Anushka Sharma, Virat Kohli wedding: Planner reveals why the venue was changed last minute

Bollywood actor Anushka Sharma and cricketer Virat Kohli got married in a private ceremony in Italy on Monday but apparently, the dream wedding was not devoid of ‘disaster moments’. Wedding designer Devika Narayan, who designed the ‘Virushka’ wedding, has told BBC in an interview that they faced such a moment, thanks to the weather in Tuscany.

Anushka and Virat took place at a countryside resort called Borgo Finocchieto in the Tuscany region of Italy - one of the most expensive holiday properties in the world.

Asked if she faced any disaster moment or panicked during the hush-hush wedding, Devika told BBC in an interview, "Weather. It is winters here (in Italy) and nobody gets married in the winters here. On the morning of the wedding day, we all woke up to a completely white landscape and the dew had frozen. It was frozen all over by 10 and by noon it was dripping. The outdoors function had to be moved to an indoor courtyard.”

Devika, who has also worked on weddings for Robin Venu Uthappa, Dinesh Karthik, among others, further told the news channel, “When I met them (Virat and Anushka), I kept addressing Anushka as ‘bride’ and she was like, ‘what’s wrong with you?’. I told her, ‘I need to condition myself so that I don’t take your name anywhere’.”

Further elaborating on the kind of a ceremony Anushka wanted, Devika told the interviewer, “Anushka is a typical bride and I did not expect her to be one. She had reference photos and was invested in every decision. All of this was her idea and we just planned it all.”

“The function was like a typical Indian wedding. We had a welcome lunch, we had a sangeet on the first day. The second day was bright, colourful mehendi and that night was supposed to be a bonfire night but it rained. We were all huddled around one giant campfire. There was karaoke and everybody was singing,” she added.

Devika also told BBC about the return gifts that the guests received: “Anushka and Virat are extremely spiritual people, I don’t know how many people know this but they wanted everything to function around the idea of growth and prosperity. So the entire venue was like an over grown garden and they are big fans of Rumi and his poetry so an anthology of his poems were given as a take back gift.”

Virat and Anushka plan to host a reception in New Delhi for their relatives on December 21 which will be followed by a reception for couple’s Bollywood friends and cricketers in Mumbai on December 26.

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First Published: Dec 14, 2017 13:17 IST