Hello, ladies! Don't miss Silvi & Shibin's fusion wedding in today's Platinum Guide Blog. You'll love it!
How did you meet your Groom and when did you know he was "the one"?
I first met Shibin about 10 years ago when he came to my church to invite us for a conference they were hosting. As a typical teenager, I wondered who this cute guy is and figured I wouldn’t see him after that day. Fast forward to 3 years later, both of us were serving in the military. We added each other on Facebook and realized we actually crossed paths awhile ago. And the rest was history. At first when we started to talk to each other, we were in two different time zones and the way he tried to make time for us which meant staying up way past his bed time or waking up super early to talk to me and I just knew that I couldn't let him get away for the "second" time!
Tell us how you went about planning your wedding, and your overall experience with the Venues, Hair & Makeup, Outfits, Decor Theme, and all of the other important details.
Shibin is from New York and I am from Pennsylvania. So, we both wanted to pick a place that's in between and we ended up picking our reception venue in New Jersey. Therefore, we picked our vendors based in Jersey Area except for our wedding planner Anisha (Our Day Events) who is from Maryland. She attended all our vendor meetings with us. If she was not available to meet with us in person, she made sure someone from her team attended while Anisha attended the meeting virtually.
We picked The Venetian as our reception venue and Nora (venue rep) was really helpful in answering all our questions and accommodating all of our needs prior to signing the contract with them. Then we moved on to picking our decor. We were really glad to work with AWD and her team. we went in for our initial meeting with some bits and pieces of our vision. Benish knew exactly what we wanted and she showed us her previous works based on it and we were happy to leave the meeting with a solid plan in place. We didn't had to think twice when it came to our photo/video Team: Live Picture Studios (LPS). I saw their work about 5-6 years ago and I just knew I will be picking them for the wedding. We chose Premier Events as our Entertainment/ DJ through family recommendation. I chose Dipal as my MUA. She was very friendly throughout our conversations she explained everything in a detailed way. We did a hair/makeup trial and things went well and my skin took it well as it can be sensitive at times.
We were all set with our vendors and ready to go for our May 2020 wedding until we were faced with the challenge of rescheduling it to July initially. Anisha was our Angel at the time and emailed all of our vendors and got their availabilities. As we got closer to the July date we were still uncomfortable with high Covid numbers and were worried about the safety of our family and friends. Therefore we had to find another date in September. It was the same process all over again but this time we decided to move our reception to 2021. That also meant making this wedding as intimate as possible so, we had to move our ceremony location to Staten Island, NY. LPS was really accommodating to our last minute changes and gave us suggestions to help with timings. Benish helped us with "replanning" our decorations as we had to scale everything down from our initial plan. After multiple meetings with Anisha and Benish, they really brought my simple and elegant vision to life. Without Anisha, our wedding day would have been chaotic because as the plans changed, Anisha had to make changes to our wedding day timeline accordingly and it was no joke. Shibin and I are really thankful for all the vendors that we had the chance to work with as everyone played an important role in for September 12, 2020 wedding to bring to life.
What was the most enjoyable part of the planning process, and why?
I really enjoyed visiting our venue site and other vendors in person with my fiancé. As things are done virtually now, we might have taken those moments for granted. Oh! I would also say cake tasting was the " cherry on top " to our planning process just because who doesn't like free cakes. Hahah!
Was there a really special moment in your wedding that constantly replays in your mind?
Walking down the aisle was such an emotional moment for me. I had my parents walk me down the aisle. The church was filled with all kinds of emotions. As I was walking down, all I could see was tears coming down from the family members, my bridesmaid and Shibin. After seeing everyone's emotions, I couldn't hold back my tears and the moment was just beyond special.
Do you have any words of wisdom for Brides-To-Be?
As each story is unique, enjoy the moment with your fiancé. Take one day at a time. Please don't hesitate to ask for help from family and friends. Find time to treat yourself with something you love. Wedding planning can be stressful but It's okay to take a day or two off from planning and give yourself a break. The yearlong planning will come to an end in no time. Therefore, work our marriage and learn more about each other as you start your new journey together.