Hey you. (Yes, you!) Did you know that I could marry you? (If you’re not married already.)
I’m not talking about me being single and not married (though that’s also a true story), I mean I could actually marry you–as in join you and whoever the lucky person you choose to spend the rest of your life with, in matrimony. I’m officially ordained!
It might have been that episode of Friends where Joey officiated that inspired me, or maybe it was the spontaneous wedding Abbey and Drew had, or it could be my passion/borderline obsession with weddings (good thing I interned as a wedding planner in college and am pretty much a self-proclaimed “professional wedding guest”), but something inspired me to add #53 Officiate a Wedding to my bucket list. Like a few things on my list, I wasn’t sure when and how I’d achieve this, but the universe has a funny way of making things work out.
Last year, my friends
Aneesha and Milan got engaged. Aneesha is from South Carolina, Milan is from Texas, and they met and currently reside in San Diego, which is where they’ll be getting married. As most people know or can imagine, planning a wedding is no easy feat. Planning a wedding that merges two different religions and backgrounds–well, that just adds to the planning fun 🙂 You see, Aneesha is Sindhi and Christian and Milan is Punjabi and Hindu so they’d like to do a non-religious ceremony along with a sangeet night to celebrate this next chapter in their life. I had jokingly mentioned to them that officiating a wedding is on my list, but never did I expect the email I got from them at 3:08am on Wednesday, July 18, 2012 asking me if “I would be interested in being our (their) ceremonial officiant and check it off my list?” What an amazing email to wake up to! Mind you, how is this about ME when it’s THEIR WEDDING? Of course I said yes! Which brings me to where I am today…
Here I am, 35 days from their wedding day, 1 day from her bachelorette party, and researching all of the California laws around marriage licenses. I’m excited, I’m nervous, I’m all over the place, but I am most definitely ecstatic to see these two start their married life together. (I still don’t really know what to say, but I figure that’s what wedding show marathons on TLC and Showtime will help with. It’s research, right?) I thought I might randomly offer to perform a ceremony for a random couple (for free), just so I could cross this off my list. Now that I’ll be performing a ceremony for friends who I’ve grown closer to and seen fall deeper and deeper in love, this is way more than just crossing an item off my list, it’s a chance for me to be a part of the start of a beautiful chapter in the lives of people I love.
This is so awesome, Sejal! What a unique wedding to be a part of. You’re going to be a fantastic officiant 🙂
Thank you, Shivani! Here goes nothing!
This is so awesome, Sejal! What a unique wedding to be a part of. You’re going to be a fantastic officiant 🙂
Thank you, Shivani! Here goes nothing!
How fabulous!!!
🙂 If you ever take the plunge…holler. Especially if it’s in Trinidad. Or another one of your fabulous vacation destinations.
How fabulous!!!
🙂 If you ever take the plunge…holler. Especially if it’s in Trinidad. Or another one of your fabulous vacation destinations.
[…] recently wrote a blog post about my friends Milan and Aneesha who were engaged to get married, by me! They had asked me to officiate their wedding, crossing #53 off of my bucket list. As excited as I […]
[…] recently wrote a blog post about my friends Milan and Aneesha who were engaged to get married, by me! They had asked me to officiate their wedding, crossing #53 off of my bucket list. As excited as I […]