Romantic Hindu and Humanist Wedding Weekend

When we see the words “wedding weekend” pop up, we’re automatically enamored by what’s to come in the photos. Dominique Bader was in charge of documenting Sundari and Andy’s festivities and it was kicked off by the warm and vibrant Hindu, Sri-Lankan Tamil wedding. Following their first celebration, their Humanist wedding was dressed in lovely shades of white and grey with delightful additions of green thanks to the creations by Floribunda Rose. With a gala like this, Always Andri Wedding Design was on hand to offer not only smooth planning but fantastic design as well.

From the bride, Sundari: So planning a wedding is one thing; planning a wedding when you’re a wedding stylist, with a fiance that uses “nice” as his go-to adjective for EVERYTHING and a whole lot of pressure because of my profession felt like a whole other game! Andy and I met on a blind date back in 2012 and despite a lot of changes that happened in our lives we became closer as time went on. Our wedding was one that was so deeply meaningful to my (now) husband as we pulled two very different upbringings and families together in a rather crazy wedding weekend. It was exciting to see how we’d use the wedding to represent us as a couple. We also have an extreme commitment to our family and often we put them before either of ourselves, so our wedding was to pay homage to whom we both had become as people along with having our special family members take part throughout. All our choices throughout the wedding planning were made with them in mind with picking a venue Andy had visited many times as a child along with food choices my family loved.

A whole weekend of celebrations, we started with our Hindu, Sri-lankan Tamil wedding which was coordinated mainly by my father but was pushed in the visual direction of our choice. This meant that we both could concentrate on the Sunday ceremony which was our Humanist wedding and to us, the “real” deal where we’d exchange vows in front all of our nearest and dearest. The Sunday event took deep inspiration from our love for roaming Roman ruins with Latin references in our invitations, banquet style seating and along with Andy’s upbringing around his two Classic teaching parents. Andy also proposed to me in Rome, so anything Italian (again also the first country we’d ever holidayed in!) was top of the list when considering the design.

The small details were what we dug into most like having trumpets designed into our crest (the instrument Andy plays) along with Italian eucalyptus, my favourite foliage. I spend a ridiculous amount of time hand writing and curling the edges of all the name places as well as ripping the edges for the escort cards. I even hand-drew a map of the venue’s gardens so people could go off and explore during drinks reception. One word we kept going back to was “humble” whilst our hindu wedding was anything but quiet, we wanted our humanist ceremony to be a quiet and mindful atmosphere whilst taking guests on a scent and sound journey. It was important for us to have a venue that had views to the outdoors and water, something peaceful so our nearest and dearest felt a world away from every day worries. We made sure there was a creche to look after all the children so adults could enjoy their dinner. We also picked acoustic guitar music for our ceremony to again reflect our personal taste but as well keep the atmosphere simplistic and “down to earth.”