Full Circle

"I still get excited getting to see Uddhav after a day of work," Priyanka George tells me, “and waiting for him to come home.” She tells me this having just described a two-day wedding in a 14th-century Rajasthani fort, four outfits by India's most celebrated designers, and florals that had guests stopping in their tracks. But all of that, she says, is only a bonus. The marriage itself, the ordinary everyday rituals, is what Priyanka cherishes most.

Priyanka met Uddhav Bhargava in Year 12, at a mutual friend's eighteenth birthday party, where they talked for over an hour before having to abruptly part ways. What followed was months of Facebook conversations, stolen between final year study sessions. “We quickly realised we shared a similar sense of humour,” she says, “which made everything feel effortless and fun from the very beginning.” They started dating at nineteen and were twenty-nine when they married.

“I still get excited getting to see Uddhav after a day of work, and waiting for him to come home.”

Uddhav, when I ask what draws him to Priyanka, answers without hesitation. “She has always had a strong sense of self and personality. She knows what she likes and what she doesn't like, and she doesn't care what anyone else thinks.” Priyanka points to his lightness. “His humour and light-heartedness,” she says. “I knew early on we would last because of how easily he could make me laugh.” She also speaks about what she witnessed when his younger brother had a stroke at nineteen. “He was at the hospital every day for weeks without question, nothing else mattered. I always knew that he had that in him, but witnessing it during that time only made me admire him more.”

Ten years together means many chapters. Over that time they have traversed university degrees, navigated long distance, started (and ended) jobs and embarked on adventures overseas before finally settling into their first apartment in Sydney's Surry Hills. And when challenges arose, such as Priyanka's grandfather passing away, they have remained firmly at one another's sides. “Like any long relationship, there have been highs and lows,” Priyanka says, “but we always find our way back to each other.”

“I knew early on we would last because of how easily he could make me laugh.”

When the pair decided to travel to India together, Uddhav took it as his opportunity to propose, a moment made all the more special by sunset at Udaipur’s Oberoi Udaivilas, which overlooks one of the lakes the city is famous for. While the question itself wasn't a complete surprise after eight years together, Priyanka hadn't quite worked out when Uddhav might have had the opportunity to ask for her parents' blessing, an important prerequisite in their culture. What she later discovered was that he had carefully arranged for both families to meet without her knowledge, and had already quietly ordered the ring while she was still deliberating over designs, weeks after their visit to Naveya & Sloane in New Zealand. “I was watching Uddhav very closely through the airports, convinced I might catch him acting strangely when the ring went through security, but he gave absolutely nothing away.” She was, despite everything, completely surprised in the moment. Adding to the occasion was the fact that the hotel was the location of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, one of her favourite Bollywood films, which centres on a destination wedding in Udaipur. “Standing there as the sun set over the lake felt incredibly special and slightly surreal,” she says, “to be in the place I had watched on screen so many times.”

After deciding that an Australian wedding didn't feel right, they explored venues across Rajasthan before landing on Six Senses Fort Barwara, a restored 14th-century fort outside Ranthambore National Park. Their priorities were clear: a breathtaking location, a celebration of Indian culture, exceptional photography and unforgettable food. “We are Australian-Indian but we feel incredibly proud of our Indian culture,” Priyanka explains, “and we wanted the opportunity to showcase an amazing experience in India to our friends and family.”

“There have been highs and lows but we always find our way back to each other.”

The food at Fort Barwara is farm-to-table, sourced from the resort's own organic gardens, and it was, both agree, some of the best they had ever eaten. For photography, Priyanka had known for years she wanted Alice Mahran. To capture the occasion, Mahran flew from Europe to India, working alongside Rein from Plus Two Films and local videographer Chitresh Mishra. “Alice brings such a calm, kind energy,” Priyanka says, “and was incredibly respectful of cultural traditions, always asking about the meaning behind the rituals.”

The celebrations unfolded over two days, Haldi and Mehendi followed by the ceremony and reception. Uddhav curated the music for each event himself, weaving old and new Bollywood classics alongside 1970s American rock and calling on Peter Cat Recording Co., an Indian band he and Priyanka had seen live in Bangalore to play. “I remember chatting to my friends with ‘Cool Cat’ by Queen playing in the background while the sun was setting by the pool,” he says, “everyone eating Indian street food in their tuxedos. The fusion of cultures, and my parents' generation alongside mine, set such a cool atmosphere.” At the Haldi, close family members, framed by the golden afternoon light, approached the couple to apply turmeric to their skin in an emotional ceremony, while ‘Kabira’ played behind them. “It genuinely felt like they were angels from where we were sitting,” Priyanka says. “It surpassed all of my expectations.”

For her outfits, Priyanka had only one name in mind: Sabyasachi Mukherjee, one of India’s most renowned designers. Although the path to getting there was not straightforward. He doesn't do custom pieces and his bridal collections traditionally centre on red and pink for Hindu brides. Priyanka, a Catholic south-Indian bride, wanted off-white. And so, it took two trips to India, countless lehengas tried and dismissed, and one evening at the Sabyasachi store when her mother suggested she try on a white lehenga she had already written off. “The moment I stepped out, I could tell from Mum's reaction that this was it.” One detail she particularly loved was the Bengal tiger embroidered on the waistband. “Having it front and centre felt incredibly fitting given that our wedding was in Ranthambore, a reserve famous for India's tigers.” Her veil was made in Sydney by J. Andreatta using trim from the lehenga's dupatta. The jewellery, traditional polki with pearls, was chosen by her mother. “She wanted everything to be real heirloom pieces that could one day be passed down to our children.”

For the reception, Priyanka paired a cream silk Sabyasachi saree with gold Jimmy Choo heels and a red and gold Sabyasachi wristlet bag featuring two Bengal tigers. The Mehendi look was Ridhi Mehra in rani pink; while for the Haldi, she wore a customised sharara by emerging brand Pramila, inspired by a 1990s Bollywood look worn by Madhuri Dixit. Uddhav wore P. Johnson for the ceremony, a tuxedo in Loro Piana cashmere, and Divyam Mehta in emerald green for the Mehendi.

The florals were led creatively by Priyanka's mother, a local florist in Sydney of Portobello Rose, working with Shrey of The Flower Tales. And small, significant touches ran through everything: fresh jasmine for guests to wear in their hair, a nod to traditional Kerala weddings; ceremony pamphlets printed with her aisle song in both Hindi and English. She walked to a slower cover of ‘Maahi Ve' from Kal Ho Naa Ho, while the couple's first dance was to Sam Cooke's ‘You Send Me’.

"I felt incredibly grateful," Priyanka says, “to be able to have a wedding like this, made possible by the hard work of our parents.” Both hers and Uddhav's parents migrated from India to Australia over thirty years ago with hopes of giving their children more opportunity than they had. What those children did with it, marrying in their home country in a celebration that spoke to the cultural multitudes held across both families, felt like a full-circle moment. The life that Priyanka and Uddhav have built since they were nineteen is, in its own way, an answer to that hope, and for both it seems, the future is wide open.



This wedding was originally published in VEIL Issue Two. Discover this celebration, along with many more inspiring weddings, editorials, and stories in the full issue. Purchase your copy here.