A PROPOSAL decent Mel and Abs’ intimate day was simply stunning with its neutral colour palette and floral tones Images courtesy of Lynn Shapiro Photography When it came to Mel spotting Abs, never was a profile picture more important! “We matched on the dating app Bumble while I was in my penultimate year at Birmingham University and Abs was working in London. I clearly recall thinking he looked like marriage material from his profile pictures,” Mel tells us. “We met after a couple of weeks of chatting and our conversations flowed so easily as though we’d known each other for years.” Abs’ parents lived near Mel so he visited regularly and they worked through a long-distance relationship for two years until Mel finished medical school and they moved in together. The proposal was months in the making and it was something special as Abs tells us. “I sent Mel out to brunch with her friends. Whilst she was there, I sent her a video of our first conversations on Bumble with an invitation to return home,” he shares. “I’d decorated our flat with the help of a friend with candles, rose petals and tulips and gave her a speech about how wonderful she is before asking her to marry me in Hindi, Farsi and English,” he adds. Abs took Mel to her favourite Italian for dinner and then on to a bar he’d rented out for the evening for a surprise party with 60 of their friends. “The party was planned for months before the proposal to make sure everyone could attend so whatever happened we were getting engaged that day!” he says. The duo dreamed of a large Indian wedding but due to the pandemic they planned something much smaller on their original wedding date to avoid postponing it completely. “We wanted an intimate, relaxed ceremony and found the perfect setting for it. Everything came together so elegantly on the day,” Mel recalls. Here, she shares all the details… REAL WEDDINGS 31
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