Ishanee + Miten - Day 3 by Le Roex Media - Together Journal

We wanted a really elegant, angelic, kind of ethereal styling for our wedding.

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…

Ishanee: I love pilates, dance, matcha, reading, sunshine, the ocean, my husband and my puppy! I am a high school teacher and truly LOVE what I do for work, but outside of that, I love to bake, journal, play with Jasper (our dog), hang out with my girls, host cute themed parties and spend my time doing basically anything wholesome and cosy! I love the sunshine and warmth, which is why we live in Brisbane, and I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. I like to romanticise life and find joy in the little things, and my family, friends, and all of my hobbies bring me that!

Miten: I am a Software Engineer working my dream job at Canva, helping build out their photo editing features. I feel like I’m one of the lucky ones who has a job based on my hobbies because in my spare time, I love to build out my own apps (and never complete most of them, oops). So much so, I built our wedding website from scratch! When I’m not deep in the code, I love watching TV Shows and movies, playing Badminton every week, and most importantly, spending time with my loving wife. Most recently, I’ve really enjoyed experiencing my wife and me becoming and feeling like our own little family, especially with the addition of our little puppy Jasper.

Although I haven’t had much time for it lately, I also love building stuff! The idea of DIY really speaks to me. In the past, it started off with computers, but most recently, I built my own watch for our wedding (the gold one in the photos!). In the future, I want to do a lot more DIY, like building furniture, landscaping, or maybe something to scratch my tech-nerd itch.

How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?

Miten: We met on Instagram (lol). It was Mother’s Day 2021. My brother, Dilen, had started doing photography at the time, and he had a sponsored shoot for a snack company. He ended up posting a picture of me with the snack on his instagram, which Ishanee also followed at the time. She saw that picture and decided to follow me. At the time, I was a simple man. A gorgeous girl followed me on instagram? Absolutely unheard of. Obviously, I followed back and messaged her with a simple “Oh, hey 👋😊”. That’s it. No witty lines, nothing. Just a simple hello. I’ve tried having a catchy or funny opening line before in my past, but at this point, I thought to myself, I don’t need to try; if it’s meant to be, it won’t matter what I say, so I should just say hello. I guess I was right. Now, the topic of “who made the first move” has been a hot debate in our love story. I argued that Ishanee following me on Instagram was the first move, whereas Ishanee argued that I sending the first message was actually the first move. Eventually, I accepted defeat in this battle because, in the end, I still won. My first impression of her was “this is it”. Idk why, it just had a deeper feeling to it. Of course, I was absolutely blown away at just how beautiful she was and couldn’t wait to meet her in person, but our conversations online just felt so good. Eventually, when we met, my first impression was, “Wow, she’s shorter than I thought.” Haha, but more notably, I also thought she was very “zen.”

Ishanee: Miten covered the story of how we met perfectly, hehe, so I will just give you my first impression. When Miten first messaged me, I didn’t think much of it, but one day (Queen’s Birthday weekend 2021), something changed, and the universe or some higher power pushed me to start replying more to this really cute guy in my DMs. Before I knew it, we were talking nonstop, so I decided I was actually ready to go on this date and meet this boy in person and to say that was the best decision of my life is an understatement. While on this date, I texted my best friend saying “I’m going to marry this boy” to which she just laughed, given the absurdity of the statement but that basically sums up my first impression – I truly believed I had met my forever person because he was so kind, gentle, chivalrous (no chivalry is not dead) and was already talking about the future as if it were ours. Besides that, my first actual thought when we met was “his accent is so strong, like he sounds SO kiwi”, even though I had also grown up in NZ!

Tell us about the vision you had for the mood and style of your wedding. (theme, key styling elements, florals, colour palettes, etc.).

We wanted our wedding to be timeless while also making the most of the beautiful, enchanted forest look of our venue. We wanted a really elegant, angelic, kind of ethereal styling for our wedding, so our main colour in the palette was white, and that contrasted really nicely with all the green that our venue had to offer. The white and green theme continued into the signage and prints throughout our wedding. The only day we diverted from this theme was on Day Two of our wedding for our Haldi ceremony, which is traditionally themed with yellows, oranges and reds. For our bridesmaids/groomsmen outfits, we wanted something that would contrast nicely with all the white and green in our wedding, while still remaining unique, which is why we went for the pastel blue, which was our lovely pop of colour amongst the neutrals. Otherwise, we wanted our ceremonies to look very light, airy and minimal, so even with our florals, that was also predominantly white and green.

What styling and visual elements worked best for you? (could be things, the florals, particular hire products or your marquee, etc., something the stylist created or simply just the scenic beauty of your location or the existing design of your venue).

What worked best for us visually was the natural beauty of our venue. Black Walnut offered four or five unique locations to choose from for our ceremonies, and this variety gave us the perfect backdrop for each event. Combined with our wedding décor, colour palette, and the poruwa/mandap design, the way each ceremony was styled and positioned within the venue came together exactly as we had envisioned. Having multiple distinct locations within the same venue allowed every day to feel unique and special, while still maintaining a cohesive aesthetic that tied all three days into one seamless wedding celebration.

What did you enjoy most about the planning process, and do you have any tips for couples starting their wedding planning journey?

Miten: I really enjoyed the process of getting fitted for my tux and choosing my outfits and style. The wedding was an excuse to splurge a little and be a little fancy. It definitely will be the nicest clothes I’ll ever wear.

TIP: Whatever you think your budget is, double it.

Ishanee: I love designing, so I actually decided to DIY all of our wedding signage and reception prints like the menu cards, Photo Gallery QR codes, etc., so the process of creating these and watching all of it come together in a way that felt so representative of us and our vision for our wedding was probably my favourite part.

TIP: Your venue sets the tone for everything, so choose one that speaks to you and lets its beauty do the work.

Tell us about your vendors. Were there any standout suppliers you would like to make special mention of?

Every single vendor who helped bring our wedding to life was an absolute dream to work with. Each one brought such warmth, light, and energy to our celebrations that it truly felt like they were meant to be part of our story. Even those who weren’t physically there on the weekend, their presence was felt through the care, creativity, and love they poured into each element of our wedding, and we’re so grateful for each of them.

Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, and is there a story?

Miten: I had 3 main outfits: Sri Lankan Wedding outfit called “Nilame”, the Indian wedding outfit, and the Reception tux. The Nilame outfit, by far, has the biggest story, and so I will share that one. This one was the most special to me because of the effort I put into it. Throughout our wedding planning, and even looking into the future, Ishanee was worried that her Sri Lankan culture would get overshadowed by my Indian culture just because of how many Indian wedding events we had in contrast to the one Sri Lankan wedding event. So for the Sri Lankan wedding, I always said I wanted to wear a traditional outfit even though I didn’t have to. I thought it was cool; everything else is just a bonus. But throughout many months of researching, it seemed impossible to get an outfit. We couldn’t get one from Sri Lanka, we couldn’t hire one from Melbourne, and there seemed to be nowhere in NZ you could get one. So we had given up. A couple of months later, I decided to try again. This time I didn’t tell anyone. Miraculously, a new company in Auckland had just opened up that was hiring out traditional Sri Lankan outfits. It just so happened that we were planning a trip to Auckland soon, too. I reached out and organised a meet. I told Ishanee and her family that I was going to go see a friend, and instead went and met with Dino from Ceylonika Batiks, and I got fitted. I had found a traditional outfit, and not a single person on the planet knew about it, right up until the morning of the wedding. Somehow, I managed to keep this a secret until the wedding day. I was about to surprise my wife-to-be and her entire family. The planning and secrecy all paid off in the end because Ishanee was absolutely stunned to see me in a Sri Lankan outfit, and not the tux she thought I was supposed to be wearing. This was the most special moment for me, and it was literally the first moment of our 3-day celebration. While the surprise was amazing in itself, I think the symbolic gesture of wearing a traditional outfit was more important because I wanted to show Ishanee that her culture is just as important as mine, and our wedding is about bringing them together. That is why this was so important to me. Also, a fun fact, I was Ceylonika Batiks’ first customer to hire out and wear their traditional Nilame outfit!

Ishanee: I also had 2 main outfits – my Sri Lankan wedding saree and my Indian wedding lehenga. I don’t have a story as sweet as Miten’s, but I think both those outfits were the most unique and special to me. Firstly, the Sri Lankan wedding saree was definitely my favourite outfit because when I put it on, along with all the gold jewellery, I truly felt like a Sri Lankan princess. One of my earliest memories is telling my mum that I wanted to be a princess when I grew up (funnily enough, my middle name actually means princess) and through my Sri Lankan wedding saree, I really felt like I had gotten to live that. I’m not sure if it was the fit, the design or the fact that it was custom-made for me, but I definitely felt the most elegant and beautiful on this day, which is all I had hoped to feel on my wedding day. My Indian wedding outfit was also so insanely beautiful, but the most fun part about this one was again, custom designing the whole thing, down to the embroidery detailing. The whole process of working with the dressmaker to bring my vision to life and then surprise my groom with it was such a dream come true for me.

Tell us about your wedding and engagement rings.

Miten: I can’t remember when we spoke about it, but I always knew what type of ring Ishanee wanted. In my quest to find this perfect ring, I found Four Words, which I believe was a relatively new company at the time. Ishanee wanted a cushion-cut diamond ring on a gold pavé band. That was basically her only requirement. I personally have always liked the look of this ring, too, but I wanted to add my own little touch to it. I have always been someone who obsesses over the “small” details, and what I personally like about a cushion cut ring with a pave band is the hidden halo around the main diamond. I feel like this small detail really brings the full ring together.

As for my band, I wanted something classic but also something modern. So I went with a simple gold wedding band with a brushed flat bevel. On one side of the inside of the band, I got “Ishanee” engraved on it, and on the opposite side, it has our wedding dates “7th 8th 9th (new line) DEC 2024”. This was a special experience because Ishanee and I were able to find, design, and create a wedding band together

What were one or two elements that were most important to you both that you were happy to spend a little more on? (food, photography, florals, the venue, your outfits?).

We wanted to be able to relive our wedding day forever, so photography and videography were a top priority. We were happy to invest a little extra to ensure every laugh, tear, and special moment was captured perfectly. To say Le Reox Media did a phenomenal job would be an understatement because they exceeded every expectation and delivered the most beautiful photos and wedding videos that we will truly cherish forever.

Was there a favourite moment (or two) that you will treasure always?

Miten: The fact that we had 3 days’ worth of celebrations makes this question extremely difficult, so I will share all of my favourite moments that come to mind.

Day 1 – Sri Lankan Wedding & Civil Ceremony: Easily my outfit. I spend a lot of time and effort planning the traditional Nilame outfit to surprise Ishanee with. Her reaction to seeing me is something I will cherish forever and something I wish I could relive over and over again. Out of everything, this is easily my favourite.

Day 2 – Haldi Ceremony: This one stands out just because of how colourful it was and how unexpectedly fun it was. Not just for me, but I wasn’t expecting Ishanee to enjoy it much either, and so this event stood out to me because it took me by surprise! We both ended up having a lot of fun, and it was so chill and casual, it was just all around good vibes. I don’t know how else to explain it.

Day 3 Morning – Indian Wedding Ceremony: This one caught me by surprise, too, but this time, I surprised myself. The groom’s arrival is called a “baraat” and is typically a big thing in Hindu wedding culture. It’s full of dancing and partying and is high energy before the wedding ceremony. I’m normally a laid back and reserved guy and I don’t know if it was the adrenaline rush, feeding off the music and the “dhol” (indian drums) and everyone’s energy, or skulling a red bull can right beforehand, but I was full of life and having the best time of my life even though I was running on 3 hours of sleep. Even though I was having heaps of fun, Ishanee also turned the tables on me and surprised me by crashing the baraat with her girls and performing her own dance! Also, Ishanee is a dancer, and this moment was the first time I actually saw her dance in real life! That was a really cool moment.

Day 3 Evening – Reception: Ishanee and I love going to music festivals and enjoy EDM music. I was chatting with Manish (DJ) about some stuff and at some point he suggested that I should do a DJ set during the Reception dance floor. I had shared that when I was younger, around the time I was in intermediate, I was really into DJ’ing at home and used to play around with Virtual DJ on the computer a lot. So I thought, well, alright then, it’s time to live out my childhood dream of being a DJ for 15 minutes. It couldn’t just be random, though; it had to be meaningful, it had to be good. So in the months leading up to the wedding, I spent many evenings after Ishanee had gone to bed “gaming” with my mates, but in secret I was actually planning my DJ set, finding the right songs, and practising the full DJ set I was going to perform. I put hours and hours into perfecting this mix, and it was well worth it. Ishanee was super surprised when I hit the decks and took over out of the blue, and everyone seemed to have had a great time. It was a lot of fun DJ’ing, and it was something that felt unique and different, too. To this day, every now and again, I listen to the DJ set I recorded, and it brings back a lot of memories of planning the set and finally the day I performed it.

Ishanee: Nothing can top the moment Miten surprised me by wearing a traditional groom outfit (Nilame) on our Sri Lankan wedding day. He planned it all from overseas, keeping it a complete secret, and the reveal left me completely speechless. But it wasn’t just the surprise; it was the thought, care, and love behind it. He went to extraordinary lengths to honour my culture, knowing it would bring me so much joy. I knew I was marrying an incredible man, but this moment reminded me just how remarkable, thoughtful and kind he truly is.

I also absolutely loved the surprise reception performance that Miten, his family, and his groomsmen put together for me! As a dancer, I’ve always been surrounded by music, and when Miten and I first met, I was involved in many dance projects. What made this performance so incredibly special was that every song he used was one I had created or performed dances to in that first year we met. When the first song played, I thought it might be a coincidence, but as the performance continued, I realised each song held a meaningful connection to the early days of our relationship. It wasn’t just the performance itself; it was the thought, care, and attention to detail that Miten put into it that made this moment truly unforgettable.