Life is funny sometimes. Akarsh and Manisha met as neighbours in 2009; turns out, they were in school together, the same batch even, yet they hardly spoke. Then, they met again in Mangalore because Akarsh’s admission letter was accidently posted to Manisha’s house so her mother insisted she go drop it off. Years later, Akarsh and Manisha both shifted to Bangalore for engineering college and this time they became friendly. Well, the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Akarhs’s UPSC exams got postponed and he decided to do a Master’s degree in Dublin and it just so happened that Manisha was in Dublin too. Their friendship grew stronger and as they say, the rest is history! From childhood friends to husband and wife, this is the ‘meant-to-be-together’ love story of Akarsh and Manisha.

“I have had many friends in life, but none like Akarsh. From the day we met till now, there have never been any expectations set for me. I can be the way I am and he has never tried to change anything about me. I think his best quality is that he makes me feel at home; he challenges me and motivates me but he always has a very positive approach while doing that. Akarsh has loved me even when things that been really hard and that is what made me realize that he was the one for me,” said Manisha. She added, “Dating can be magical and absolutely perfect but it is the imperfect times that reveal a person’s character!”

On the 14th of February 2021, Akarsh proposed to Manisha. She said, “I had a feeling he was going to propose because our mutual friends kept asking me questions about proposing and marriage. Maybe Akarsh wanted to know my answer before he actually proposed! So, on Valentine’s Day, at midnight, Akarsh went down on his knees and asked me to marry him. He was literally on his knee for what seemed like 15 minutes talking about how much he loves me, why he wants to marry me and how he wants us to grow old together! Of course, I said yes. And the best part is that my parents got married on 14th February, he proposed to me on the same date and then we also decided to get married on the 14th of February.”

And just like that, it was time to start planning the wedding. “Both of us live in Dublin, so planning the wedding meant endless hours of Zoom calls, Google Meets and WhatsApp calls; basically, the entire planning process was online. Thankfully, we started planning our wedding a year in advance so we had a lot of time to plan and execute the wedding of our dreams,” shared Manisha. Most of the planning was done by the couple and their parents; everything worked out smoothly, despite the time differences and cross-country planning!

Finally, the time had come for the couple to get married! Akarsh and Manisha had five events spread out over four days. The first event, the mehendi and chooda ceremony took place on the 11th of February. The mehendi function took place at Manisha’s house since it was for the friends and the ladies of the family. The family called a special Rajasthani mehendi person who put some beautiful mehendi for everyone. Manisha even got Akarsh’s name hidden in the mehendi; a fun pre-wedding ritual at most Indian weddings in which the groom searches for his carefully hidden name in the mehendi. Akarsh and his friends came to Manisha’s house to add some fun and frolic to the mehendi ceremony and successfully found his name in Manisha’s mehendi!

The next morning was the haldi followed by the sangeet in the evening. The haldi started early in the morning with smiling faces, the sound of dhols and just a really happy vibe. “It took us two hours to reach the haldi venue from the entrance and that is all thanks to the dhols. We danced our way in and almost forgot what we were there for. Then the haldi ceremony started and our friends made sure that they drenched us in haldi – our white outfits were no longer white,” recalls Manisha.

That evening was the sangeet which was just a whole lot of fun! There were multiple performances; the couple danced to ‘Raabta’ and ‘Yeh ladka hai Deewana’ after which Akarsh and his friends put up a half-hour performance. Each of Akarsh’s friends dedicated one song to him and they even made a video compilation of their childhood trips. This was followed by an RCB roast since Akarsh is a big RCB fan! Manisha’s parents also put up a small performance and her aunts dedicated a song to the couple. This was followed by a night of dancing and merriment!

The next day, the 13th of February, was the reception and engagement. The couple exchanged their rings in front of family and friends against a gorgeous florally decorated stage out in the garden. The attention to detail at each event was certainly undeniable!

Akarsh and Manisha made a grand entry for their reception! They invited their loved ones from all over the world, and the country, and everyone came to bless the couple. Akarsh and Manisha looked absolutely smitten by each other and you could tell that these two couldn’t wait to get married!

And finally, it was the big day. On the 14th of February, on Valentine's Day, Akarsh and Manisha tied the knot. They had a typical South Indian wedding which was a mix of North and South Karnataka traditions. “This was one of the most special days of our lives. I just cannot describe the feeling; I was happy, excited and scared to start the next chapter of my life. I think it’s so funny that I was his girlfriend till the 13th, I was his fiancé for the day and then on the 14th, I was his wife. But now I know that I am not alone, I have my husband beside me always” shared Manisha. “All in all, we had the wedding of our dreams! For me, the most cherished moment was when he put sindoor on my head. And that first kiss he gave me on my cheek after we were officially husband and wife will always be special,” she added.

Once the functions were over, we sent some images and videos to Akarsh and Manisha and they were overjoyed with the results! Their feedback made us so happy and we want to share it with the world. Akarsh and Manisha said, “When we were looking at photographers online, we had almost given up and were pretty much ready to compromise on certain things until we came across Lightbucket Productions. Lightbucket Productions had the kind of photographers that we wanted and when we contacted them they just understood our taste and figured out what we were expecting within minutes. A big thank you to Karthik, Rohan, Ankit and Akarsh who were super friendly and so easy to work with! The team was so easy to work with; it felt like we had known them forever. And a big thank you to Lightbucket Productions for fully executing our vision to perfection!”