They say that the first ten years of marriage are the hardest! People can get consumed in many moving
parts – building your career, developing relationships, or raising kids. It’s astonishing to look back and
question where the time went!
My husband and I were fatefully paired up on a soccer field to coach a kids soccer team when I was 19.
We spent the summer together and quickly fell in love. He even joined the same university to spend
more time with me. When I went away for medical school in a different city, we maintained a long-
distance relationship. He surprised me at a conference in Hawaii by proposing on a long empty dock on
Honolulu beach against a dreamy sea and peach sky. I was so ecstatic to spend the rest of my life with
him!
As a bride-to-be, I spent a great deal of time meticulously planning the wonderful details of my wedding
in Toronto. We had multiple glamorous photo and video shoots, a breathtaking Roka at a chandelier-
filled Grand Victorian Ballroom, and a lavish engagement party. We had a classic large Punjabi
gurudwara wedding with a royal themed reception, complete with a custom-made, ceiling-height, Taj
Mahal backdrop structure, a Maharani cake from Cakes by Zehra, Rajasthani performers, and royally
announced entrances.
Planning your wedding can seem daunting, but having the right vendors who go above and beyond to
make your day special and memorable is worth every penny. My most beloved vendors from the
wedding were Bombay Trendz, a long-standing haute couture business with design facilities in Mumbai,
Ruchika Verma of Lesonne Bridals, an award-winning hairstylist and educator, and Dave Abreu, also an
award-winning wedding photographer.
The glamour of the wedding eventually faded away, overshadowed by day-to-day squabbles. When I
wanted to be reminded of it, I would look at Dave’s gorgeous pictures.
I entered residency, then had two children, and started working as a full-time physician. Over our 10
years of marriage, my husband and I went through many struggles and triumphs. We may not have
realized it, but we had grown stronger and complimented each other. We finished each other’s
sentences, and knew each others’ weaknesses, strengths, thoughts, values, and fears inside out.
When it came up to our 10-year anniversary celebration, we wanted to relive those moments that
brought us together in the first place, as a bride and groom. We wanted to relive the excitement of
creatively designing with our favourite vendors. We decided to collaborate with Dave Abreu
photography, Lesonne Bridals hair & makeup, Bombay Trendz clothing, Banglez customized jewellery,
and Shivani Henna Art. We decided on a royal-themed photo shoot at a historically preserved mansion
called Casa Loma, in Toronto, Canada.
This shoot and our vendors brought us back full circle to our original royal-themed fairy tale moment!
While our wedding pictures showed the beginning of this memorable and promising journey, our
anniversary pictures displayed the cultivation of our growth as individuals and as a couple on this
journey!
