A Vibrant Hindu Wedding at Syon Park, Led by the UK’s First Female Hindu Priest

Malvika and Jake’s wedding was a beautiful blend of tradition and individuality, set against the breathtaking backdrop of Syon Park’s Great Conservatory. They wanted a wedding that truly reflected who they are—modern, progressive, and deeply connected to their heritage. Choosing Chanda Vyas, the UK’s first female Hindu priest, to lead their ceremony was an intentional and meaningful decision, one that honoured both their values and their culture.

The couple tied the knot twice; first with a civil ceremony at Hackney Town Hall, followed by a vibrant Hindu wedding filled with colour, florals, love and an incredible cake. Malvika wore a stunning custom floral lehenga by Aynaa World, which she designed herself, with re-wearability in mind. Every detail, from their outfits to their ceremony vows, was considered with care and aligned with their desire to be bold and break tradition.

Capturing it all was the wonderful Emma Jane Photography – a Love My Dress recommended photographer, whose mix of editorial and documentary styles ensured this couple’s wedding was preserved in the most beautiful, timeless way. Enjoy!

My Civil dress was the ‘Tiffany’ by Solace London – and I found it pre-loved on Vinted. When I started my dress hunt, I was looking for a minimal silhouette with some special details, overskirt and a satin material. All of those were well outside of my budget, but I knew this was the one when I stumbled on it online! As soon as I saw one on Vinted I hit the purchase button immediately – I still don’t think I’ve ever purchased anything as quickly in my life.

It wasn’t even my size but I figured I could get that tailored. After all, any dress I bought would need a spot of tailoring. I just knew I had to have it!

I was on the search for a modern, minimal, and elegant wedding dress. As a minimalist in everyday wear, I wanted something that felt like me. I wanted wedding photos I would look back on in 40 years and feel proud of – something timeless, elegant and chic. However, when we first got engaged, Jake and I discussed our wedding priorities and both agreed that guest vibe, entertainment, food and alcohol were at the top of our list.

That meant cutting the budget on all other areas that didn’t add to guest vibe – including the outfits. So, I needed to find my ideal look but on a budget. I adored the dress I ended up selecting and am still amazed my entire look came to <£500 including tailoring. Probably the steal of the century!

For our Civil wedding, I wanted something classic, timeless and beautiful. I found a lot of inspiration on Pinterest and fell in love with the idea of white flowers with lots of greenery, and a minimal and elegant dress. It felt elevated and timeless, which is exactly what we had wanted.

We chose this venue for its location (just 25 minutes from us by taxi), and beautiful art deco interior. I had seen the North Atrium a few years prior when doing research for one of my best friend’s weddings and was immediately enamoured with the double height room, glass ceilings, and brick walls – the architecture of the space is so stunning. I still remember showing it to Jake and his immediate reaction being “we should get married there!” We weren’t even engaged at this point in time.

For the civil, I walked down to a custom version of ‘So My Darling’ by Rachel Chinouriri – one of Jake and I’s favourite songs. We had the lyrics changed with AI Music Service so they said “I know you love me too” instead of “I hope you love me too”. It’s a minor difference, but walking down the aisle to the hope of love felt a little weird!

We each wrote personalised vows, but we shared these privately during our first look. We’re quite a shy couple and struggle with PDA, so we weren’t super comfortable with the idea of everyone hearing these words, meant just for each other.

The Hindu wedding was a total juxtaposition to our civil wedding – loads of florals, colour and fun! A real maximalist vibe. I feel this is one of the best parts of having multiple weddings – you get to have multiple vibes, too. I always knew I wanted a floral wedding lehenga, after having seen one on Pinterest a few years back, and we designed the entire Hindu wedding around the outfit. It wasn’t a traditional Hindu bridal outfit, but I didn’t feel like a particularly traditional bride.

The key aspect for me was being as environmentally and ethically friendly as possible for the day. My Civil dress was a pre-loved Vinted find and my Hindu wedding outfit was specifically designed to be re-wearable. It’s so often that brides don’t get the opportunity to re-wear their wedding outfits, but I was certain I wanted a lehenga that I could use as a guest at future weddings!

We let our bridesmaids wear anything they wanted! We did have a wide colour scheme of pastels and essentially any colour you would find in nature, so they coordinated with the vibe of the day perfectly. I love that you can see their individual personalities in the outfits they chose and I love how the whole bridal party came together.

For the Hindu wedding, tradition states the bride is walked down the aisle by male members on her mother’s side of the family – brothers, cousins or uncles. This is largely due to tradition stating they’re ‘giving away the bride’. I didn’t love this, it didn’t align with mine or Jake’s personal ethos about the day. To us, it was about the joining of two families and not about my family losing me.

Instead, we honoured tradition with Jake’s walk. He was accompanied by both of my parents, welcoming him into the family, and both of his parents to show support for the marriage. I walked down the aisle
alone, meeting Jake at the mandap. This was my second time walking down the aisle to Jake and it was every bit as emotional at the first.

It was hugely important to me, given my ethnicity and upbringing, to have a Hindu ceremony as well as a legal English one. I wouldn’t have felt married without the Hindu wedding ceremony as well. We did do a slightly non-traditional version though, and customised elements of the ceremony to suit our ethos as a couple.

I walked down the aisle to an instrumental version of Duniyaa by Rishi Kumar Instrumentals. It’s such a beautiful song and my DJs slowed it down slightly so it was a more appropriate speed for the walk. We then used the lyricised version of the song during our cocktail hour and it still makes me smile every time I hear it!

We worked really closely with our priest, Chanda Vyas, to do this. She’s the first female Hindu priest in the UK and shares are modern, fairly forward-thinking ethos, so was a ‘must hire’ for us!

We removed any elements of the ceremony that were about ‘giving away the bride’ or that could be interpreted from Sanskrit as referring to fertility and childbearing. We wrote our own vows that reflected our values as a couple, and although we read someone else’s on the day, those were right up our street as well!

It’s now a funny story from the day and shows that many of Chanda’s couples have similar values – I wish that couple all the best on their wedding day and thank them for their hilarious and beautifully written vows. Am I allowed to say they were better than our original ones?!

For the Hindu wedding, we take 7 steps and say a vow at each one – ‘Saptapadi’. We tailored our vows to reflect our own values and tied them together with the cultural aspects of a Hindu ceremony. Funnily enough, however, there was a slight mixup and when Chanda gave us a printed sheet with our vows, they were different!

We just rolled with it, and luckily, these vows still reflected our values. Our guests didn’t realise the mixup and they absolutely loved them. I had at least four separate people come up to me after the ceremony to compliment me on how funny they were and said they were “just SO us!”

Jake’s ring is from Fynn and Steel, chosen because, at heart, he’s a bit of a chemistry nerd. He loves non-traditional materials for jewellery, so his wedding band is made from tantalum—a hard, corrosion-resistant, smokey grey metal that happens to be one of the rarest elements in the solar system.

My engagement ring is a minimal gold band with an oval solitaire, but what makes it extra special is that Jake custom-designed the prong settings to resemble petals on a flower—a nod to my love of nature. Since the engagement ring has such a delicate, understated design, we wanted the wedding band to feel more modern and intricate, while still complementing the engagement ring.

We worked closely with the same designer to create a wedding band that would slot together perfectly with the engagement ring—two pieces forming a whole. Inspired by the idea of Love in Bloom, my wedding ring is a gold band set with solitaire and oval diamonds, arranged in an interlocking pattern that mimics flower buds on a vine.

I kept saying I wanted to ‘feel like I belonged on the cover of Vogue’ so I knew we needed a photographer who could nail that Editorial vibe. But I also knew I didn’t want to miss any of the wonderful natural moments of the wedding, so we also were looking for someone who could nail the documentary vibe for the day.

We picked Emma Jane Photography because we massively appreciated the range of work that we could see in her portfolio. We could see that regardless of the style of photo she had taken with her other clients, the composition and colour was extremely tasteful.

We wanted a focus of editorial style photos in a subtle yet refined colour palette and we feel that Emma delivered that spectacularly. On the day of each event, Emma was an absolute joy to work with. She has an amazingly calm presence, and is a very kind and reassuring person. She did not stop the entire day, running around and helping with organising people so we could get all of the shots we wanted from each day. Even now, my friends and family speak so fondly of her!

We don’t often feel comfortable with posed shots, but she made us feel really at ease. I think it shows in the photos – we felt we looked quite awkward in some of our proposal photos and had warned Emma that we’re awkward on camera. But the ones she took made us feel like we were models! The process felt natural and we fell in love with the photos Emma brought back to us. And, I really did feel straight out of Vogue.

Funny story, when Jake initially proposed, he had found Emma and loved her work. He’d actually tried to book her for the proposal, but she was unfortunately already booked. We didn’t even realise this until way after our wedding, when Emma went to tag Jake on Instagram and saw the initial messages!

We met in our first year of university at the The University of Nottingham. We stayed in the same halls of residence. Although we both had a crush on one another and would bump into each other every now and then, we didn’t start dating until our third year of university wherein we reconnected. We had been together for roughly 5 years before Jake proposed to me. It was such an incredible and hugely romantic proposal.

I’m usually the planner of the relationship, so imagine my surprise when he told me he’d booked out a weekend in our joint calendar!

He took me across the bridge from the Barbican centre in London, towards the church, and got down on one knee. When he presented the ring, he told me how much I meant to him, and I was already in tears. We were between two classic London street lights, with the church as a backdrop in one direction and the eco-brutalism of the Barbican in the other. It was an incredible location – somehow both public and yet so serene. It felt so private, like our own little art of London.

I didn’t realise until I was wiping my tears, trying to see the ring clearly, that Jake had hired a hidden photographer. We got the entire proposal in photos and it brings me so much joy to look back on them!

A lot of people commented on how perfect the photos were, especially how well our outfits matched. It always makes me laugh to confess that Jake had gotten his (pre-planned, weeks in advance) outfit out of the wardrobe that morning and told me I needed to ‘match his vibe’.

Oh how the tables have turned, I thought – that’s usually what I tell him!! Afterwards, Jake organised a tasting menu dinner at Ting in The Shard.

The view of London from above whilst the sun set was absolutely magical. We were engaged for two years before we got married so we could make sure we had everything lined up to make the special day as beautiful as it needed to be.

We spent nearly a year looking at venues. It wasn’t so much that we couldn’t decide, but rather we just couldn’t find a space we were looking for. We knew we wanted a large, serene and private space to party the night away, but we also weren’t looking for anything too traditional. I love plants and flowers, and so finding Syon felt fate. It was everything we were looking for and so much more!

I worked with Bronwyn from Bronze Floral. I love unique, sculptural arrangements – ones that feel closer to art than ordinary bouquets, and are inspired by the Japanese art of ikebana. I felt so honoured to work with Bronwyn, who travelled all the way down from West Yorkshire to London to work our weddings. She is an extraordinary talent and planning the florals with her was such a joyful process! As a bride, the dream is to find vendors that care as much about your wedding as you do, and Bronwyn truly was that for me.

For the civil, we went with a minimal and classic colour palette – using shades of whites and creams, alongside greenery and carefully used sculptural florals such as calla lilies orchids for an elevated aesthetic. We did three pillars with large floral arrangements for a minimal ceremony backdrop that still made quite a statement.

We went very fun and colourful for the Hindu wedding, with shades of pinks and whites to match my outfit, alongside an abundance of greenery to match Jake’s. We unfortunately needed to change our floral vision for the Hindu wedding at last minute, due to a supply issue with the palette of large headed roses planned from Amsterdam alongside a sudden and unforeseen heatwave in London, which meant our original vision wouldn’t have survived an afternoon in sunlight and an evening in a greenhouse.

Bronwyn worked tirelessly the few days before the event, sourcing new and sturdier blooms from farms across West Yorkshire. As she understood the ethos of our vibe – sculptural arrangements that celebrated the unique-ness of nature within our ‘love in bloom’ aesthetic, she was able to nail the vibe despite the last-minute changes. Each arrangement on our reception tables was unique, almost like a piece of art for guests to enjoy, and Bronwyn created our ceremony garlands from jasmine, a flower traditionally used in Hindu weddings, for a traditional nod. Although different to what Bronwyn & I had initially visioned for the event, it worked out so beautifully!

We worked with Pam from Lemon Tree Cakes. She is a contemporary cake artist who worked with us to create a custom design for our day. It was such a fun process, and I have so much respect for Pam’s artistic eye.

For our flavours, the cake tasting was probably Jake’s wedding planning highlight! For the top tier, we chose a spiced ginger cake filled with apricot preserve, dulce de leche, and layered with Swiss vanilla meringue buttercream. Jake’s family (on his dad’s side) has Jamaican heritage, so we thought it would be a fun nod to that part of his background. The lower tier was a chocolate cake filled with hazelnut praline, sea salt caramel, and layered with chocolate ganache. We really wanted this to be the kind of cake that everyone could enjoy, and who doesn’t love a well-made chocolate cake?

With respect to design, again, we wanted our cake to reflect the theme, ‘Love in Bloom’. so we wanted the cake to feel floral, but we wanted an eye-catching and unique design. We landed on these descriptors sculptural, floral, ethereal. Pam was enthusiastic about our ideas, and after a few iterations, we landed on a gem of a cake design with an aesthetic of white roses, flowing ribbon, and a cake that looks almost like carved stone.

I really wanted a cake that didn’t really look like a cake—something different, unique, that hadn’t yet been done before. Pam absolutely rose to the challenge, and we had so much fun working with her on this. She really is an artist. The cake was beautiful and tasted just as incredible as it looked.

I loved everything! For me, it was probably seeing all of our family and friends together, intermingling between their groups in combinations that still surprise me to this day. I still remember the moment of Jake and I walking into our cocktail hour, hand in hand, officially married, and looking on at all of our loved ones with drinks in their hands and so filled with joy.

We turned to each other and celebrated, “we did it!!” I asked Jake this question and his was much cuter. It’s a cliché, but his favourite part was for both days was seeing me walk down in the aisle, looking “utterly breathtaking” (I promise I’m quoting here!), taking his hand when I reached him at the front of the aisle, and whispering “hi”.

As a couple that had two wedding ceremonies, you might be surprised to hear that we hate being the centre of attention. As important as a first dance is in English weddings and dancing is generally for Indian weddings, we both didn’t feel comfortable having a formal first dance. However, we’d heard that people won’t really dance until the bride and groom get on to the dance floor, so we knew we needed an opener with a quick spin.

We opted to open the dance floor to an ‘introductory song’ – something that everybody would know and would dance to. We danced to ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’, before inviting our guests to join us. We wanted a track that all of our friends would know and would be enthusiastic to dance with so we could get the party off to a strong start!

You’ll have planned and planned and planned for your wedding. You’ll have every detail mapped out precisely, such as timings, décor, tone, etc. Inevitably with a large event like this with so many moving parts some things will go somewhat differently to plan and you might worry that your guests will think less of the event.

Trust us, they won’t. As long as you know the key components (ceremony, food and drink, DJ or band) of the wedding and ensure they go well, your guests will have the impression that it all went perfectly and they’ll have a great time! Don’t get bogged down by the fine details once the day has begun, just let it carry you along and have fun.

It was an incredible weekend. There’s not much I would do differently. I do wish that we had a bit more time for cocktail hour – our ceremony ran over and we cut cocktail hour short by 15 minutes so we could make back some of the time. We had superb canapes and cocktails for our guests and being able to mingle for a bit longer outside in the evening air would have added a lot to our evening—we also could. have then gotten even more photos of our guests from different parts of our life interacting with each other.

Our original budget was £50k for the two days, and we were bang on budget! We did go over in some areas (catering and alcohol) but we balanced by coming under budget in others.

When we first got engaged, we discussed our key wedding priorities. Anything that was a priority, we were happy to go over budget for. For us – that was guest vibe – anything that meant guests would have a good time at the wedding. For us, a wedding isn’t about the couple. It’s about the guests. You’re hosting a party and in our cultures, hosting is something to be done with pride. So we prioritised food and alcohol, and the DJ, because so long as the guests are well fed, it’ll be a great wedding.