After reaching a hilltop overlooking beautiful vineyards and an Italian villa, I got on one knee. Adrenaline kicked in, and no words came out, and I was sweating profusely in the 30-degree heat…but a beautiful moment nonetheless.
Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…
We are Claudette and Rasheed, originally from the UK and Canberra, respectively, living and working in the media industry in Sydney. Claudette brings her creative flair and passion to everything she does, whilst Rasheed is an amazing cook and brings humour to life. Together, we blend our diverse backgrounds and a shared love for dancing, fashion, good food and travel together.
How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?
We first met in 2018 in a Karaoke bar in Sydney – both working in Media & Advertising, our paths crossed at the end of a very long lunch when Rasheed was invited along by a mutual friend. After a friend commented on how captivated we were by each other’s sentences that night, we became friends, both with no intention to even have a romantic relationship, yet alone one day get married. We were naturally drawn to spending time together, finding a lot of humour and fun to be had with each other. You could always catch us dancing away on a Friday night but equally spent hours putting the world to right over Rasheed’s home-cooked meals.
It wasn’t until a long time after that night in the Karaoke bar that we both recounted and maybe admitted to feeling like there was a moment’s spark between us.
When did you first realise that this was someone you’d like to spend the rest of your life with?
Rasheed – It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment, but we moved in together right at the start of COVID. It was a tough time for couples at that stage, but I realised just how supportive, thoughtful and caring she was. Spending all that time together, I think, made us realise how committed we were to each other.
Claudette – Realising I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Rasheed, and when I knew I wanted to marry him came at different times for me. I realised I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him when I recognised the space we had made to be evolving people, individually and together.
I never knew if I wanted to get married. However, how Rasheed describes his values of marriage really was the thing that made me want to marry him.
Was there a proposal? Tell us a little about it…
Rasheed – I proposed to Claude in Tuscany. It was a stressful long winded journey carrying the ring in my backpack through two airport securities all the way to Italy. Claude kept putting her things in the backpack and rummaging through it. I buried it deep inside, but the anxiety of her finding it or possibly losing it on the way was far too much to bear. Being interested in film and film production, I knew a beautiful lookout where a few of the scenes from Gladiator were shot. The day of the proposal itself was incredibly stressful. I had only met Claude’s parents in person for the first time in the UK after just coming out of lockdown. I had every intention of having the traditional conversation with her parents and asking for her hand in marriage, but after having spent a bit of time with them, I knew they wouldn’t be able to keep a secret. Claude also decided it would be a nice gesture to invite her parents to our Italy trip. So I now needed to find a way to ditch them so that we could have our special moment. One beautiful sunny morning after having dropped the parents off in Sienna, I took Claude for a long windy drive through the rolling hills of Tuscany. After reaching a hilltop overlooking beautiful vineyards and an Italian villa, I got on one knee. Adrenaline kicked in, and no words came out, and I was sweating profusely in the 30-degree heat…but a beautiful moment nonetheless.
Claudette – A handsome man on one knee, with a beautiful ring, in the middle of the Italian countryside isn’t something you say no to… even if he doesn’t actually ask you!
Tell us about the vision you had for the mood or style of your wedding.
With families on opposite sides of the world, coming from polar opposite cultures, we had no idea how to go about planning a wedding. We started out with the initially very romantic idea of getting married and bringing every element of both cultures and people together. However, that was a little harder than we expected, so we just decided to have two weddings instead!
The photographs you see are from our first wedding event in January 2024, this was our warm up event before our traditional wedding in Italy in May. We wanted to use this event to create a space to celebrate Rasheed’s family, culture and community, whilst giving our friends and family a moment to embrace a culture they haven’t been a part of before. We condensed multiple traditional Bengali events into one and took a huge amount of joy in seeing how everyone embraced the day, from Henna art to stealing the groom’s shoe and weeks of dance rehearsals for the 5 groups of friends who performed for the guests on the night.
Our main brief to our Photographer was to capture the joy in the moments, and we couldn’t be happier with the outcomes. When we look back at the photo, Paula really did capture a moment for us with every one of our guests without us even feeling like we had a camera there.
Did anything happen on your wedding day that you laugh about in hindsight (even if it was stressful at the time)?
We originally had the immediate family and bridal party scheduled for the entrances. However, Rasheed’s dad decided to derail the plan last minute (literally) by adding their entire extended family. As usual, he didn’t have a plan, so Rasheed, together with MCs, fitted them into the entrance schedule. Rasheed’s parents were introduced, then his brother, sister-in-law and nephews, followed by a moshpit of 20-30 Rahmans. It was unnecessary, chaotic and hilarious.
Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, is there a story?
It’s been a tradition in the Rahman’s family for the bride to wear red and Claudette wanted to carry on this tradition after seeing pictures of his parents’ wedding. We took so much joy in watching our mums connecting through the outfits for the day, too – Rasheed’s mum gifted Claudette’s mum the saree she wore, which was really special.
CEREMONY & RECEPTION National Arboretum, Canberra, Australia PHOTOGRAPHER Paula Donnelly Photography, @pauladonnellyphotography BRIDE’S SHOES Lana Wilkinson, @bylanawilkinson ACCESSORIES Family Pieces JEWELLERY Diamond Emporium, @diamondemporium MAKEUP & HAIR By the bride BRIDE’S FRAGRANCE Chanel Mademoiselle, @chanelofficial BRIDAL DRESS Custom Made GROOM’S SHOES Custom Made GROOM’S FRAGRANCE Bvlgari Aqua, @bulgari SUIT Custom Made BRIDESMAIDS DRESS Custom Made HENNA Makeup by Farzana Canberra
