ceremony at the church with a mixture of English, Urdu, and Malayalam languages spoken. We had a traditional Urdu Hymn led by Shameer‘s family church and traditional malayali ceremonies led by my family’s Indian Church including the Blessing of the Thali and Manthrakodi. For christians in India, the thali has a minnu which is a small gold leaf shaped pendant with a cross made of small beads in the center. This is placed on a string made up of seven threads taken from the Manthrakodi- the bridal saree. The thali is tied by the groom around the neck of the bride during the ceremony to signify the life long inseparable bond established in marriage. Then, the groom places the manthrakodi (bridal saree) upon the bride’s head to reflect the promise of the groom to honor, protect, and provide for his new bride for the rest of their lives. After the saree is placed on the bride’s head, it also symbolizing the passing of the bride from the bride’s sister to the groom’s sister at the altar. We finished the church ceremony with a lighting the unity candle to symbolize becoming one with Christ as our center. After the ceremony, we walked out of the church to be greeted with a traditional Malayali Chenda Melam and bubbles which was a lot of fun.
Our reception was at the Henry, Autograph Collection Hotel and we really wanted to do a “Sky Full of Stars” theme (like the Coldplay song) which was the perfect song to describe that night. We had a light tunnel entry way into the room, a massive LED screen on the stage, and crystals hanging above the dance floor. Our favorite decoration was definitely the Elephant Ice Sculptures- it was a great modern twist to tie in Indian/American culture. We started off the reception with a hype firework entrance and danced with the whole bridal party. For our first dance, we danced to ” I Won’t Give Up” by Jason Mraz and had the screen show stars falling in the background and had fireworks as well. After the dance I left to change into the bridal saree and had a surprise entrance with my cousins to “Sajna” by Badshah. Lastly after the family speeches, we changed into our final outfits- Shameer wore a traditional Velvet Midnight Blue Sherwani and I wore a custom silver/blue gown from Natasha Dalal to represent the theme. We made our last entry together busting out bhangra moves to “GOAT” by Diljit and had our Punjabi Dhol Player accompany us. There were also some Mollywood/ Bollywood dance performances and flash mobs by both our families and friends. Finally, the DJ gathered us all out on the dance floor and we surprised our guests with LED glow sticks and CO2 guns to start off the dancing. The reception went on all night and we ended it on the dance floor by doing a slow dance, just Shameer and I to “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran.
