8 Years of Togetherness and a Big Fat Indian Wedding!
“It felt like we were married well before we were married—that’s how long Sreeja and I have been together. 8 years and 8 days before we officially became a ‘couple’,” says Avishek. An IIM graduate, he met Sreeja when they were both pursuing their engineering. An almost decade-long courtship led them to their big fat Indian wedding!
Love over a movie set…
“I was into script writing and film making during my engineering days, and a friend of mine was quite ‘interested’ in Sreeja. He asked me to make a short film featuring them, and since the script was quite good, I took it on…6 months post this movie shoot, I proposed!” says Avishek. However, it took a lot of coaxing by parents for the couple to give the nod to tie the knot. Busy with their higher education and careers, they seemed happy to push marriage for later. It was on an annual Durga Pooja trip to their hometown that their parents gave them the ultimatum.
The big fat indian wedding planning
“Our parents wanted us to get married within 2-3 months of us agreeing to do so, and we had to put our foot down,” says Avishek, as the couple wanted at least a year to plan their big day. “Our idea was to head to Goa with close friends and family and just have a blast. But both our parents are very traditional and Sreeja is the only child, so we ended up with a big fat Indian wedding in Calcutta.”
While their parents and family did most of the actual planning for the big fat Indian wedding, the couple was living in Bangalore, they did fly down when possible to oversee the preparation. “We also took on the job of booking services like the photographer and makeup artist, and went to Calcutta a few days before so we could check the décor.”
The discovery of a ‘smart wedding’
“A friend of ours who got married in November had created a gift registry on the American website The Knot. We really liked what they had done and created one for ourselves also, till we realized this service was available in India and shifted to Wedding Wishlist,” says the groom. “My mom was the most open-minded and excited about this. When we were opening the wedding gifts, she was thrilled to see nothing
And the post wedding wisdom…
For this couple, there were two significant learnings during the wedding planning process. “The first is to give yourself enough time to plan the wedding! You want everything to go smoothly and in a stress-free manner. And the second is that no matter how much time you have, there will always be eventualities. You’ve just got to be prepared for it. So have a plan A, B, and C, and if they fail, have a happy attitude and enjoy your big day.”
If you’d like to have a smart big fat Indian wedding like Avishek & Sreeja sign up at weddingwishlist.com
