Ready yourselves because this destination Indian wedding in Crete, is a cultural beauty like you have never seen! Shredha and Rhys, who met at school in a math class at just fourteen years old, quite literally grew up together, supporting each other through school, college and university before deciding to take on the rest of their lives side by side. Their love for travel shaped their story, from birthday trips abroad to the unforgettable proposal in Santorini where Rhys got down on one knee on a boat at sunset, the caldera glowing around them, and just days later they found themselves in Crete, a place that would later become the setting of their wedding, bringing everything beautifully full circle. Planned beautifully by Esthesis Events, their celebration unfolded over three incredible days, blending her South Indian heritage with his British roots while honoring the magic of the Greek destination they chose. “This was a three day wedding as we wanted our guests to fully enjoy their time and join in with rituals that were very new to most of the people that attended our wedding,” the bride shares, and every detail reflects that intention. After spending a month in India sourcing traditional decoration, they filled their celebration with meaningful pieces, vibrant colors and cultural references that elevated every moment, from ceremonial trays of rose petals and fruit to long wooden reception tables dressed with flowing white runners, olive branches and lemons under the Cretan trees overlooking the sea. As the sun dipped behind the horizon, The Sparkling Van kept spirits high with signature cocktails, turning the evening into an unforgettable gathering of family and friends. This destination wedding in Crete is a breathtaking fusion of cultures, color and heartfelt storytelling and we simply cannot wait for you to see every stunning detail!
Captured by Christos Manioros Photography.
«We met in school in a math class when we were fourteen. Rhys was shy so I offered him an invite to my birthday party and he bought me a gift card, safe to say that the attempt to charm had began from there. It took a year of friendship before anything even happened romantically. Rhys had football training so I jokingly said to him “I hope you break your leg” and next thing I know, I had a text from his mother letting me know he was in an ambulance and had indeed broken his leg! Perhaps it was guilt from feeling like I may have cursed his leg or the care that had always been there but a friend and I took it upon ourselves to keep Rhys entertained that summer by creating little films and skits of what our friends had been up to during the holidays. We would deliver these videos to Rhys with gifts every week so he had something to keep him busy. That turned into a fast summer romance and 11 years later, here we are. We supported each other through school, college, university and now we are taking on the rest of our lives together. We share a love for travel and it plays a massive part in our relationship. For my birthday every year, we holiday somewhere and the year he proposed we had gone to Greece for a tour of the islands. Rhys proposed me in Santorini on a boat during sunset and I remember looking up at a clifftop church and spotting all the tourists watching from above from the lighthouse. I will never forget Rhys trying to distract me from the proposal that was about to happen but our captain came out holding a phone to film the moment for us so I knew it was about to happen. We went to Crete a few days after getting engaged and it has been a full circle moment to get married in Crete.»
«There were a lot of elements we wanted to tie together that would inspire the decoration. I come from South India and Rhys is British. We wanted to showcase a mix of these cultures whilst highlighting the destination we had chosen. We did a month long trip to India to source all the traditional decor and even though my father was injured during our trip, he still travelled through various states to find us all the little trinkets we required. We were very intentional from the beginning about this being a fusion wedding. Our invites were made and designed in India and had motifs of Peacocks (national bird of India), Marigolds which are popular flowers in India especially for weddings and banana leaves as a homage to the state I come from (Kerala). Our invites were boxed with a beautiful image of Ganesh ( the god of beginnings, wisdom and prosperity) inside and filled with little jars of spices and black tea that we bought fresh from India.»
«This was a three day wedding as we wanted our guests to fully enjoy their time and join in with rituals that were very new to most of the people that attended our wedding. I had an intimate Mehendi at our villa and the decor was simple but colourful. Faux garlands of orange and yellow marigolds formed a backdrop at the villa. Those marigolds made an appearance throughout the wedding celebrations and I’m glad we gave up all the suitcase spaces up for them! The next morning, the Haldi took place at the villa. The Haldi is a ceremony in which a turmeric paste is applied to the bride and groom to wish them luck and prosperity and to give them a glow before the wedding day. Though this is not a traditional ceremony for a Kerala bride, I had always wanted this to be a part of our wedding as I found the symbolism beautiful. The Haldi took place in a small garden area in the villa shaded by beautiful trees and bougainvilleas. These gorgeous flowers added a bright pop of colour and allowed us to get away with minimal decor. We draped the chairs with sari material that had marigold patterns and once again brought out the marigold garlands to hang from the walls. Golden pots from India carried fresh petals to throw on the bride and groom and carried the turmeric paste. We were not shy about colour and wanted the guests to experience the vibrancy of an Indian wedding. There was a bangle and bindi bar for the guests to help themselves to and all these bits were sourced from India. A highlight of the entire wedding was seeing a bangle or a bindi on our vendors throughout the events, somehow these had made their way around all our events!»
I visited the site of Chic and Stylish Weddings. I love looking through all the wedding blogs from the real life weddings before we started planning our destination wedding. Reading through stories from couples like us gave me a bit more confidence in pulling off a destination wedding!
Shredha , Bride
«For my bridal bouquet, I wanted something I could keep for a long time. I opted for a dried flower bouquet from the Artisan Dried Flower Company in the UK and they grow these flowers on their farm and dry them so they were easy to travel with and now they live in a vase in our home. The flowers I had were orange roses, carthamus, larkspur, babys breath, daisy, oats, amaranthus and yarrow. I loved the oranges, yellows and white and felt it complimented my red saree and gold jewellery. For our cake, we opted to not have a cake topper. Our cake was a beautiful white chocolate mousse and raspberry cake decorated with dried oranges, raspberries and dried flowers and our guests still rave about it.»
«We had wooden custom fans for the guests along with a petal corner where they could make their own confetti using fresh colourful petals. There was an area filled with photos of our grandparents that had passed so they could be a part of our day. We had two types of guestbooks. We collected postcards from Crete that guests could sign and post into the letterbox we provided and we had a frame where guests could sign that would hold the vinyl of our first dance. We had a games corner for cocktail hour and I specifically wanted to have Snakes and Ladders as this game originated in Ancient India. Our seating plan was designed around the TV show Friends as this is my comfort watch and I watch it most days. We named the tables after characters from Friends and had signage reflecting this. »
«We chose Agreco Farm as the wedding venue because it had it all. The beautiful sea in the distance, olive trees and colourful flowers everywhere we looked. The staff and service were exceptional and it felt like we could share the beauty of Crete with our guests here. The wedding sign was created in India on canvas and hung beautifully under the pergola. I loved playing around with different textures and incorporating touches of home where I could. We opted for the rustic tables with a simple white runner and olive leaves with lemons scattered across the runner. This to us was the perfect reminder that we were getting married in Greece. Each table had an incense stick burner to recreate some of the smells you would find in a South Indian wedding venue. Those colourful marigold garlands were hung from the olive trees and we had a fire put in front of the beautiful church at Agreco. There was a table set up with the traditional bits we required for the wedding such as bowls of fruit, rice, coconuts and the mangalsutra which is the sacred Hindu necklace that is tied around the bride’s neck by the groom. We had even brought over a dried rice paddy plant from India as this is a part of Kerala weddings to symbolise prosperity and abundance. »
«It is hard to pick one as our favorite moment as we had an intimate wedding so the guests who mostly didn’t know each other had a chance to bond over a couple of days and when I looked up from the dance floor during the reception, people were saying goodbye to each other that we hadn’t even seated together! But there was a moment where we had just sat down for our reception and our guests were joining in with the Greek dancers and we chose to stay back and watch everyone whilst we made a start on our dinner (priorities) and it had sunk in that all of it had been worth it. I got to marry my best friend amongst all the people I loved in a beautiful destination. What more could I ask for? My husbands’ favorite moment from our wedding was seeing my best friend and soulmate walk down the aisle towards me, thinking about 11 years of memories that brought us to this day overhelmed with joy, love, happiness. Watching our firends and family embrace new cultures, seeing family memebers from India connect and party with family from the UK. Highlighting how much love we have for each other over the different events.»
«As mentioned before, all the Indian decor was brought over from India occupying many suitcases and were the result of many tiring travel days and walking around in the heat trying to find the perfect elements for our day. I feel proud of how much we managed to bring over as we had to transport it all to the UK and then to Greece. It felt surreal yet incredible to have had the chance to stay true to a lot of our rituals whilst having a destination wedding but having these key bits of decoration really brought it all together and is a memory we will cherish.»
«I had five different outfits and four of those were bought in India after many rounds of shopping. All my Indian outfit tops were custom made with a tailor after deciding the types of cuts I wanted on the tops. For the Haldi we had asked guests to wear yellows or whites. I decided to wear a fuchsia pink lehenga that was flowy and comfortable as it was important that I could move freely during this event. The lehenga skirt and dupatta had colourful flowers all over it with yellow marigolds which tied in well with the Haldi hues. The top was filled with mirror work and sequins and was just the right amount of sparkle for a daytime event. I paired this with multicoloured jewellery that complimented the colours of the lehenga. Rhys wore a pale yellow and pink kurta and I must say that Rhy’s shopping spree in India was a lot shorter than mine! The Sangeet night had my heaviest outfit. This lehenga had taken up half the weight allowance but was so worth it as the intricate designs were stunning. The lehenga skirt had amazing Mughal designs and motifs of elephants, kings and queens. This was paired with my favourite part of this outfit, a mustard yellow dupatta that was a silky fabric filled with traditional border work. I wore earrings that clipped to my hair and a beaded hair piece along with some hand jewellery. Rhys wore a dark kurta with mirror work and white kurta trousers. For the wedding day, we had two outfit changes. The ceremony had traditional Indian outfits so we decided to change into more Western outfits for the reception to honour Rhys’s background. I always wanted to be a bride that wore red and though other colours like pastels are becoming more popular in India now, I could not let go of being a traditional bride. A Kanchipuram silk sari is a staple in a lot of South Indian weddings and can be found in most bridal shops in India. But we wanted to travel to the town of Kanchipuram where these originate and buy directly from the source to make sure we had an authentic silk sari and to make the experience of buying a wedding sari memorable. These saris are woven from pure Mulberry silk and often have gold zari (made by wrapping 100% silver thread in a 24-carat gold electroplated coating). We visited several weavers till we found the perfect red sari. The sari I chose was in the shade “Sindoor Red” and was decorated with heavy gold work and motifs of peacocks and pops of green. Traditionally gold is worn in layers where I come from but I wanted a statement piece instead that would allow for the whole outfit to shine. I had a custom gold choker designed with precious stones and matching earrings. I wore a mix of golden bangles and yellow and red glass bangles on each hand and finished the look with golden rings. I found a gorgeous headpiece in India that matched the colours of my sari but had pearl beading on it and I felt like a princess. The Indian look also featured a waist belt and hair jewellery along with fresh bright pink and orange roses around my hair. South Indian brides traditionally have fresh jasmine flowers in their hair for their wedding so I wanted to have fresh flowers but wanted to go for seasonal flowers as we got married during the fall. Rhys wore a custom sherwani that was made in one day, no joke! We walked into a small shop in Calicut, India and handpicked a fabric design we liked and by the evening, we had a full on groom’s sherwani made to size. Rhys’s sherwani was white with small red flowers which matched my sari along with cream and pink detailing. It was amazing seeing him dressed up as an Indian groom. For the reception, I picked a dress from the boutique Rosie Etienne. I knew I wanted to wear a white bridal dress but found it hard to find the right dress. I wanted to avoid it looking like a dress I would wear for a traditional white ceremony but still needed it to be bridal. I came across this boutique’s evening dresses and loved that they only sell a select few pieces till the material for that dress runs out. My dress was adorned with white flower work and the top was a corset style. I paired it with a simple three gold necklace and pearl heels. I wore a two tier veil which I found in a bridal store. My earrings were diamonds with pops of red gifted to me by my sister and when the dancing started, I changed into custom converse gifted by my husband! Rhys wore a classic tuxedo bought from the UK with black dress shoes and the watch I gifted him. My henna was beautiful during these events as I had asked Preet who did my Henna to create some custom designs for me to incorporate parts of our life. I had a clapperboard on one hand and a camera on the other to symbolise our careers (actor and photographer). Little elephants and lotus leaves completed the henna look as a shout out to my Indian roots.»
The advice I would give to a bride who is now planning her wedding is that iltimately, you can plan all you want but the day goes by in a flash so it is important to take moments in where possible. We tried throughout the events to find each other and talk about how incredible this all was. Though it is important to spend time with your guests, it’s key to spend time with each other. Also eat your food and cake, we did and we loved it!
Shredha , Bride
«In the evening we had the Sangeet/Mamma Mia night. This is typically the dance evening where family and friends put on dance performances but we wanted to take advantage of being on a Greek Island! The evening started with some games and dances put on by both Rhys and I with our family and our friends who gave it their all to learn a Bollywood move or two! The Sparkling Van kept us topped up all night and the we draped those marigold garlands over the van. We used the larger garden space at the villa for the Sangeet and hung fairy lights up to make the evening warm and inviting. Colourful cushions and rugs were chosen for the seating area along with golden chairs. We wanted the vibe of this evening to be fun but relaxing as we had a big day ahead of us the next day. We made the decision to have the second part of the evening as a movie night watching Mamma Mia with amazing Greek food. We designed little bingo cards for the guests to play along with the movie where they could win Greek goodies to take home. There were golden plates filled with henna stickers so guests could choose what designs they wanted. Looking around that evening, with the marigolds gently swaying in the wind, fairy lights twinkling and all our loved ones singing along to Mamma Mia relaxed on the cushions, we were so so happy.»
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