We first met before we even knew how to walk. Our parents met each other in a hill station in India called Mussoorie, when we were both just short of one year old. We then met again when we were in third grade, we went to a small school in New Delhi. I was Jordy’s first crush, but back then I was terrified of little boys, especially him. We were in school together for three years, then home-schooled separately, and I moved to Thailand for high school. We had no contact with each other during that time at all, then in 2011 I went with my family on a rafting trip in India and Jordy and his dad were on the same trip. The first day I just observed him making everyone laugh and being friends with everyone. We were all sitting in a big group and he stopped and looked and me and said, “Do you ever talk?” I started laughing and then wouldn’t shut up the rest of the trip, and that was the beginning of us.
We always wanted something a bit exotic for our wedding, far away from where we live, and with a lot of natural beauty. Once we decided on the Thar desert, a lot of the ideas came with the location. Like the camels for example! It was all DIY – the most wonderful thing about having a wedding in India is you can find all the ‘exotic’ décor for a very reasonable price because it’s so normal here.
I’d tried on about a hundred dresses but couldn’t find one I loved. I really wanted it to have an Indian twist, but still be a white dress. So the only option I had left was to get it made in India. So my sister-in-laws and I picked out fabric and designed it along with our tailor. It was quite nerve-wracking not knowing what it was going to look like as it was just a design we’d drawn up, but it turned out better than I could have dreamed.
The best details of the day – besides getting married to my best friend – was during the camel procession, where I looked ahead and saw all my favourite people in the world riding camels in the middle of nowhere and all I could think was, how did this ever happen? During the ceremony we incorporated a Thai tradition where we ask a few specific people to come up and tie a white string around each of our wrists as a blessing. The men tied theirs around Jordy’s and the women tied theirs around mine. It was beautiful.
Photography, Danelle Bohane | Reception Venue and Catering, Hotel Rangmahal
