Real Engagement - Sheetal & Andrew,

April 9, 2018 In Real Engagements By Natalie Drum

Real Engagement – Sheetal & Andrew,

Andrew and Sheetal are lucky enough to be counting down to celebrate not just one wedding day, but two! Honouring Sheetal’s Indian heritage with a traditional cultural celebration, along with a civil wedding at Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens – there is some serious fun ahead for this perfect pair.

If their engagement celebrations are anything to go by, as captured here by Cass of Blossom Daisy Creative, we’re in for one hell of a treat!

Making the most of Melbourne’s gorgeous Glashaus nursery, and celebrating their engagement in absolute style, this is a couple we’ll be keeping an eye on come December 2018.

In Sheetal’s words…

The meeting.

Andrew and I first became friends when we both worked together. We started dating a little while later after we hit it off one night at some drinks! Before we went on our first date, neither of us expected it to be anything serious but before we even realised what was going on, I think we were both pretty smitten!

The one.

When we realised that we had seen each other 25 out of the first 30 days of dating haha! In some ways though, Andrew re-affirms that he is ‘the one’ every day through all the small things that he does to make our relationship so fun, balanced and full of love!

The proposal.

What seemed like just a normal lazy Sunday turned into an elaborate scavenger hunt proposal! I was surprised by Andrew when I arrived home after brunch to see a letter waiting for me at our door. What followed was a series of letters spread out throughout our home and an Uber ride around Melbourne to all the places that were significant to us. Through 10 different locations and letters, Andrew articulated why he wanted to marry me and the future that he saw for us together (I was all tears!!!). The scavenger hunt ultimately led me to the Royal Botanic Gardens (one of our favourite places in the world and just across the road from our home) where Andrew was waiting for me on one knee! One of my favourite things about his proposal was the meticulous attention to detail that he had taken to make sure the proposal was ‘us’ – from the stickers that he used to seal each letter to the music that he had playing in the Uber as it took me around to the hot Milos he had waiting for us when I arrived – it was us to a tee and just perfect! J <3

Why an engagement shoot?

We decided to have an engagement party as we can’t think of any better reason to get our closest family and friends together than to celebrate love! We engaged a professional photographer as we wanted to capture our memories from the night but we also thought it would be a good way to practice being in front of a professional camera together before our big day! I think this was particularly good for someone like Andrew who can be camera shy.

The location.

Our engagement party was held at Glasshaus Inside in Cremorne. The venue is a nursery during the day which is transformed into an event space in the evening. We chose this venue because we loved the idea of being surrounded by nature and all the beautiful trees and plants that the venue holds (this is also the reason why we chose the Royal Botanic Gardens as our wedding venue!) Our engagement shoot was taken in the streets around Cremorne which were perfect for the style of photography that we wanted.

Favourite moments.

Working with our amazing photographer – Cass from Blossom Daisy Creative! This was our first professional photo shoot together and Cass made us feel completely at ease! It made us realise the importance of working with a photographer whose work you love but also whose personality and shooting instructions and style on the day is in line with our own.

Wedding planning.

We have absolutely loved every minute of wedding planning together so far and we feel very lucky to have not one, but two weddings – a big, bright and colourful Indian wedding and a more intimate, ‘minimalistic chic’ civil wedding. One of the best things about the planning process has been how it has brought both our families, friends and our respective cultures closer together! The planning process also has us feeling ever so grateful for our incredible family and friends who have already spent so much time and energy in helping us bring our big day(s) to life!

Meaning of marriage.

Getting to do life with your best friend! Helping and supporting your other half to be the best possible version of themselves. And knowing that the worst days ahead for each of us will now never be as bad and the best days ahead of us can only be double as good because we get to experience it all together.

Planning surprises.

The biggest surprise for us has been just how many incredibly talented local suppliers we have. Having dived deep into #wedspo research on Instagram and Pinterest after getting engaged, it became clear very quickly that Melbourne and Australia is home to some of the best creatives in the industry worldwide – from stylists to dress makers to florists to photographers to caterers – we really are so lucky to have the best of the best! The difficult part has been choosing just one of each supplier!! Every time we lock down a supplier, we come across another of the same kind whose work we also love – I suppose this is a good problem to have..!