Bride Arya explains that she wanted to pay homage to her heritage, so had a Hindu blessing during the ceremony and even went to India to buy her dress!
Arya Iyer and Paddy Barbour
21st October 2023
Ceremony venue | University of Glasgow Memorial Chapel
Reception venue | The Haberdashery, Glasgow
Photography | For Love + Thistle Photography
"Paddy and I met while we were both studying at the University of Glasgow in 2018. Things became serious pretty quickly and we met each other’s parents within a few months of getting together.
Paddy proposed in April 2022 in Queen’s Park (which was the setting for our second date). It was a lovely sunny morning and the park was empty, which made it even more of a special, intimate moment.
Getting married in Glasgow was non-negotiable. We wanted to contrast the traditional ceremony setting we’d booked – Glasgow University’s Memorial Chapel – with somewhere more modern for the reception. We had about 18 months overall to plan.
We viewed The Haberdashery on Sauchiehall Street after seeing it on Instagram. We liked that it was right in the centre of the city and that it was quite new, so many of our 160 guests wouldn’t have been there before.
I drew a lot of inspiration from wedding-planning TikTok. With an October wedding, I initially erred towards more autumnal tones, but after I decided to wear pink, we incorporated blush tones across our flowers, cake and decor.
We wanted to include cultural elements that were important to us. I decided to wear a lehenga for instance and went on a shopping trip to India in April 2023 (the choice online wasn’t great). I got one custom-made by Frontier Raas and it arrived by courier in August to allow plenty of time for alterations.
Even though we had a humanist ceremony, we were able to include a Hindu blessing. Les Gray from Independent Humanist Ceremonies was our celebrant and Jairam Sastry, a Hindu priest who is a close friend of my family, performed the blessing.
I would advise other couples planning to have a humanist ceremony like ours to be mindful of the fact the script itself takes a while to come up with, so start this process nice and early with your celebrant to allow adequate time to make changes and get it perfected before the big day.
It really was a beautiful ceremony filled with many lovely, memorable moments. A personal favourite was arriving at the top of the aisle and looking around to see all our friends and family, just before I walked down the aisle to ‘God Only Knows’ by The Beach Boys played on the organ.
I’d made Paddy sweat a little as I inadvertently ended up running late! It was a bit stressful, but we only ended up being 10 minutes late.
About 10 minutes into my dad and I’s car journey to the ceremony, we realised we had forgotten my bouquet and his buttonhole, so had to turn back to get them.
We wanted a photographer with a natural style who didn’t edit images too much. Holly from With Love + Thistle Photography did a sterling job in capturing all our special moments without disrupting the ceremony at all, so much so that we barely noticed her about. We love all our photos, but I think the one of us walking back down the aisle is probably our favourite as we both just looked so relaxed and happy.
We had good experiences with all of our suppliers. Paddy got his outfit from MacGregor and MacDuff; they were so professional and courteous to deal with. His kilt ended up being too long when we picked it up, but they were fab and exchanged it for a shorter one with no hassle at all.
Our cake was definitely the best-tasting wedding cake I have ever had. Pamela from Keys Cake Bakery did an amazing job and I would recommend her a hundred times over. New Bud Floristry were also a dream to work with and so flexible with our budget. Our flowers were stunning.
We saved some money by designing our own stationery. I used Canva and Etsy, then got everything printed at Soapbox Design in Glasgow. I got about 200 envelopes from eBay for £10 – talk about a steal. This made all the invites look and feel special without them costing a fortune. My bridesmaids made me a keepsake memory box containing our invites, decor and other wedding bits.
I changed into Crocs for the dancing! We had DJ Arman Farid play a mix of Asian tunes and wedding classics. Our first dance was to ‘Just the Two of Us’ by Bill Withers and Grover Washington Jr. We wanted the evening to be really chilled out which The Haberdashery lends itself perfectly to. The dance floor is on a separate level, meaning people can relax and have a breather upstairs, while the others are ripping it up on the dance floor!
Top tip: “Book a videographer. We debated whether to or not, but I’m so glad we got one in the end. The whole day was a whirlwind, so I am thrilled that we have the video to watch back and enjoy.”
Ceremony venue University of Glasgow Memorial Chapel
Reception venue The Haberdashery
Photography For Love + Thistle Photography
Filmmaker Chris Kelly Films (see above)
Celebrant Les Gray, Independent Humanist Ceremonies
Hindu blessing Jairam Sastry
Bride’s lehenga Frontier Raas, New Delhi
Bride’s accessories Sokora Jewels
Bridesmaid dresses Six Stories
Makeup and nails Gem-ua
Hair Melissa Bridal Hair
Groomswear MacGregor and MacDuff
Catering Diamond Events (main); Toni’s Pizzeria (evening); Banana Leaf (evening)
Cake Keys Cake Bakery
Flowers New Bud Floristry
Venue decor Make Believe Events
Stationery DIY using Canva, Etsy and Soapbox Design for print
DJ Arman Farid
Photobooth Booths 4 You
Transport GD Coaches
