We met at university about seven years ago and after doing the whole backpacking through Asia thing for a couple of months, we were placed in different cities for our first jobs — Shivana in Wellington and Vinny in Auckland.
After 18 months, Shivana quit her job and moved to Auckland where we both currently live. Shivana now works for Kea New Zealand, helping startups and businesses expand in New Zealand and offshore, and is building a clothing label that does stylish and comfortable at-home wear (inactivewear!). Vinny is the co-founder of a digital learning tech startup.
We met in the most traditional and romantic of settings: a student BYO in Dunedin. It was not love at first sight. I turned Vinny down four times before agreeing to hang out with him at 4am on the top of the medical school building. Our first date was a joint visit to the proctor’s office, after getting caught trespassing. We got a brief telling off, then went for the first of many coffees together.
Vinny is notorious for his ‘just-in-time’ project management aka leaving everything to the last minute. This was true for the proposal as well. He found the perfect ring, location and data, but left everything to the last week to organise. As it always does, everything worked out. Vinny suggested we go on a nice long Sunday afternoon walk in Woodhill Forest. A few minutes in, Vinny started to veer to the left, where we came to a tree with a framed photo of us. Other trees had more photos of us, and we were led to an incredibly picturesque picnic in a clearing. Before I could process it all, he was down on one knee.
We had two wedding ceremonies — a four-day, traditional Gujarati ceremony in Auckland [not pictured] and a Western ceremony in Matakana. Planning it all involved many discussions and you quickly learn that you can’t please everyone. We were in the middle of a three-week India trip to do wedding shopping when our planner noticed that our Gujarati ceremony venue had shut down. We had already printed our wedding invites. Finding a venue that catered for around 350 guests and aligned with our caterers was no easy feat. After our colourful Gujarati ceremony, we wanted our Western ceremony to have a softer colour palette — golds and creams, with small pops of colour. We wanted our groomsmen and bridesmaids’ outfits to be similar, but different. We ended up with quite a cohesive look and feel.
The Sculptureum in Matakana was stunning and distinct, but we felt we could make it uniquely ours. As a budding designer, Shivana always knew she would design her wedding dress and that it would not be white. Five months of putting together mood-boards, sketching, agonising and indecisiveness ensued, before landing on the design. My mother in law’s originally from Surat in Gujarat, so we did our shopping there, and had the bride’s dress hand-stitched there as well. We heard a lot that when you’re planning a wedding, you should ‘just enjoy it’. Shivana got so caught up in this that she would get stressed about being stressed, tearfully telling herself ‘why are you so upset, you need to enjoy this experience as you only get to do it once’. The truth is, when something so momentous and special like this happens, people will have different ideas and opinions. There will be arguments, there will be frustration, there may be tears. But when you look back, all you remember is the magic, the love, and feelings of togetherness. Also, yes, you should care about what the two of you want, but you also need to recognise when something matters more to someone else than it does to you. Your celebration isn’t just yours; it’s for everyone that’s important to you, too. It’s absolutely wonderful to be married. The marriage ceremony has been such an essential part of human culture. It was awesome to be able to create and participate in our own version.
Photography: @stephanandnakita | Videography: HDEV Weddings & Events | Venue & Catering: @sculptureum.nz | Celebrant: Rob Smith | Bride’s dress: designed by the bride, custom-made in collaboration with @kajalscouture240 | Suits & Bridesmaid’s attire: Raymond’s, Surat, India | Bride’s engagement ring: Violinist: @natasha_senee_violinist | Reception Entertainment: Style NZ | Flora and Styling: Weddings by Pria | Cakes: @thepiepiper and @moustachenz | Bride’s engagement ring: @gary.meaden.jeweller | Wedding bands: Patchigar Jewellers, Surat, India | Hair & Makeup: @rae_makeup
