Singaporebrides | Photography

November 2018

Katherine and Karthikan’s Elegant Galactic Wedding at MASONS at Gillman Barracks

Katherine and Karthikan’s near-decade-long romance culminates in a beautiful 3-day wedding celebration that celebrated their culture, family and personalities.

You can say Katherine and Karthikan’s romance was written in the stars. Although the pair of sweethearts belonged to the same Junior College and CCA group, they never met due to their 3-year age gap. But they were destined to meet despite the circumstance, and when they did, fireworks appeared. After nearly a decade of courtship, Katherine and Karthikan decided to seal the deal in a 3-day wedding celebration that celebrated their culture, families and personalities last June.

How did the two of you meet?

Katherine: We attended the same Junior College and same CCA, though three years apart, so we didn’t meet through seeing each other day to day. A CCA camp was to be held one day and I had the task of emailing the alumni, inviting them back. I thought it was a chore. By pure chance, I took one of two lists someone was holding out to me with email addresses to write to and never would I have imagined that the very first name on the list I took was my husband-to-be. He was also the first to reply to my email. We never stopped replying to each other’s emails which got progressively longer. We were modern-day pen-pals. This was before the era of smartphones began.

What drew you to each other? What is it about your partner that you love the most?

Karthikan: When we first started dating in 2008, I was into my final year of National Service and was to begin university studies overseas from the following year. I left Singapore for more than 4 years, and although I knew it would be asking too much of Katherine to work on our long-distance relationship, we never gave up. That’s what drew us to each other – the commitment throughout our long-distance relationship.

Share with us what your wedding planning was like.

Katherine: Thinking it would be quick and easy to accomplish planning our western wedding with a generic white floral theme, we tried that at first. But it felt like a chore, it was boring and our hearts weren’t in it. So we ditched it and went with our final theme which we had wanted in the first place but was afraid it would be too hard to pull off. With the theme that we wanted, planning our wedding was so much more thoughtful and fun.

What was the wedding theme you eventually went with?

Katherine: For our Western wedding, we eventually went with a mish-mash of X-Files/sci-fi/galaxy. Trying to portray these themes romantically was very tricky; we didn’t want it appearing kitschy or sappy because that would make us cringe. We started out with seemingly random ideas but it all came together nicely and most of it was DIY-ed. To name a few, we made our own very authentic-looking confidential FBI-esque documents, with text phrased in such a way that we were inviting guests to take part in a top secret space voyage, with maps to ‘secret locations’ Photoshop-ed to make it seem like Area 51, and consent forms (instead of RSVP cards) attached. Our wedding invitations were the coolest!

Our cake toppers were Wall-E and Eve figurines which my sister-in-law DIY-ed the cutest wedding outfits for. Our wedding favours were ornamental glass jars filled with kinetic sand (to mimic a moon’s surface) in which a timepiece was lodged in. When you open the timepiece, you’d find a quote reading “Love is the one thing that we’re capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space”, from the 2014 movie, Interstellar.

Our church mass booklet cover was an edited Interstellar movie poster. Our playlist contained songs like Moby’s “We Are All Made of Stars” and Duran Duran’s “Planet Earth”. And the décor and florals by Lily from The Wedding Diary pulled everything together very tastefully and subtly romantic in navy, purple, hints of gold and silver and subtle sparkle.

You had a 3-day wedding, which included a Bangle Ceremony. Share with us what goes on during an Indian wedding and tell us more about your weddings.

Karthikan: We had three wedding celebrations over a 3-day period, one at the PGP Wedding Hall at Perumal Temple, one at the Church of St. Teresa and the last at MASONS at Gillman Barracks where we had our Western wedding celebration. The temple held meaning to us as that was where my parents held their wedding ceremony over 35 years ago. We chose the Church of St. Teresa as it had a perennial feel to it, which we instantly liked, and it was the church where the very same priest had conducted the wedding ceremonies for Katherine’s family members.

The Bangle Ceremony is a ritual performed by seven married women a few days before the Hindu wedding ceremony, and has both importance and historic relevance as well. The seven women will adorn the bangles on the bride’s wrists as a blessing to a happy and fulfilling married life. These bangles will continue to hold a special place in a married woman’s life.

Hindu wedding rituals vary according to regional cultures but there are key steps of a Hindu Marriage without which the marriage would not be considered complete. The whole wedding ceremony sort of depicts a story of a first meeting of the bride and the groom at the wedding venue: the bride’s parents giving her away to groom whom they deem worthy of their daughter’s love, the couple committing to each other in front of the sacred fire followed by the couple taking the seven vows of commitment to the marriage and the friends and families blessing the newly wedded couple.

What did your family/friends have to say about your wedding day?

Both: They absolutely loved being part of the week long procession and weddings! We were all exhausted when it all ended, but the reception held the most meaning to them as they know now how much significance the universe has on our lives and they way we see our significance in the universe. In the end, we are all made of stardust.

What was the most memorable moment of your wedding?

Katherine: There are too many memorable moments over the three days!

Karthikan: I would say, the most memorable moment was the immersive, themed dinner reception that we held at MASONS at Gillman Barracks!

Any wedding planning advice you have for couples planning their wedding?

Katherine: DIY what you can, even if it’s a simple project. It doesn’t have to be elaborate or expensive. That’ll make your wedding preparations and the final outcome become more meaningful, authentic and memorable.

Karthikan: Rule of thumb – plan a budget, stick to it, but add 20-25% on top of it as an emergency ‘buffer’.

The Size of Wedding: Approximately 400 guests over 2 days
The Venue: Perumal Temple and MASONS at Gillman Barracks
The Photographer: Andri Tei Photography
The Wedding Gown: Kelly’s Bridal
The Wedding Shoes: Anna Nucci
The Groom’s Suit: Kelly’s Bridal
The Groom’s Shoes: Marks & Spencer
The Hair and Makeup Artist: Shradha Agarwal
The Wedding Bands: Lee Hwa Jewellery
The Wedding Planner: Lily Lu from The Wedding Diary
The Caterer: Gayathri’s and MASONS at Gillman Barracks
The Wedding Invitations and Stationery: DIY by bride and groom
The Wedding Favours: DIY by bride and groom
The Wedding Cake: Made by a family friend, Adelyn Peter
The Solemniser: Dr Kraunanithy Ramasamy // Fr Michael Arro


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Katherine and Karthikan’s Elegant Galactic Wedding at MASONS at Gillman Barracks