Nethmi and Kalindu’s Wedding
Christ's College and Christchurch Town Hall
Images by Dhrumil Desai
‘We first met over 16 years ago when both our families migrated to New Plymouth and became family friends. We kept in touch intermittently over the years even though our families moved to other cities. In 2017, we reconnected in Auckland and started dating in April 2018.
‘Kalindu proposed at Mercer Bay in Auckland, four years after our first date at the exact spot we’d had our first kiss.
‘I had been looking for dresses for some time and I had an idea of what I didn’t want. One night when I was in bed browsing through websites, I saw my dress and I knew that was the one.
I didn’t have an appointment but I emailed To Cherish Bridal Boutique that night and called them first thing in the morning. Everyone there was so lovely. They were more than happy for me to come in and try the dress. I tried on just one dress and I was sold! I bought it!
‘We wanted a spring day and 7 October worked out well for both of our venues. We chose Christ’s College for the ceremony because the chapel is absolutely beautiful. And a big part of choosing the Christchurch Town Hall for our reception was how accommodating they were when it came to creating the menu, as we needed to have an authentic Sri Lankan wedding. It was excellent.
‘The reception was held in the Limes Room at Christchurch Town Hall. We were lucky enough to have the entire town hall to ourselves on the day as there were no other events on.
The room was beautifully decorated by Kim Chan Events and the staff from Venues Ōtautahi went above and beyond to make the guests feel comfortable.’
Q&A
Did you have a budget and were you able to stick to it?
$60,000 and we managed to keep within the budget.
What did you do for your hen or buck evening?
All the girls gathered in Auckland a couple of weeks before the wedding and did various activities including axe throwing, theme parks, partying, and a Bridgerton-themed brunch. And the boys all gathered a few days prior to the wedding to ensure Kalindu's best friend could be there as he was visiting from the USA. They did various activities like paintball, go-karting, claybird shooting, driving range, etc. over two days.
Who was your standout vendor?
Dhrumil has been absolutely amazing and really helped us be ourselves for the photos and videos. A pre-shoot really helps with this.
