These Vegans found their Happily Ever After on Instagram

One fine day, Shriya and Shan commented on a random Instagram post, after which they began a conversation and the rest was a match made in heaven.  As vegans, animal lovers and food bloggers, both advocate the concept of veganism through their respective Instagram profiles 'feed.me.something.vegan' (hers) and '2mrshan' (his). Their mutual love for animals and veganism gave way to friendship and eventually love. The couple recently tied a knot in Maryland, the USA in a Vegan and Eco-friendly ceremony. We got a chance to talk to Shriya about her wedding. Here’s what she had to say:

VF: When and Why did you decide to make the switch to this lifestyle?

 I turned vegan in early 2013 when a very close family friend of mine shared the documentary "Earthlings" on Facebook.

As a huge dog lover and an active dog fosterer - the shift was overnight. The documentary really made me rethink the life I was living as it covered details about the dairy industry which I was earlier never aware of. Also, it holistically made me look at animal cruelty from all kinds of spectrums and not only food which really opened my eyes. 

My husband turned vegan in 2015 after he saw a 15-second video on animal cruelty on Instagram. As a dog parent to 3 rescue dogs and a lover of animals and birds since childhood, he got exposed to the realities of dairy animals and educated himself more through other vegans he connected with, on Instagram.

VF: Why did you want to have a vegan wedding?

As passionate vegans, we always knew if we ever married someone, it would be a vegan wedding thanks to our strong belief that all animal use is animal abuse. 

Also, we felt this was a wonderful occasion to expose our family and friends to this lifestyle choice of ours and help them understand why we made the shift and motivate them to try it.

Image Courtesy: Shriya

VF: Tell us a bit about the food served at your wedding in Maryland

The food was the highlight of the wedding on both the Mehendi night and the Wedding. For the Mehendi night, my husband’s close friend, who owns a restaurant, completely took up the challenge and veganised the North Indian menu. We had Malai Kofta, Vegetable Pulao, Samosas, Soy curd rice and also really delicious Gajar ka halwa which was loved by all.

For the wedding, we served authentic South Indian Tamil Brahmin fare veganised thanks to the efforts of my husband’s brother who shared our expectations with the caterer, took the extra mile to brainstorm ideas.

The menu contained vadai, parupu (daal) payasam in coconut milk, sambhar, rasam, beans poriyal (beans stirfry), avial (made with an almond coconut base), pachadi or South Indian raita (made with cashew curd), appalam, badusha (SouthIndiann dessert). It's so easy to substitute dairy, which is a staple in South Indian dishes, with vegan alternatives like Coconut milk & vegan butter, cashew curd, and peanut buttermilk. 

South Indian weddings have the concept of giving vethalapakku or return gift packets of savories and sweets. The caterer did an excellent job with this as well and made murukku, laddoo, and badusha.

Image Courtesy: Shriya

VF: Was it easier to plan a vegan wedding in the USA?

It was not a challenge to have a vegan Indian wedding here in the US, but I must say like any wedding this required planning and lots of brainstorming. The wedding venue we chose was a temple; we had a lot of help from family and friends for the arrangements. My husband and I ensured that we used the least amount of plastic waste and looked at biodegradable options for all cutleries, Amazon and Wholefoods was a savior in this regard.

Image Courtesy: Shriya

VF: Tell us a bit about the conscious choices you made with regards to your attire, decor etc

The entire wedding ensemble was completely non-silk for us. We picked jute silk and cotton for close family members from India. 

I adored my hands with plant-based natural Mehendi and wore minimum gold. For the wedding makeup (as a huge makeup junkie myself who only uses cruelty-free products) my makeup artist was quite excited to do a completely cruelty-free look with products like Colour pop, Tarte, Anastasia Beverly Hills, Chambor, Plum and sugar cosmetics.

Since we did not want to use natural flowers for the wedding and wanted it as eco-friendly as possible, we sourced cloth garlands from Chennai for the maalai mathal (garland exchange ceremony between bride and groom) which can be reused. For the wedding décor, we could not particularly find any Indian wedding decorator, so we decided to custom design the mandap setting and the entrance with ideas from the families. My husband’s brother came up with a really nice stage setting by buying frames from home depot and welding it and decorating it with synthetic flowers we borrowed from the temple and with banana leaves. Everyone loved this innovative idea - it was green, earthly and simple like we wanted.

We also avoided traditional musical instruments such as Tavil as it is made from goatskin. We sourced a synthetic vegan mirudangam (musical instrument) from Dr. Varadarajan from Bangalore who owns http://www.karunyamusicals.com/ for the wedding. We got it shipped to the US. Although we couldn't get a professional player to play it, we had a close relative to play it during the event.

For the wedding gift bags, we gave out eco-friendly jute bags sourced from India.

Image Courtesy: Shriya

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

Both our families were very supportive at many levels but were curious on how to conceive it in a traditional way. The entire event gave a chance for us to talk to our relatives and friends about many aspects of animal cruelty in our daily lives.

VF: What tips can you offer to couples who want to throw a vegan wedding themselves?

I would like to say that, having a vegan wedding is definitely not difficult and only needs very good planning. It requires strong conviction and takes that extra mile wherever possible together. They need to be open to a lot of conversations with family, relatives, friends with patience. Honestly, personally to me, I feel this is the best avenue to give everyone a chance to live this lifestyle for a day or two with you as sometimes all they need is a reassurance to make the shift, and as an activist, there is no better joy than this. 

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