RUCHIKA & ARUN

On a cold afternoon in early December 2018, after a few days from meeting on a dating app Arun and Ruchika went on their first date. “From the start, I was intrigued and taken by Ruch’s personality”, Arun said. “Even though our first date was only 30 minutes long there was something about him that made me want to get to know him more” Ruchika said.

Fast forward a few years, and whilst the UK was in and out of lockdowns due to Covid-19, Arun whisked Ruchika away for an ‘anniversary’ trip to Heckfield Place. Little did she know, that Arun had already visited the hotel a week before to plan the perfect proposal.

Upon arrival at the hotel, Arun had asked the hotel staff to pretend that their room wasn’t ready yet and to suggest that the couple should explore some of the 400 acres surrounding the hotel whilst the rain had stopped. After a short walk to the pavilion overlooking one of the lakes, Ruchika stopped to take a photo of the stunning view and Arun was patiently waiting behind her, down on one knee to ask that one important question.

Planning the wedding wasn’t the easiest, but the couple always knew that they wanted to have their Indian wedding abroad and were set on Italy from the start. It was their first holiday destination together (and their most visited country together since!), and they both had a love for Italian cuisine, and, of course, Italian wine! From the moment they stumbled upon Tenuta di Artimino, set amongst the rolling hills of the Tuscan countryside, they knew it was the one. “From our first look, I fell in love with Artimino. The landscape, scenery, and the Villa itself were all perfect“ Ruchika said.

However, with the pandemic ongoing, it wasn’t all plain sailing – “The hardest part of planning the wedding was the uncertainty. Not only did we not know when we could do the wedding, we couldn’t even go to visit venues, with multiple trips being cancelled last minute due to new COVID regulations in the UK or Italy.

Through the testing times, we found it invaluable to have the help and support of Emma and the Love Italy Weddings Team – Emma was always on hand to keep our spirits up and help put together our vision”.

The pandemic also made it much harder for Ruchika to go look for her wedding outfits. She was set on going to India and had a specific vision in mind for each outfit but unfortunately could not go due the quarantine rules in India. Luckily Ruchika’s mum was in India and after several video calls at 5am and with the huge support of her mum searching endlessly through the different stores, Ruchika found her dream outfits. For the welcome party, Ruchika wanted a quirky indo-western outfit and Payal Singhal were the perfect designers for this. For the wedding, Ruchika did not want a traditional red bridal lehenga and instead wanted pastel pink with green tones to complement the Tuscan backdrop, which was designed by Shyamal & Bhumika to perfection. Finally, for the reception outfit Ruchika opted for an ivory lehenga saree from Ritika Mirchandani.

On July 12th and July 13th, the couple had their Hindu wedding at Artimino, surrounded by 120 of their closest family and friends.

After over a year of planning, the celebrations started on 12th July 2022 with a welcome pizza and cocktail party.

Thank to my friend and colleague Gianluca Adami Photographer (here you can visit his website) for his help in this beautiful wedding. The pictures are of both of us.