THE REAL MANI JASSAL BRIDE

The REAL Mani Jassal Bride, Mani Jassal has designed and styled many brides over the years and we were all waiting for her BIG DAY and it FINALLY happened this SUMMER. After all, LOVE is not CANCELLED. Mani initially had BIG plans for her wedding, just like any girl, but she still decided to go through her events and below is her journey. 

• Describe your initial reaction when you heard about Covid-19 and this could affect your wedding?

At first, we didn’t know what we were in for. We thought that by the time our wedding was going to roll around, everything would be okay and there would be a vaccine by then. When Canada went into lock down, that’s when Hark and I had to really figure out what we were going to do. At first, it was initially only a gathering of 5 people, and then they moved it to 10 people. We thought that if it was going to be 10, we would just do a civil ceremony with our immediate family and then do the religious ceremony the following year. It was in late June that they announced that we were able to host a wedding with 50 people and after that we began preparing for that type of wedding.

• Being a designer most of your brides were perhaps postponing or cancelling their weddings, did you feel the pressure to do this?

That’s what we initially thought of doing. We knew we wanted to get married this year and we didn’t want to wait on starting our lives together. We just thought that we would do the reception and our bigger pre-wedding events next year when ALL of our family can be there to celebrate with us. We actually had more pressure from our parents to just get married this year, so the entire family was on the same page when it came to this. 

• Seeing as you did decide to go ahead with the wedding what were the pressures of planning the wedding? 

The biggest issue we had was guest list. We initially were going to have 500 people at our wedding, and now we had to drastically shrink that list to 50. So that means 25 on each side, but this list also had to include our vendors, priests etc. There was also news that the government was going to allow for 100 people at wedding ceremonies during Stage 3 (which hadn’t opened up yet in our region). So, we had to also plan a secondary list and keep people on standby in case we were able to add more to the guests. Most family members were very understanding of the entire situation, and they were excited to celebrate with us the following year.The other pressure was making sure that everyone was being safe. Luckily everyone was okay after the wedding. We were hearing some horrible stories of other weddings where guests and the couple had gotten COVID. 

 

 

• How was it working with your vendors?

Our vendors were amazing to work with. They were very understanding and accommodating. I had sent them a “scenario” chart where I basically made a chart playing out the different types of scenarios that could occur which were

1. Postpone everything to next year.

2. Do a small civil ceremony this year with 10 people and then do everything else the following year

3. Do both wedding ceremonies with 50 people with the reception and pre-wedding next year

4. Everything is normal and we are back at doing a 500 people wedding. It wasn’t too hard trying to figure out new dates for our wedding reception in 2021 with them. 

 

• Were there any significant changes you made to the events?

Guest list was a major one. The Sangeet for both sides has been rescheduled to next year, along with the reception as well. I was really looking forward to having a full wedding house during the week of the wedding and having my family from India, USA, and the UK with me. For my mendhi I had to create time slots for everyone to come. The Maiiyan and Churra ceremony were so short that I wasn’t able to do the time slots with all my friends. The Decor for the Anand Karaj would have been the same regardless. However, the Decor for the civil ceremony would not have been so extravagant as that was originally going to be a quick ceremony before our wedding reception. 

I was also sad that I was not able to use my wedding invites. I got them embossed and engraved with our dates and venues which have changed.

 

• Having a beautiful intimate wedding do you feel you missed out on anything compared to the big wedding you were going to have?

We just missed having all our main family and friends not being able to attend at the same time, especially the ones from abroad, but I am excited to celebrate with them next year. 

•  Describe your journey planning the wedding, what emotions did you go through? 

So many! So many tears, so many laughs, so much anxiety. So much excitement. So much numbness.

It was a rainbow of emotions, and Covid did not make it easier. I was honestly super bummed when I initially found out I had to make so many changes. I kept thinking my dream day was being snatched from me. I know a lot of brides felt the same thing as me, so I had friends/clients to talk to about it because they were going through the same. 

 

• Do you think intimate weddings is now the way forward?

I think a lot of brides are going to be opting for this now. A lot of brides already want to have more intimate wedding ceremonies, at least the ones that I run into. The issue is always the parents or other family members wanting to invite more. I guess this is a way to be more adamant to your family members about how many guests you want. I also think having backyard weddings is the way to go because it just feels more special. For example, my mom and most of my aunts that got married had their weddings in a tent at their home whether it be their front or back yard. So, it’s almost going back to simpler times. I think also couples will begin to realize how much $$ they will be saving now, and they can now use what they are saving and maybe splurge on their outfits, decor and photos. 

 

• What are your tips for brides planning or going ahead with their ceremonies during this pandemic?

I think there is a misconception among a lot of brides that because they have a smaller wedding, that they have to dim down their wedding day look. I personally think that you should still wear whatever you want to wear. At the end of the day your photos are going to last the longest and when you look back at it you want to be wearing your dream lengha / look.