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Simple & Sweet Chennai Wedding With Pretty Temple Jewellery!

BY Latha Sunadh | 23 May, 2016 | 11998 views | 5 min read

This wedding took us to the heart of Chennai - a side of exquisite kanjeevarams, fragrant mogra flowers, hanging lotus buds and temple jewellery - what's not to love. Divya and Vignesh tied the knot in a simple ceremony with beautiful thoranams and a pretty lotus bud mandap. She is a Mayalali and so they had a Kerala-themed wedding with the mythical bird annam as a mascot. All of the beauty of this wedding was captured to perfection by ShotStories by Varun Suresh★ 4.9 .
Meet Divya and Vignesh 
"I was in my first job at NDTV when we first met, six years ago, at my colleague’s terrace party who knew Vignesh from Bangalore. She eventually became cupid to a reticent meeting. I went abroad for a year after that to study and hitherto what had been an on and off conversation about sports became political and philosophical which drew us closer on my return. Before the wedding, I won a national award for one of my articles and Vignesh’s start-up was making a transition to becoming a company. We were independently doing what we believed in and were brave to push beyond what could have easily been a friendship to do everything together" explains Divya.
The  Cocktails
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The Wedding 
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From The Bride:

"We knew from the beginning that we wanted an open-air wedding and that it had to be elegant and not extravagant. All our events- the mehendi, sangeeth, wedding and after-party were all outdoors, along the coast of Chennai. Chennai isn’t known for outdoor weddings, most obviously because of the hot weather, so after a bit of a search, we decided on a venue that was next to us all along, the ISKCON temple which was less than 10 minutes away from my home.

Reflecting that line of thought, my mother’s friend, a textile designer proposed the idea of creating our wedding invites with the ‘Tree of Life’. Since mom and I are both lovers of traditional handicrafts, we agreed on doing this in Kalamkari. He drew and painted the entire card by hand and each card had to be manually cut at the centre to open to the next page.

I had only one decorator in mind, C Nachiappan, a horticulturist by profession. We erected a temporary square carpet stage and a circular mandap on the lawn and decided to keep the rustic charm of the place and enhance it. The mandap was created with white tuberoses ending with marigolds and lotuses with a sheer cover in yellow and white for us and the guests. We used thoranams, coconuts, and plantain trees for our entrance. We had a ceremony on a swing which was decorated in flowers and parrots made from leaves. The traditional decorative elements and vessels were given to us as by my mother’s friends Rina Venugopal from the Kerala House from the Nair Seva Society. We had a Malayali wedding as it was shorter and more suited for an open setting" says Divya.

"For the wedding, I was sure not to be covered in yellow gold like millennial Malayali brides. I decided to stick to three heavy neckpieces in temple and antique finish. I wanted to purchase at least one ornament myself, so I bought my first choker with rubies, emeralds, kundan from Prince Jewellery’s antique exhibition. Then we got the Nagas long haram from NAC and the piece to fit in-between the two was extremely difficult to match and we finally found that in Kalyan, a week before the wedding. My statement jhumkas were from Saravana Elite and bangles from Malabar Gold. All my jewellery had a common unintended theme- annam- a mythical bird.

Angadi Silks, Bangalore specifically made a handloom saree for me weaved from Kancheepuram by a man in 20-days. My second saree was from Angadi Galleria- an arakku red with traditional checks of annams and chakras with a Ganga Jamuna border. My make-up was done by Pippi from Rachel’s Stylesmith and she is the best in town, hands down. We did minimal make up and kept it as natural as possible that we didn’t even touch my eyebrows. All our close friends wore white and gold sarees to keep with the Malayali theme. Some of my bridesmaids wore kasavu saree with annams weaved specially from Kuthampully Handloom Village, Thrissur," adds Divya.


Vendors: Venue: Wedding at ISKCON, Sea Ward Road, Thiruvanmiyur; Mehendi & Sangeeth at Food Village, Injambakkam; Cocktails at Sagarika Garden, East Coast Road  |Decor: C Nachiappan |Mehendi Artist: Duraiya |Bride's Outfits: Wedding sari by Angadi Silks; cocktails outfit by Ritu Kumar★ 4.4 ; Sangeet & Mehendi outfit by Sidney Sladen, Chennai  |Groom's Outfits: Wedding outfit by Nalli Silks★ 4.7 ; Mehendi & Sangeeth outfits by Sundari Silks Chennai★ 5 ; Cocktail party outfit by Zara  |Jewellery: Wedding Jewellery by Prince Jewellery★ 5 , Kalyan, NAC, Malabar Jewellers★ 4.9 , Saravana Elite; Sangeet & Mehendi jewellery by Kushals Jewellery★ 4.6 , Indear and Utharika; Cocktail jewellery by Tanishq  |Makeup Artist: Wedding & Cocktails by Pippi, Style Smith; Sangeet & Mehendi makeup by Rashida Ranpurwala |Invitations: C Balamurugan, The Palace |Photography: ShotStories by Varun Suresh★ 4.9 , Sreedhar Vaidya (84mm Studio), Chella Vaidhyanathan  |Videography: The Marigold Company★ 4.2 , Chella Vaidhyanathan
Planning your wedding in Chennai? Here you can explore a list of the best marriage halls in Chennai. Find the best temple jewellery stores in Chennai. You can also explore this list of top bridal makeup artists in Chennai, Chennai wedding planners and Chennai bridal wear stores too!
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