Chandana & Sai

"We met at a friend’s graduation, having celebratory drinks at a bar in Auckland. One thing led to another, and then Sai was proposing to me in Hawaii. It was on a day during our vacation that we decided to lie on the beach and do absolutely nothing. It was a huge surprise for me. He took me to an empty island away from the main beach and popped the question. I had no makeup on, was slightly burnt and ugly cried, but it was all kinds of beautiful."

"Sai is pretty much the tall, dark, bearded man I always wanted in my life, haha. His energy is so warm and accepting. He’s the kind of person who wants to get to genuinely get to know everyone around him and gives everyone his best self. He tells me how much he loves the way my eyes turn to crescents when I smile, treats me so gently and never fails to make me laugh. Although planning this wedding was a challenge, doing it with him made it a thousand times easier.

We really wanted to have personal vows with all our hopes, wishes and feelings in them, but we didn’t want to try and squish these into the short civil ceremony that needed to happen alongside the Indian wedding ceremony. There was already so much happening, so we decided to head to our favourite beach at the very beginning of our wedding week: Bethells Beach. There, in intimacy at sunset, we walked along the beach until we found the perfect spot and shared our vows with one another.

When it came to the wedding itself, the best part was seeing everyone we love in one enormous room together, like a sea of people that were a part of every bit of good and bad throughout all the years leading up to this day. It was everyone from both of our lives, all together, all happy and all celebrating us - that, and, of course, dancing. I always say that the whole week we were just in the middle of this massive ball of warm fuzzies and it was the best feeling.”