I found myself reminiscing the fondest of my childhood memories when I received Alexandra and Anuj's real wedding in my inbox this week.

The memories date back to 2010, the year my cousin got hitched to a beautiful young French woman whom he met in the USA. They had a Christian wedding where the bride, to my surprise, ditched her classic white bridal gown and chose a red one in its place to have best of the both, Hindu and Christian, customs. And to top it off, she put mehendi too!

Pondering over my cousin's and Alexandra & Anuj's wedding has made me believe that love conquers all.

Alexandra and Anuj met through common friends in Delhi and after a few weeks started dating.  And two months into dating, they wanted to marry each other but thought that it would be too insane for families to accept it in such a short time, and hence decided to wait.

While talking to Alexandra about the proposal, she said, "He proposed to me while visiting me in my home state of Michigan on a summer camping trip. He literally got down on one knee in the water of Lake Michigan off a secluded beach. At first, I was mostly just worried he'd drop the ring because of the waves around us".

When The Traditions Of East Met The Customs Of The West:

Most of Alexandra’s friends and family were not familiar with Hindu customs and she was worried about her family accepting someone of them because they found many ceremonies to be complex and time-consuming. However, everyone ended up fascinated by the different ceremonies. There was a lot of guidance about what to do when in the ceremony, but that made it full of laughter and fun for them!

Wedding Planning According To Hindu and Christian Rituals

Alexandra adds, “It was really hard to plan the wedding, keeping in mind my husband's family's expectations about a proper Hindu marriage and the desire of my own family to keep with some of our traditions. I wanted to hire a planner at some point. It was so much to plan, much more than a simple one-day Western marriage, but since our wedding was a unique fusion, I found it best to plan it all myself with my husband.”

Mehendi and Haldi

Hindu Wedding

Christian Wedding

Wedding Guests From 14 Diverse Nationalities

Their wedding functions in Lucknow saw guests coming in from all over the world- From the USA, France, Brazil and then there were Spanish and Portuguese too! For Alexandra (the bride), it was a wonderful thing not just to see her parents travel half-way around the world but how they embraced the Indian culture and stepped out of their comfort zones.

To Happily Every After

In the end, the fusion wedding came together beautifully and for Alexandra, it was rewarding to see all the little details they had thought of played out nicely and were appreciated by guests. For example, as a party favour, they gave the guests a unique hand painted Kashmiri elephant sculpture.

 

VENDOR DETAILS:

Photography: Amish Photography | Bride's Hindu Wedding Outfit: Om Prakash in Delhi | Wedding Jewellery: Family heirloom jewellery passed down through generations. She wore a vintage aquamarine set from her grandmother | Makeup Artist for Hindu Wedding: Bhaavya Kapur | Makeup Artist at other functions: Bride's Best Friend | Venue: Lebua Lucknow

 

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