Aneesa and George met in 2019, just two weeks after Aneesa moved to England from India. For their wedding, held at Asylum Chapel and AMP Studios in Peckham, they wanted to bring their two worlds together, blending traditional Indian textiles with English florals.
“We haven’t been to more than one wedding each,” Aneesa told us, “so we didn’t have much personal experience to draw from. Instead, we were inspired by how we live our lives—melting and melding our two cultures and aesthetics.”
The couple’s choice of ceremony venue—a Grade II-listed building that once provided sanctuary to those in need—added a layer of meaning to the event. “It felt important to get married somewhere that held stories, somewhere that was a safe place of refuge historically,” said Aneesa. “It is no longer a chapel, but the stories held in the walls of the location felt important to us. We wanted our wedding to happen somewhere meaningful.”
In fact, the whole day was filled with meaningful moments and elements. Coming from backgrounds where interfaith marriage can be taboo, the couple decided to include elements from multiple different religious traditions, including Hindu and Parsi rites. George’s family, who are from Liverpool, walked down the aisle to Blackbird by the Beatles on violin, while the bride came in to Jashn-E-Bahaaraa by A.R. Rahman, which felt fitting as it’s a song about a king and queen from different religions coming together in India.
After the ceremony, guests did the short walk to AMP Studios together for the reception. As the couple had no wedding planner, they decorated the space themselves using beer bottle vases, lights, lanterns, and traditional South Indian dhotis, which were used as tablecloths. This DIY approach not only saved them money, as they had a large guest list and many people to feed, but also made it feel very personal. “Seeing everyone from all over the world come together was my favourite part of the day,” the bride said.
“The cost was the most stressful part”, the bride concluded. “I know people say everything is more expensive when it comes to a wedding, but we also feel like people need to make a living! We live in a messed up capitalist world so we can’t judge the prices people need to put food on their plates! We tried to figure out creative solutions for ourselves that worked within our budget or gave up on the things we couldn’t afford. Our advice to other couples when budgeting would be to try to be realistic and decide what are the most important things to you and what are the ‘nice to haves’.”
