At this Goa wedding, even the rain gods obliged

Ever heard of the Red String Theory? It’s an east Asian belief that suggests that an invisible red cord connects those who are destined to meet and fall in love, only crossing paths when the time is right. You don’t need to be an idealist to believe in it. Just hear how Vandana Verma, 43, met her now-husband Shiv Burman, 40.

Despite living in Goa and sharing a bunch of mutual connections, the two never encountered each other until Karuna (a contributor at The Nod), Vandana’s friend of 30 years (who also happens to be married to Shiv’s best mate) decided to play matchmaker. “There are many times we’ve been at the same place or the same party, but we didn’t run into each other. I think we didn’t meet until we were meant to because it simply wasn’t the right time,” reflects Vandana, the head of content at Nicobar. It was in 2024 that they finally crossed paths, and the rest, as they say, is history.

A year and a half into the relationship, Shiv, who runs a sports marketing agency, decided to pop the question during a scenic coastal trail in Puglia, to mark the start of their Italian road trip. The hunt for an ideal location during the trail came with some obstacles—namely, a naked man and a pant-less woman (hello, nude European beach!). The couple still laugh about it, and I can imagine it’s a story that will be retold for years to come for more reasons than one.

Earlier this month, they tied the knot in Goa at the height of the monsoon, but they had no intention of settling for a boring banquet hall. For the festivities, they chose Avanilaya, a boutique resort in Corjuem, which is tucked away from the tourist trails in North Goa in the sprawling countryside overlooking the Mapusa river. 

Unlike the usual multi-day Indian wedding, they had just one ceremony on the agenda: the pheras followed by an entire day of drinking and dancing with their handpicked guest list of 150 people. Call it a stroke of luck or divine intervention, but the clouds kept their distance on what was a glorious day. As soon as the pheras were done, a magical 30-second shower arrived. “It felt like a blessing from above,” Shiv tells me on video call. Below, we get the details on their intimate wedding:

Wellness nerd meets party boy

Vandana: I had a certain perception of Shiv and thought we were very different and that he’s like this party boy. So, when Karuna proposed the idea of meeting him, I said hell no.

Shiv: On our first date we went to this Japanese restaurant. She picked me up because I had forgotten to charge my car.

Vandana: We’d both done a bit of a social media scan before meeting. I’m quite interested in things like wellness and movement. He’s not saying this, but he was worried that I was going to be this joyless wellness nerd who only ate greens.

An eventful proposal on an Italian coastal trail

Shiv: We were walking this trail in Polignano a Mare in Puglia and I had the ring in my backpack­­—it was my mom’s and she really wanted to pass it down to Vandana.

I was walking ahead and kept saying “Isn’t this a lovely spot?” and she thought I was being very weird. Vandana is a very private person, so I didn’t want to do it around people. We came across a beautiful cove but spotted a naked man standing there because it was a nude beach, so clearly that wasn’t ‘the’ spot. At another place, this lady pulled her pants down to take a wee so that wasn’t it either…

Vandana: Luckily, towards the end, we stumbled upon this dreamy beachside grotto. We were going to jump into the water, so I was folding my shorts and was busy balancing on a rock when he called my name. I turned around to find him on one knee. I was completely surprised and wasn’t expecting it at all. It was the perfect start to our two-week road trip around Italy.

The Raw Mango sari that was a yes at first sight

Vandana: From the get-go, I knew I wanted to wear Raw Mango. I love Sanjay’s [Garg] work and he’s a friend. I’m in my forties and I didn’t want to land up looking like some sort of bridal cupcake. My personal style is quite understated; I’ve never been a fan of big bridal outfits, heavy embellishments or skirts that hold themselves up, and I wanted something that I could wear again. I saw this image of a model in an ivory silk sari with a border of laser-cut mogras from his London Fashion Week show last year. I showed it to my mom and a couple of girlfriends, but they thought it was too simple for my wedding. They weren’t seeing the vision.

Shiv: I was the one who pushed her to go for it.

Vandana: The second I showed him a picture of the outfit he said I should wear it. This is what I mean by us being sympatico. Months later, they didn’t have that piece. I went to their Delhi store multiple times and that one sari was being shepherded around to Australia, Canada and other places before I eventually got it in May. At some point, the mums got into my head about it being too plain. So, I bought another Raw Mango sari as a backup—also ivory silk with gold buttis. But Shiv insisted I go with the one I really wanted to wear. The fabric is like liquid silk, and it caught the light just the way I hoped it would. I paired it with ancestral jewellery that belonged to my mum and nani. The earrings were refashioned from a necklace into a polki studs with cascading pearls by my grandmother many years ago. I had a full sparkly polki collar and cluster seed pearl bangles. I paired the sari with yellow Kolhapuri flats because, of course, I wanted to dance.

Shiv: She kept telling me to manage my expectations about the sari. And I was like, “What do you mean? You will look amazing.”

The handpicked 150 people guest list 

Vandana: We’re an older couple. Maybe when you are getting married in your twenties and thirties, these are large and collaborative things. When you are both in your forties and quick decision-makers, it makes sense for it to be just us [intimate].

The D-day guide to calming nerves

Vandana: I don’t like being the centre of attention, so on the morning of the wedding I was very tense. I remember my makeup artist kept telling me, “Relax your cheeks, relax your eyelids.” I didn’t even know any of these things were tense. I got ready and made my way to the venue with my closest girlfriends. We were hidden away in another room, and they’d set up a full bar for us where I had three gentle tequila sodas.

Shiv: Meanwhile, in another room, I had three tequila shots.

Vandana: The minute I walked out and saw him at the mandap, I was completely fine. I chose to play ‘Dilbar’ by Tech Panda and Kenzani in the background. I didn’t want something filmy, but, to be honest, in that moment you don’t even hear it. You could have played anything, and I wouldn’t have known.

The details that tied it altogether

Vandana: We both are big tequila drinkers, so we had a breakfast margarita with a little bit of marmalade in it. In terms of the menu, it was majorly Goan cuisine that honoured local produce—recheado squid chilli, fresh poie, mushroom xacuti, coconut, and curry leaf rice. We both enjoy Kerala food, so there was also incredible meen moilee and Kerala parotta. In terms of decor, we wanted to minimise waste but also have a Goan tropical vibe, so we leaned into leaves and foliage. Liesel Duarte of Knotted Up helped us bring it all together.

Shiv: We both enjoy gigs and music a lot, so in the evening it was a long, long party. One of the artists playing was DJ Aashish Gupta, and it was even more special for him to play at the wedding because we had our first kiss to his set.