The two decided to visit the Taj Mahal in Agra, India and then embark on a European trip, which included Paris, France. It occurred to them that both these iconic landmarks were famously connected with love. And since they were planning to get married anyway, an idea struck.
“When discussing vacation dates and other stuff, my husband and I were making jokes. We said, why not exchange rings at the Taj Mahal and then tie the knot in Paris? We weren’t sure whether we could make it or not, but we soon got to planning it. We were like, why not?” Vinothini, 31, told FMT Lifestyle.
Vinothini, a secondary school teacher and educator, first met businessman Gabriel, 33, in 2020. The two were neighbours, and Gabriel was also a friend of Vinothini’s younger brother.
The longer they spoke about it, the more it seemed a good idea. And soon, the Semenyih couple found themselves planning their wedding milestones at two of the most romantic spots on earth.
India was their first stop, where the couple would exchange rings. Vinothini and Gabriel had a lot of packing and preparations to do: this included searching on Instagram for local photographers, make-up artists and henna artists.
When the day arrived, the couple were nervous and excited at the same time.
“It happened to be a holiday, Labour Day, which was also my husband’s birthday. There were a lot of people, and many of them came to take photos with us! Many of them were in normal attire, and there we were in traditional clothes,” Vinothini laughed.
Overall, the ring exchange went very smoothly. This gave the couple the confidence to continue with their wedding plans in Paris.
Again, this meant going online: after much searching, Vinothini found an Indian wedding organiser in France. She was put in touch with a woman named Priya, who helped coordinate everything.
Vinothini related what she envisioned: this included her wish to capture the Eiffel Tower in the background as she and Gabriel tied the thali, the sacred thread in a Hindu wedding.
Priya turned out to be very helpful, smoothing out all wrinkles and getting everything in place. The couple planned to have a traditional Indian wedding in the morning, and then a church wedding afterwards.
“The wedding was in the middle of our European trip. We started off from Italy on Nov 26, celebrated my birthday on Nov 29, and then had the wedding in Paris,” Vinothini recalled.
“We had one hand luggage with our wedding attire and accessories, which we brought throughout our trip and didn’t open until the big day!”
When the day of the wedding arrived, Vinothini and Gabriel felt chills. Not just from excitement, but also the weather.
“We didn’t expect the temperature to drop to one degree Celsius. We tried our best to stay calm most of the time, but even our priest was shivering! Our hands and feet were numb, we literally felt nothing when we held hands,” Vinothini said.
Despite this, everything proceeded wonderfully, with both the Indian and church wedding going off without a hitch.
“We are immensely grateful to each and every person who was there on our big day. Despite the freezing temperature, they worked tirelessly to make everything incredibly beautiful!” Vinothini said.
“On a side note, we kept this a secret and planned it all ourselves. Not even our parents knew until we showed them our engagement and wedding videos!”
It may have taken a lot of work, but Vinothini and Gabriel believe they will never forget their wedding. The two hope to continue seeing the world together, even if it means going low budget: this includes someday revisiting the places that made their union so special.
“A year ago, when we first started discussing it, we weren’t sure if we could make it happen. But in the end, everything went exactly as we had hoped, and we believe it even exceeded our expectations. This truly was our dream wedding,” she concluded.