A beachside wedding where the bride brought her teenage Pinterest boards to life

Rohan Gandhi and Shivani Gondhania met in 2019 when they were both 20-year-olds studying dentistry at the University of Birmingham, on a night neither had planned to go out. An unlikely encounter at a club led to their first date, where Rohan initially thought he got stood up. “It had been a month of trying to convince Shivani to say yes to a date. We were meeting at this pizza restaurant, and she was about 40 minutes late. I think the waitress had started to feel bad for me, but eventually she turned up and what was meant to be just dinner turned into almost an eight-hour-long first date,” he recalls.

A successful first date—barring the minor glitch—led to many more. A couple of months into their blossoming relationship, the world shut down thanks to Covid-19, leaving them FaceTiming and spending time over Netflix parties between their respective homes in London and Birmingham. “I think it made us realise we were falling in deep, because even though we were apart for so long, we’d be speaking to each other every day. That’s when we started to realise this was serious,” says Shivani.

Fast forward four years, Shivani found herself sending Rohan ring inspiration and instructions for her dream proposal. He saved all the information and used it to plan a surprise proposal in Egypt. The months following the engagement were a blur of Pinterest boards, wedding shopping, chasing planners, and long debates over the guest list. Shivani’s love for palm trees found its way into almost every part of the wedding, from the beachside venue to both the bride and groom’s outfits.

Below, the Birmingham-based couple takes us through what went down at their two-day Goa celebration, from the perfect lehengas procured in 40-degree Delhi weather to a baraat featuring vintage wheels, and some light-hearted dance-floor deception.

A surprise proposal that almost wasn’t a surprise

Rohan: At one point, Shivani was like, “I know exactly what it’s going to look like and exactly when you can do it: on our five-year dating anniversary. I can choose the outfit you’re going to wear.” I thought no one should have this much control over their own proposal. It should be a nice surprise.

I knew she wanted it to be on a beach, and we were going to Egypt in April 2024. We were at this all-inclusive resort in Sharm El Sheikh, so you don’t need to step out for anything. I made up a story and told her I’d booked us a nice dinner outside of the resort. When we got there, we were led to a small field, and a photographer started taking photos of us. Shivani got a bit suspicious at that point, so I told her it was all just part of the package. Then, they blindfolded her. She kept asking, “Oh, are you going to propose?” and I said, “No, it’s just so that you don’t see the table they decorated for us.” Then, they took her to the part of the beach that was set up for the proposal and played ‘Say You Won’t Let Go’ by James Arthur—the song I knew she wanted to have played when I propose. They took the blindfold off, and I was already on one knee with flowers and the ring.

Shivani: As soon as they played the song, I was like, “Oh my god, this is happening,” and started crying. It was on a private beach at sunset—just as I had imagined. We even had our first dance to the same song at our reception.

Teenage Pinterest boards brought to life

Rohan: Shivani loves palm trees!

Shivani: I feel like I’m on holiday when I see palm trees, so they had to be there. We looked at venues in Mallorca and Mexico, but they either didn’t have enough Indian food options or people we know who had stayed at those hotels said their food wasn’t great. My mum suggested Goa. None of us had ever been there before, so we went over in December 2024 and fell in love with Beleza by the Beach. It had the palm trees, the sea, and the sand—everything I had in mind. I had Pinterest boards with inspiration that I had saved since I was a teenager with specific decor themes for every event, which I could finally put into action.

Rohan: I said to Shiv, “Let’s just have one month to enjoy the fact that we’re engaged and then get into the planning.” But she was pretty eager to get started. Shiv has a pretty good eye for this sort of thing.

Shivani: The planning started off fairly chill and smooth because we had plenty of time. There were a lot of arguments with family over the guest list along the way, but then everyone would make up again. 

A wedding wardrobe with palm trees front and centre

Shivani: I got all my outfits before Rohan, so we could match his to mine. My sisters, my mum, and I went to Delhi to shop, because I couldn’t find anything I loved in the UK. It ended up being a really special trip, because I was the first one getting married, but it was like 40 degrees in Delhi so we were all hot and bothered.

For the wedding day, I was debating between pastel pink and red. My mum and my sisters were like, “Look, you’re only going to be able to wear red once in your life, so just do it.” I wanted something plain with not too much work on it, and I ended up with the complete opposite. I get what people mean when they say, “You know when it’s the one.” As soon as I tried this one on, I knew this was it.

I initially bought a different lehenga for the sangeet from a store called Srikriti, and I remember my mum telling me it’s a bit too plain. We were walking past stores, and I saw this lehenga in a random shop window [Kundans Bridal Couture] and it matched the theme perfectly because it was super colourful and the blouse had little 3D leaves on it.

For the reception, I wanted something light and blingy. I wore a white fishtail lehenga also from Srikriti with very, very light powder-pink details. I remember when I tried it on, my sister started crying, “This is the one, this is the one!”

We hadn’t found anything for the haldi until the very end. It was literally the last shop we were walking out of around Pitampura in Delhi when a sheer yellow sari in the corner of a store caught my eye. I fell in love with it, because it had palm trees on it.

Rohan: For my outfits, my mum went to India. The two outfits we didn’t get from India were the wedding outfit and the reception tux, because we wanted them to be custom tailored and I had a very specific vision in mind for my tuxedo. We got my wedding outfit from a store in Southall in London.

Shivani: It had palm tree detailing and elephants. It fit the theme I’d imagined perfectly.

A baraat on four wheels

Rohan: We had a vintage car and a live band for the baraat. I’ve been to a few weddings where people get a bit nervous, because they don’t know how the horse is going to react. So, I’ve always wanted it to be a car, just because you can control it.

Shivani: For the ceremony, we had little hand fans for the guests that doubled as an itinerary with descriptions of the different rituals printed on them for our non-Indian guests. The mandap had palm trees on either side with the beach in the background. All the decor was pastels and lots of pink. Everyone saw it and was like, “Yep, this is definitely your wedding.”

Rohan: When we held our hands up after the jaimala, they set off colour bomb fireworks behind us. No one was expecting that and it ended up being a highlight for our guests.

The moments they’ll remember forever

Shivani: At the sangeet, our DJ started a game of limbo to get everyone on the dance floor, and everybody got involved.

Rohan: It wasn’t a competition, but depending on who it was we made sure the bar was super low just for fun.

Shivani: I loved the speeches from my sisters and Rohan’s best men at the reception.

Rohan: My brother’s speech was definitely a big one. I had two of my closest friends from school and university give a speech as well. They had a bunch of stories and photos to show everyone, which was pretty funny. And our mums surprised us with a performance together at the sangeet.

Shivani: It made me cry. They didn’t tell us they were practising, so we had no idea. What was really special to us is that people came from all over the world: from the US and the UK, from other parts of India, and Australia. It was really nice bringing everyone together.