Well, of course we've had brides bring in their lovely 'Fairy Tale Sized' wedding stories. But wait, why only Weddings get to be all dreamy and royal sized? Who said anything about a Destination Engagement?? Well, Pooja and Suren did! Welcome to a Goa sized, fun shaped, fairy tale Engagement!
When two people are meant for each other, nothing can keep them apart. Our story is similar to 2 states except for the fact that in our story girl is from the North and guy is from the south.
Hi! I am Pooja Gupta. I was born and brought up in Rajasthan. I moved to USA to pursue master's degree. I am currently working in Columbus, Ohio. I met Suren during my internship. The first time I saw him I never knew that I will be spending the rest of my life with him. From colleagues, we became friends and slowly our friendship turned into this beautiful LOVE story.
I always wanted a destination wedding but considering South Indian tradition and culture, I realised it will be tough to have a destination wedding so we decided to have a destination engagement. Nothing can beat the experience of fairytale engagement, which took place against the backdrop of beaches that are flanked by the gleaming blue water.
Exchanging rings at such an exotic location in Goa is totally a breathtaking experience that can't be compared to any other destinations. So, we went for Goa as decided. Once the destination was decided, we started looking at different event planners to arrange our engagement ceremony.
I was very specific about what I wanted for the decor; gazebo design, red & white theme, dramatic entry on Vespa, fireworks, Chinese lantern, cake design etc were all my ideas that were executed by Fergie Pinto- the wedding designer.
After deciding on the destination and the wedding designer, the next major thing was selecting a perfect venue. The first thing that comes to everyone's mind about Goa is its beautiful sunny beaches. So, it was an obvious choice that I wanted a place with a nice quaint private beach and a scenic view. A perfect combination of all the above is Prainha Resort. I couldn't have imagined of a better venue than Prainha, an astounding location, with great service.
We had a pre shoot at Sinquerim beach and a part of Fort Agueda. Photography was done by Chetana Bhat and cinematic video was shot by Jayavanti Loundo. Both the photography and videography were beautifully done. My makeup was done by Minette Pereira from Goa. She did a fabulous job.
Our engagement was on Oct 18th and we reached India a week before our engagement. I had only 2-3 days to shop for my engagement dress and jewelry. I did all my shopping from the fashion capital of India- Mumbai. I was very certain that I wanted to wear something contemporary. My first choice was a pret and couture designer Shruti Sheth who designs for many celebrities.
Since, I had very little time I thought I would have to pick something off the rack but a big thanks to Shruti who agreed to customize and make a new dress for me in just 4 days. The dress was exquisite and was liked by everyone. We bought Suren's dress from Express (USA). Shruti Sheth customized bow-tie and pocket square complimenting my dress.
I bought my diamond necklace from Tanishq, Link Road Mumbai. They have a fabulous collection of modern diamond necklaces. Since we didn't have enough time for ring resizing, it was tough to find a perfect ring.
We got my engagement ring from Tribhundas Bhimji Zaveri, Mumbai. TBZ had the best Forever Mark solitaire ring collection. The store manager was really cooperative and she resized my ring on time. My fiance's ring was from Tanishq, Mumbai. In addition to the diamond rings we also exchanged personalized silver rings with each other's name engraved on it.
It was really tough to manage everything from USA because of the time difference but we finally managed to have our perfect engagement. I enjoyed each and every bit of it and I want to thank my fiance for being so supportive and for making everything really easy on me.
