Tamil Catholic wedding in Italy
The Catholic wedding that we organized for Shanujan&Prabhleen was the first Tamil Catholic wedding that we had the opportunity to organize. Initially we thought that the Catholic wedding would be the same as the Italian ones, but during the planning we realized that it was different as it also had elements of a Hindu wedding within it. For the groom’s family it was important to find Tamil Catholic priests to be able to celebrate the wedding in the Tamil language. It wasn’t an easy task but in the end we managed to find the right priest, or rather 4 priests, who all came together to celebrate this union. Being them a fusion couple, and having to organize 3 events in one day (Anand Karaj, Church wedding & reception) it was very important to find a church nearby to avoid long journeys.
The requirements for the church were particular, as even the various statues of the Holy Mary present in some churches had different meanings for them and therefore not all churches were suitable. Luckily, thanks to some indications, we managed to find a contemporary church. It had a particular architecture in an hexagonal-shaped and a very high ceiling full of stained glass windows. It was the perfect church for this ceremony as the couple was a lover of contemporary style. Furthermore it was only 15 minutes from the resort where they were staying, so it allowed us to reduce travel times.
Setting up this church wasn’t easy given its particular shape, also because it had a hexagonal hole in the center that overlooked the crypt below.
Since the bride chose a different color palette for each event, the theme for this event was autumnal with orange, bronze and white colors which perfectly matched the bridesmaids’ dresses. The church was beautifully set up and all the guests sat around the central hexagon, which had been covered with a beautiful garland of flowers. Prabhleen wore a beautiful, very elegant white dress with a very long veil. She had a wonderful white bouquet with nuanced touches of pink and powder pink. The bridesmaids all had similar mini bouquets too.
After the arrival of all the guests, the groom arrived first in his shiny red Ferrari. The bride followed in a luxurious Rolls Royce accompanied by her parents. The ceremony was beautiful and different from the Catholic ceremonies we are used to seeing in Italy. In fact, in addition to the exchange of rings, there was the exchange of garlands. The beautiful garlands chosen by the spouses were entirely made of baby’s breath with a touch of red given by red carnations. And finally Shanujan put a necklace around his bride’s neck, as also happens in Hindu weddings.
Every Indian wedding – depending on the origin of the spouses – has particular requirements. For us Indian weddings specialists it is extremely important to understand all these needs of each ritual to ensure that we are able to organize a traditional and authentic wedding, for the happiness of the spouses and their families. And as always, even in this case, we completely succeeded.
Guests left speechless by the grand reception setup
After leaving the church there was the throwing of rice to the bride and groom – a typical custom of weddings in Italy – and the throwing of the bride’s bouquet. While the bride and groom did their photo shoot at sunset, all the guests headed to the resort where they held the final reception. Being the end of October, the days were shorter and it got dark earlier, and given the temperature range between day and evening, we opted to have the cocktail hour outside and dinner inside a beautiful room, which on our floral designer has set up with wonderful floral compositions. The fulcrum of the setup was the head table, a long 4 meter imperial table with a structure of huge compositions of hanging flowers. Another setup that left the guests speechless was the wedding cake, decorated with a very long garland of flowers that trailed to the ground.
The guests’ cocktail hour was enlivened by live music from an electric violinist who also played pieces of Indian music. For the reception a Tamil DJ performed against a backdrop of a LED wall on which photos of the bride and groom were projected. As a dancefloor there was a personalized platform with the bride and groom’s logo. The same had also been used for the LED wall, for the wedding programs, the menus, the seating plan, the invitations, the wedding gifts; all in a contemporary style that reflected this couple’s style.
This Tamil Catholic wedding was definitely a beautiful experience, and the grand reception with Indian food was the highlight of these celebrations.
