Amit and Hetal

How they met:

Let’s just say it was a match made in heaven! There are these famous lines from Dil To Pagal Hai (my all time favorite movie) which till today I believe is true: “I believe that God predetermined all our relationships. But then He left it to us to find each other. He made us all couples. And for every one of us there is a soul mate. And I am absolutely sure that somewhere someone is made for me and that someday I shall certainly meet him”

“And that is our story… Amit and I must have bumped into each other many times at the mandir or at some religious event but we never really noticed each other,” shares Hetal.

We even found a picture of us sitting diagonally across each other at an event a few years ago.. And can you believe it took us so many years to find each other.

On the 9th August I was with my mum in Durban and Amit was there for a mandir function. Mum and I were visiting relatives. That was when Amit and I were introduced to each other. It was a quick introduction and mum and I left because were running late for our flight. While sitting in the plane I got a Facebook friend request, which I accidentally declined but resent the invite immediately. The next day I got a Facebook message. At that time I was not ready for a relationship due to work occupying me. I kept Amit on his toes for a while!

My relatives kept telling me that he’s a nice guy and he comes from a nice family (the normal Indian style of getting people to meet and go out).Eventually, my mum told me to just meet him for a drink and see what happens from there.

So we met for lunch and we chatted for hours. We got along like a house on fire and we started meeting up more regularly. After nearly 10 weeks I knew Amit was the one!

Then the dating phase happened. This included multiple trips from Johannesburg to Pretoria and visa versa. It was all worth it. On the 24th September 2017 Amit proposed at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens. We had our official engagement ceremony on 18 February 2018 .We got legally married on 10 June 2018 and on the 17th Feb 2019 we had our traditional wedding ceremony.

Planning the big day:

Planning our big day came with many highs and many lows. Once we set our wedding date I knew that I wanted to go to India to do my wedding shopping as I would not find what I want in our locally. We started in Mumbai then Surat and Navsari and back to Mumbai. We had a blast! I knew exactly what I wanted and my mum and gran made sure we got everything.

Once we got back the proper planning started. Since both Amit and I have a big family numbers were coming to about 500 people. We decided to go old school cinema style wedding at the Shree Pretoria Hindu Seva Samaj. Then came looking for décor, photographers, wedding invites, caterers and the like.

The search for wedding invites is not as easy as you think. I saw so many but eventually I found the perfect one. It was not a traditional invite. It was more modern with umbrellas. I knew it was the one.

Our lows hit when my mum was diagnosed with cancer and all preps were put on hold. After 2 months we started again. Invites were printed, décor was being discussed and a photographer was booked. For décor we went with Aunty Dolly and she did an outstanding job and went over and above what we asked for. Pritesh was our photographer, we used him for our engagement shoot as well. He is really fantastic! Manisha is just awesome as she does everything from make up to hair to dressing and mendhi..

The days went by very quick and as soon as we knew it all started to kick in. Planning your big day can get stressful however, I was lucky to have my mum and gran to keep me calm. My mum was like superwoman trying to get everything perfect even though there were days when we could see that she was struggling. We were also lucky to have my uncles and aunts to help us arrange everything. Having that family support really means the world.

Just having my friends and family around was enough to make my day so special. The love we got was just overwhelming. Every moment was special.

Advice for other brides and grooms to be:

You are never prepared when something goes wrong or missing so always try and keep calm
Remember you cannot do this on your own, having friends and family to help will make things much easier for you
Don’t forget to do a photoshoot.
Try and get enough rest
Just have fun and enjoy this special time