Arranged.Love.Arranged. We’re sure that you are wondering about the unusual description, because a wedding can either be arranged or love, right?
Wrong! In Abhinav and Arti’s case, it was exactly as we have named it. To top it all, it is also a cross continent love story, with many phone calls, video calls and flights between London and New Delhi!
Abhinav is a doctor, raised in and living in London. For all his time spent studying and working hard to become a successful doctor, he was equally fascinated by fast cars, Bollywood music and his family heritage as a Rajput. According to his mother, he was sure right from the very beginning that he would like to marry a Rajput girl. So when his parents came across one they liked, they were positive that he would fall in love at first sight.
And he did. Or rather, as Abhinav puts it, it was love at first sound! Within 2-3 long distance phone conversations, he was head over heels and had the “dil mein baji guitar” feeling almost instantly. And all this was before they had actually set eyes on each other.
For Arti too, the decision was almost instantaneous. According to her, Abhinav is everything she ever dreamed of and more. Many cross-continent conversations and meetings later, they finally got their dream wedding in Delhi.
Looking at them together, it wouldn’t take you more than an instant to appreciate their chemistry and how deeply in love they are. For us, it’s almost impossible to imagine them without the other.
A few days before the wedding, we snuck them away to The Oberoi in Gurgaon for a few couple portraits…
The wedding festivities began with Abhinav’s tilak ceremony…
Followed by some amazing music and dance entertainment by Mame Khan (of Coke Studio India fame) and his troupe…
The ring ceremony was held later that evening…
Some impromptu dancing — can you tell they love dancing and music?
Then there was the scheduled dancing and masti!
The Haldi next morning was so fun because Abhinav’s father decided that the groom was not going to be the only one plastered with haldi! It became a crazy game with people teaming and ganging up on everybody else to catch and haldi-fy them.
And now for the wedding…
It was a beautiful wedding with a warm, loving family. The wedding rituals were an interesting mix of Rajput and Bihari cultures (the majority of Abhinav’s family had migrated to Bihar a few decades ago and the wedding drew from both cultures). The newly married couple couldn’t wait to start their lives together — being around them allowed us a peek into their beautiful story and we loved every minute of it!
Last, but not the least, here’s a preview of the wedding movie, created in collaboration with our fantastic partners – MixTape Films.
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