Marriage

The story of V & V…..

My husband and I met online on a dating website in 2012. We are both Indian, so this is not how we (or our parents) had imagined/planned it would be! As kismet would have it, this is EXACTLY how we were supposed to meet and meant to be.

Long distance from the start…

V was working on his PhD in Pittsburgh at the time and I was studying for my medical board (Step 2 CK) in Toronto. He was from North India and I was born in South India but grew up in Canada. Apart from English, we spoke two different languages and we were very different in many other ways as well! What we did have in common was our love, support, and respect for one another that just grew stronger as the days went by.

Dating, engagement, marriage:

I had a website for a while about this: theunconventionalhindubride.wordpress.com

We dated for about a year before we were engaged. There was no “will you marry me” moment. We just knew! We had a traditional simple South Indian ceremony in Tirupati, India with our very close family members. We were blessed to have our engagement in such a holy city and temple!

 

Two years after the engagement our parents were big time hinting at us that it was time to get married. Normally Indian weddings take place within six months of the engagement, but we were not the typical couple having a normal relationship. We finally gave the go ahead and had a civil ceremony in Toronto, June 2015 and our Hindu wedding in India, December 2015.

Our civil wedding was beautiful and so much fun! We decided to have it in my home in Toronto. My Mom and I made the decorations ourselves! We had mehendi celebrations the previous evening, followed by a civil ceremony with the priest the next day. Afterwards, we had lunch with our family and friends at an Indian restaurant.

Our Hindu wedding took place December 2015 in Haridwar, India (a holy city in Northern India). My husband wanted a simple wedding so we had it in an ashram. It lasted about 3-4 hours, the Hindu vedic prayers and rituals were beautiful. I wore my traditional South Indian 9-yard saree (madisar) and V looked handsome in his North Indian groom attire.

After our wedding we had…THREE receptions! Yes, you read that right! Because our wedding in Haridwar was attended by very few family and friends, we had three receptions so all our family and friends all around India, Canada and the US could celebrate with us. Two in India and one in Toronto.

Reception 1 – Lucknow, reception 2 – Mumbai, reception 3 – Toronto

We just loved partying, didn’t we? 🙂

Surviving a long distance relationship:

Looking back I cannot believe how much V & I have been through together, even though most of the time in these five years we have been apart. Long distance is painful when we are missing each other a lot but it is definitely doable when we BOTH want this to work.

• constant communication, trust and love
• many emails, text messages, phone calls, gchat/videochat/whatsapp messages
• many car trips, bus rides and flights to meet each other when we can
• we are supportive of each other’s goals and dreams
• don’t hold grudges, laugh a lot
• setting a date to close the distance and working towards it together

Updated: We closed the distance in September 2017, it was a very happy day for both of us!!! I love being married and experiencing everything about it. Feels so wonderful to see and hug my supportive and loving husband every day! ❤