Glamour transcends all cultures. And I’m out to prove that with this morning’s feature – the wedding of Natasha and Sanjiv, who tied the knot on Saturday 4th June 2011 at Grittenham Barn, Petworth West Sussex.
I adore looking through the images of a traditional Hindu wedding. I love the vibrancy of colour, the detailing on the traditional bridal wear and the tradition of painting hands with henna tattoos fascinates me! All those beautiful swirling patterns – an artistic representation of the prosperity a Bride will be bringing in to her new family.
Natasha and Sanjiv wanted to celebrate the joining together of two cultures via their marriage. And so they had two wedding ceremonies, a civil ceremony and a Hindu ceremony, which for this lucky Bride, meant two dresses…
“The civil ceremony dress I wanted to be simple and elegant. As im only 5ft I didn’t want a huge puffball dress or to have too many layers to swamp me. After trying on several styles I decided I wanted a strapless wedding dress, and came across a design online that made to measure, perfect! ivory lace over satin with a small train and sweetheart neckline.
For the Hindu ceremony, I went super sparkly and colourful. The name of this style of outfit is a ‘Lehenga Choli’, I ordered the outfit online from Utsav Sarees in India, where there are so many to choose from, but as soon as I saw this one I loved it…”
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2011, Robbins Photographic
It is traditional for the Hindu Bride to have her hands tattoed with Henna ink prior to her wedding ceremony. Don’t Natasha’s hands look utterly beautiful decorated this way?
‘A day before her wedding, the girl and her female folks gather for the Mehendi {henna} ritual – a ceremony traditionally marked by joie de vivre – during which the bride-to-be embellish their hands, wrists, palms and feet with the lovely red hue of the Mehendi.’ {About.com}
“We wanted the flowers to be vibrant and colourful, and not too formal. Our setting was gorgeous so we didn’t want to go crazy with decorations, just beautiful flower arrangements all over.
We were very lucky to have on hand the owner Sally of Shiny Blooms and Angel of Angel like Flowers, both from our wedding venue Grittenham Barn, who also tend and grow flowers on site.
After a few meetings with there help we chose a hand tied bouquet in in a loose vintage style I had bright colored roses, gerberas, freesias, dahlia, lily, mimosa and a touch of white wax flowers and berries. We also had button holes of orange gerbera with bright blue ribbon.Our colorful theme of cornflower blue, orange, hot pink, scarlet red, yellow, and bright green, was carried through from the table centers to the beams, chandeliers, and even on the donkeys who wore large sunflowers in their manes…”
“As I am a jeweler and goldsmith. The bridal jewellery I wore included a matching necklace bracelet and earrings, that were made by myself as was my Bridesmaids (sister Alice). My necklace and earrings were a rosary style of light coffee colour freshwater pearls with a handcarved silver heart pendant with white diamonds and my sisters were a light grey rosary pearl set with a handcarved rose and leaf pendant…”
“Sanjiv’s civil ceremony suit was a custom made to measure, including fabric and lining from Moss Bespoke in London, Liverpool Street . It was a gorgeous bright blue suit and crisp white shirt with a floral pink tie from Duchamp London. He even had our names and wedding date (a service they provide) stitched on the inside pocket, arrrr 😉
For the Hindu ceremony, his outfit was chosen from a shop in London called Venisons, even the sparkly shoes and hat! Right little Indian Prince!”
“During the day we had the lovely Mr. Miserable man (not so miserable!). We saw him playing in Brighton and fell in love with his sound and voice. He plays covers with a ska feel on acoustic, and tambourine. He was the perfect touch and entertainment in-between our ceremonies serenading our guests...”
“For the Hindu ceremony we had to hire a mandup, which is where the ceremony has to take place, under a covered canopy, traditionally set up outside. This was another reason why our venue was so perfect as the grounds accommodated for this.
The beautiful carved mandup came with an incredible 6ft wooden elephant ‘ganesh’ which many of our guests had photos beside and 6 x pedestals with smaller elephants ontop that lined my walkway into the ceremony, this all transformed the grounds into the most beautiful setting for our Hindu ceremony beside the lake…”
“The henna on my hands and feet for the hindu ceremony took over 6 hours and was applied by my friend Jon….”
“We fell in love with this venue Grittenham Barn and its owners Sally and Paul within seconds, it had it all, gorgeous rustic barn and the most beautiful grounds lake and house, not forgetting the donkeys and pigs, we were given complete freedom to plan and decorate as we wanted with sally and paul on hand anytime we needed leading upto and during our day to help us make it just right….”
“We had Personalised Love Heart Sweets as our favors, with our names and wedding date printed on the wrapper, simple and sweet!”
“In the evening my new husband couldn’t wait to get on the decks and start DJ’ing, then taking in turns to get our guests dancing were three other friends and family members to DJ the night away…”
Words of Wedded Wisdom…
“Our only advice would be don’t over plan or over do it, the time seemed to go by so quickly ,so make sure your just ready to enjoy every moment…”
Congratulations Sanjiv and Natasha, and thanks too to Photographer Lee Robbins…
“We had seen work from lee in the past and always knew that we wanted him to be our photographer for our wedding. He seems to capture things that no one else would think about photographing. His attention to detail captured all the beautiful moments of our day. Lee kept us at ease throughout the day and made it fun to have pictures taken…”
Much love,
Annabel xXx
♥
Credits
Photographer – Robbins Photographic
Venue – Grittenham Barn
Brides Hindu bridal wear – Utsav Sarees in India
Flowers – Angel like Flowers
Groom’s civil ceremony suit – Moss Bespoke in London + floral pink tie from Duchamp London
Groom’s Hindu ceremony outfit – Venisons
Covered Canopy/Mandup – Shenai Weddings
