Rubbina and Louis’ wedding day was in such a delicious contrast to their urban engagement session on the South Bank. With Rubbina’s family being from Sri Lanka, having traditional Sri Lankan elements to their wedding day was really important to the couple. This could be seen in different traditions throughout the day. Here’s what Rubbina tells me about her gorgeous outfits: ‘Traditionally you wear a white saree, usually made of silk that is the equivalent to a white wedding dress. Then, in the evening, you change into a red saree which is called a koorai and is given as a present by the bridegroom to the bride. You change into this later in the day after a member of the groom’s family has taken it round on a tray to be blessed by the married couples at the wedding – I asked Louis’ sister, Michelle to do this for his family.’
I also loved the garlanding, which added such a special touch to the day. ‘The garland is called a maali and is made of plaited flowers and leaves and is a symbol of acceptance and blessing as husband and wife. We asked Louis’ parents to garland us outside the church, and then for my aunt and uncle to garland us at the reception. So we were receiving blessings from both couples on our wedding day.’
‘Another important tradition is the giving of a wedding necklace called a thali which is placed on the bride by the groom after the exchanging of rings. The thali is made with a thick chain with wire running through it which gives it a distinctive look and you then have different pendants you can have designed for it. I had mine made in Sri Lanka at Nithiya Kalyani,’ tells Rubbina.
One big theme running through the wedding day was music. Rubbina says: ‘I come from quite a musical family. One of my cousin’s played the organ and piano, one cousin played the harp and flute, and my aunt made an arrangement of a John Rutter blessing and a host of my uncles, aunts and cousins sang it for us at the ceremony, which was amazing.’
The reception was held at the absolutely stunning Northbrook Park (I’m so excited to be returning to this venue in the spring!), where, in the gorgeous orangery, Tabitha Peet at Florish had created the most beautiful flower arrangements. The food was supplied by Cottage Caterers and cocktails were done by Create Cocktails. All the stationary was as thoroughly thought out as the other aspects of the day. Here’s what Rubbina told me: ‘We asked Blush publishing to design our menus using letterpress printing. They did a great job using an elephant design, which Louis then used to create the seating chart and table numbers.’
The music theme carried through to the reception as well: ‘All the table numbers had lyrics on them which guests had to guess in a mini-music quiz – I think there might have been some cheating! The wedding favours were 7 inch records that Louis designed. He created two tracks using the Janet Jackson and Blackstreet song girlfriend/boyfriend but mixing the a side with Sri Lankan music and the b side with some Spanish music as he has some Spanish heritage. The music on the night was provided by Louis’ friend Jon and then Louis did the djing honours until lights out – it was an amazing day and we got to do it all again in Sri Lanka with a second wedding party!’
It was such a pleasure being part of this vibrant and buzzing wedding day. Thank you so much Rubbina & Louis for having us, I hope your ‘second wedding’ was as gorgeous as the first one!
