Sharanya And Susheel's Vegan Wedding

Meet Sharanya and Susheel - she's Tamilian, he's Malayali and both have a passion for animal rights and cruelty-free living. Today they are sharing their vegan wedding and love story with us!

1. Firstly - How did you and your hubby meet? What do you both do for a living?

Susheel and I met at Google. He was assigned my mentor at work, and his passion for sales/business development was infectious. We made a strong team and the story began there. He is now managing a team, running business development with Google, while I quit my job there to pursue my passion - to spread the word of veganism through food, mainly desserts. I own a vegan home baking space called The Lush Glaze.  

2. Are you both vegan? When and why did you decide to make the switch to this lifestyle?

I've been vegan for 4.5+ years now and Susheel is an aspiring vegan. It started with cruelty - as someone who has always picked up injured/abandoned animals from the streets and brought them home despite the fact that my family wasn't too fond of it initially, compassion to all beings came naturally to me. I was always a vegetarian, and making that little leap to veganism immediately materialised when I realised that no other species consume the milk of their own mother beyond a certain age let alone that of another species. The whole process seemed extremely unnatural, wrong and cruel to me instantly. Having then turned vegan, I started seeing the impact it had on my health and started loving it!  

3. Why did you want to have a vegan wedding?

Having been vegan for as long as I have, I don't connect with a non-vegan lifestyle anymore. So there was no other option really :D I wanted those two days of the wedding to be all about Susheel and me and our lifestyle. While I lead a completely vegan lifestyle, my now-husband does to a large extent and we enjoy exploring our options, experimenting with food at home and restaurants. We wanted those two days to be all about things we love, the food we love and the kind of lifestyle we lead which is also largely environment-friendly. I can't thank Susheel and his family enough for not only accepting it as lovingly as they did but also embracing the vegan lifestyle for those two days by avoiding silk and helping veganise traditional Kerala-food for the 'Tamil-Malayalam (Tamalyalam) fiesta' we had during lunch on the wedding day.  

The couple's wedding attire is 100% vegan

4. Tell us a bit about the food served at the wedding

We went all out here. We're both foodies and started with making a list of all our favourite dishes. Ranging from South Indian, North Indian, to Italian, Thai, Chinese and Burmese, we made sure the variety and the spread spoke to the crowd. Vegan food is easy to find, substitute and devour! 

For breakfast, apart from the traditional options of toast, idli-vada and parathas, we added vegan omelettes, shrikhand-puri, vegan cheeses by Cowvathi, vegan butter by Hearth & Heart, vegan tea, coffee and buttermilk. We had dishes from the tandoor, Good-dot mock meat starters, vegan raita and biryani, and a full course South Indian spread with curd rice made with Chetran's soy curd for lunch during the two days.  

For dinner, we had chaat and Bombay-inspired food with Indian and Western desserts like sheera and cakes. 

For the wedding evening, we had a Burmese, Thai and North Indian-inspired menu. We had a cupcake tower and cake by Alisha Sequera (Hungry Monsters), cookies & cream ice-creams from Sameer (Vegan Bytes), high-tea with tea, coffee and sweet and savoury snacks, like apple crumble, and candy floss. I'm sure I've missed a lot of dishes, but we're very proud and happy to have represented the spread and options available for vegans in India and it made is immensely happy to see how well it was appreciated and how many of our guests were inspired to consider the lifestyle and even veganise their weddings in the near future!  

The "Tamalayalam" feast

5. How did you manage vegan attire, cosmetics and decor?  

Attire: We spoke in detail with a lot of designers who helped us veganise our outfits. From artificial flowers to art silks, velvets, reusable jewellery, artificial leather shoes, to requesting our guests to avoid silk, I spent months getting what we wanted veganised.  Meanwhile, Susheel's friend Yunus Ahmed owns a store called Y&O in Bangalore. Special shout out to him for making all his outfits vegan and for designing everything from scratch to suit all our events.   

Cosmetics: I did my own make-up for the wedding since I prefer a rather subtle look. I already had all the products I needed and borrowed some from my other vegan friends and stuck to brands like Colorbar, Nykaa, Too-Faced, Naked, Forest Essentials, Bodyshop, etc for my skin care and makeup.   

Decor & other elements: Right from our invite which was made on seed paper by Renuka from Jalebi and wax sealed with our logo, we had set the theme to be an eco-friendly affair. We focused more on the location to minimise the decor needed, and hence picked a beachside garden location for the main wedding. For the pool party, we had floats, pool balls, a gola counter, artificial flower bands, bubble making tubes, water balloons etc.

We stuck to reusable artificial flowers for decor. We used various elements for the Sangeet like Jaipuri umbrellas, Moroccan lanterns and fun props like turbans for men with bright pouches for women to add pops of colour. We had pot making to create a sense of connection with nature while our closest friends made the evening magical with music.    

The next morning, we had a tree plantation drive where all of us with our guests planted saplings while our pet dog played in the mud. We had seed bombs from Seed Paper India as giveaways here. We then had a Tamalyalam fiesta with special Tamil and Malayalam dishes on banana leaves. 

We then headed to Juhu beach for the wedding where we used twigs, twine, artificial flowers, wooden barrels, rustic dim yellow lights and candles as decor. The theme was vintage and we had the guests throw birdfeed on us for blessings as we exchanged our vows. We had birdfeeders from Nature Forever Society as giveaways and also gifted our guests with hand towels and glass bottles to help reduce tissue and plastic bottle consumption. We also tied up with Tikki by Himala to provide cruelty-free vegan bath products for the guests as the guest house did not have vegan products by default. We avoided plastic completely during the wedding and chose eco-friendly containers where it was required.    

6. Was there anything else about the wedding that was noteworthy?  

Apart from choosing a vegan eco-friendly wedding, our wedding was pet-friendly because we couldn't have imagined it without our 3-year-old indie girl sharing the special day with us. 

We instantly decided to do away with rituals and spend those two days with our closest family and friends, having fun, showing them what our journey had been like and things that made us - us. We picked aspects of wedding traditions that resonated with us – like  exchanging vows that we wrote for each other, having a friend officiate the wedding, having our close friends perform instead of a band, having the guests bless us with birdfeed so that the remains could be eaten by birds instead of being cleared by staff at the venue. We only had about 130-140 guests from both our sides, making it a close, small affair.    

Pet-friendly wedding

7. What was the reaction of people when they found out that this would be a vegan celebration?

It was a rather mixed reaction. For people who knew me well, they had been exposed enough to veganism and were quite excited. A lot of my friends and family have turned vegan and were looking forward to enjoying a two-day vegan feast without having to hunt for vegan options :)

For those who weren't too familiar with the lifestyle, the anticipation and doubts were addressed that it's not really difficult to find vegan options and alternatives. A lot of them really did not know what to expect and were planning on finding ways to source food thinking it was going to be all soups and salads! They personally came to us to tell us how much they enjoyed the food and how light just two days of this diet made them feel compared to their meat-heavy diets which often cause a lot of heat and bloating. They were shocked at the spread and the smaller details of clothing and decoration which was just as exciting for them as it was for us.    

8. What tips can you offer to couples who want to throw a vegan wedding themselves?

There is NOTHING that is as satisfying as spreading awareness about what you love through your big day. The reactions and responses along with some change of heart that we saw through the wedding made it all worth it.   

Do not lose hope: It can get a little challenging having to work with so many different vendors as it's not as easy as selecting a hall and asking their caterer to make vegan food. But there are lots of people choosing to have vegan weddings in our country now, so reach out to them, to the vegan groups and seek help constantly.   

Start well in advance: Give it a minimum of 6 months if you have that kind of time to get your dream vegan wedding. You'll be able to get what you want at the best price and have enough ideas about back-ups in case of emergencies. 

Sharanya & Susheel At The Reception

Keep it simple: It's not necessary to make every dish complicated. Have the regulars that your caterer is known to make which is vegan by default as taking risks on your big day isn't something I'd recommend. Keep the menu and items simple and then start adding some elements of surprise like curd rice, kheers, ice creams, cakes etc. Opt for a tasting session if you’re picking a caterer. Removing some products like ghee, cream, milk, butter from certain dishes can alter the taste, so you may have to ask them to add substitutes like cashew cream and soy milk etc to ensure the quality is the same. So do not say no to a tasting session, or say yes without one! All caterers now give the option.    

If you're not in the same city to plan the wedding: We got ourselves a wedding planner to help with the tasting and coordination while we couldn't be present. Two Fat Ladies was extremely helpful and experienced which made the process a lot easier. Of course, we screened about 15 wedding planners on call before we picked them just for their interest and passion towards the cause.   

I'd be more than happy to help if you're stuck somewhere - so feel free to reach out to me as well! Free advice and consultation available.    

Like this?

Read: Ishan and Vandana’s eco-friendly Vegan wedding in Lonavala

Read more: 8 Fully Vegan Indian Families. Oh yes, they do exist!