Megha & Adam
Megha and Adam were very conscious of including both of their cultural heritages as they planned their waterside Australian Indian wedding. It turned into a three day celebration of colour and culture with 170 guests, a Hindu ceremony (complete with preceding Mendhi and Vidhi ceremonies) a western civil ceremony and plenty of in between moments that last forever. They chose Michelle Kiddie Photography to capture it all.
On how they met, the newlyweds tell. “As so many other couples we know, we met in the small outback mining town of Mount Isa. We met at a mutual friend’s housewarming party – as Adam recounted later in his reception speech, he impressed Megha with his mad barbecuing skills! On paper we seem to be the most unlikely couple – the outdoorsy NRL-loving QLD fella with the bookish AFL-loving WA girl, but we quickly found we actually had many common interests and our relationship developed from there. Adam proposed on a warm November evening at the Granites watching a classic Mount Isa sunset. Megha was completely surprised as she thought Adam was getting cheese out of the esky, not a ring he’d designed himself! She took some time to stop crying but then of course said yes.”
The day started for the bride with mendhi (henna) and vidhi ceremonies.
Megha’s mother purchased saris for her and her bridesmaids while in India. She tells, “I chose to wear a sari for the wedding ceremony, it just felt more like ‘me’. But I didn’t have enough time to go to India to choose one myself. Mum stepped in and offered to get one for me, along with the bridesmaid saris. I issued many strict instructions, and of course mum ignored most of them. She came back with a sari that was completely different to what I had expected and – I loved it!
I loved the print of the gold on white and the rich note the maroon added. I loved the thickness and luxury of the fabric. And mostly, I loved that my mum had chosen this sari just for me because she thought it would make me feel and look beautiful. I changed into a lighter outfit for the reception, a skirt and top that I would feel more comfortable in for dancing up a storm. Mum also chose this and it was pretty special –a gorgeous colour combination of navy blue and pink (tying in with my bridesmaids and Adam and his groomsmen) and with intricate gold embroidery.”
The wedding ceremony was held at Old Mandurah Yacht Club – also the site of Megha’s 21st ten years ago!
Megha and Adam note, “We didn’t want to adopt too many DIY projects as we were organising the wedding from the other side of the country. The biggest one we took on was doing all the flowers ourselves. I felt so lucky to have supportive family members and friends who were keen to help and saw this as part of the fun and not a chore.
We had a great time sitting on mum and dad’s lounge room floor chatting away surrounded by newspapers, leaves and beautiful blooms. My bridesmaids made their own bouquets, my aunt made the rose garlands for the Hindu ceremony, I made the corsages, my sister and cousin created the flower curtain backdrop and a whole pile of aunts did the reception table flowers on the morning of the wedding.
A few days before the wedding my parents’ neighbour was pruning her rose garden and generously collected up all the flowers for the guests to use as a petal toss after the ceremony. The red rose petals looked and smelt amazing and were such a colourful addition to our processional. In the week before the wedding my cousin and I also made the fabric strip backdrop for the cake table.”
Megha was carried down the aisle to the 1952 classic ‘You Belong to Me’. She notes, “Our incredibly talented guitarist Trevor Jalla did a beautiful cover reminiscent of Jason Wade. We chose this song thinking of all the amazing things we’ve seen travelling, but that nothing beats the feeling of coming home to each other.”
The couple wanted their ceremony to be a blend of both cultures, noting, “We wanted our wedding to include both a Hindu ceremony and a civil ceremony, and a seamless transition from one to the other (no costume changes or venue changes etc.). Our fantastic priest and civil celebrant (Sylvia Gomersall) were fully supportive of our vision, encouraging us to make the ceremonies relevant to our relationship. We provided explanations of the Hindu ceremony for our guests in the wedding program, so they could understand the meaning behind each ritual and why we had included it. We chose to read the traditional vows in the civil ceremony, as they best reflected the commitment we were making to each other forever.”
Megha and Adam note, “All our vendors truly were fantastic. They quickly answered our random questions during the wedding planning process, helped line up other vendors and all seemed genuinely interested in making our celebration exactly how we wanted it. This included helping us create the perfect ceremony program, learning a special song for Megha to walk down the aisle to, tracking down our favourite Prosecco for the sparkling toasts, and then helping us remember all the love and joy with sensitive, beautiful photography and cinematography.”
The newlyweds tell, “Most of the day seems a blur but there are certain moments that stick in our minds. Megha’s dad’s face when he first saw her in her sari. Both our mums in tears as we walked back down the aisle as Mr and Mrs. Eating rainbow paddlepops with friends we’d had for years and feeling nostalgic while ice cream ran down people’s arms.
Having a quiet moment just the two of us under the historic Old Mandurah Bridge, singing our first dance song to each other, while our photographer and cinematographer faded into the background. Clambering over rocks in the rain for photos with our wonderful bridal party – including a 7 month pregnant maid of honour – and actually laughing about it.
Adam’s dad, who is normally a man of very few words, making an incredibly heartfelt and moving speech sharing his love for Adam and welcoming Megha into the Jensen family. And finally, leaving the reception and realising we hadn’t organised a way to get to our hotel for the night – so we climbed into the back of our friend’s rental car amongst the baby car seat and they dropped us off!”
Of their photographer, the bride and groom note “Our photographer Michelle worked so hard all weekend to catch the special moments that we didn’t even know were happening at the time – not only is her photography aesthetically gorgeous but her background as a journalist really shone through as well in our photos.”
Buses then took the guests to the Mandurah Offshore Fishing and Sailing Club for drinks and canapés overlooking the marina. The bride and groom note, “The rain held off for long enough before everyone moved indoors for the sit down reception. In the weeks before our wedding my maid of honour got in touch with family and friends that had rsvp’d that they wouldn’t be able to come. She asked them to send her a photo of themselves with a message for the newlyweds – Jane printed these out and they were strung up at the ceremony and reception so we could see the people we loved who were there in spirit if not in person.”
Megha and Adam describe the wedding as, “Colourful, chaotic love! We knew from the start we wanted to join both our backgrounds in the celebrations. We also wanted to take advantage of the traditional three-day Indian wedding format to have multiple opportunities to catch up with family and friends – and not trying to cram in chats with 170 people just at the reception.”
Megha remembers, “Our first dance was to the immortal ballad ‘All I want is you’ by U2. A song we knew practically off by heart, and when dancing at the reception could pretend we were slow dancing in our kitchen together while cooking dinner. We had no choreographed moves, just a gentle sway going on – until my dad decided that was enough and cut in to steal me from Adam. We were stoked to see this then become a free for all on the dancefloor.”
Matthew Bettinaglio of Direct Films captured this moving wedding film of the day – that processional!
Congratulations on your marriage Megha and Adam! Thank you for sharing your day with us! Thank you also to Michelle Kiddie Photography for sharing today’s wedding!
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