Natsuko and Awaan’s story traverses countries, continents and life stages!

A connection that began in Tokyo got stronger as their lives took them to London, Chennai, Ithaca, New York and Chicago; finally ended up as a sunset celebration in Florence, Italy.

We first met Awaan at his sister Aania’s wedding back in January 2023. Documenting weddings allows us a perspective unlike any other, where the approach we have chosen allows us to get a deep glimpse into the inner emotional workings of a human being. In Awaan, we saw an elder brother who was caring and emotional, strong and yet vulnerable - and this is not just in his relationship with Aania, but with all his cousins. Being the eldest among them, he is a sort of bridge between the generation of the parents and the generation of the kids - someone who is looked up to as a example, and he wears this responsibility with humility and the kind of grace that has to be seen to be believed.

Natsuko was at Aania’s wedding too. She was more of a quiet observer, though we could tell that she is special purely because of her calm, steady presence throughout the wedding. On the last day, we caught a moment between Natsuko and Awaan on the dance floor right at the end of the sundowner celebration.

*Natsuko & Awaan at Aania & Aasim’s wedding, back in 2023*

Let’s jump into the 48 hours of their wedding now, which was celebrated in Florence, Italy. Out of the countless magical moments, here is a collection of the handpicked ones, each with a story that shall live in our memories forever.

The design of this blog is a little different, with each section having its own horizontal scroll to give you a better experience. Hope you enjoy the story!

The Sundowner

The celebrations kicked off on a beautiful sunny evening next to the pool, with the red fabric marking the dance floor fluttering under the clear blue sky.

Natsuko & Awaan came in a little earlier, for some quick portraits. We also got a quick photograph with the families and then went up to the rooftop, where Natsuko & Awaan went through a refresher of their sangeet dance steps and were happy to pose for a few more portraits before the evening began. In the meantime, family and friends had begun streaming into the sangeet venue.

Natsuko & Awaan wanted to encourage people who they know from different places and phases of their lives, to interact with each other. To achieve this, they had created customised conversation starters which were handed out to each guest, indicating the names of other guests they should look for at the wedding, and have a conversation to find out what they share in common.

For instance, there are two separate people in Awaan’s network, who share a strong connection with the same sport, because they both work in the same sporting industry in different categories and different geographies. Person A received a card indicating to them that they should look for Person B, and find out what the common connection is! This was such a lovely idea.

The flowing of aperitifs and munching of Italian cheese and appetisers was accompanied by peals of laughter. The evening had began wonderfully well. As people got to know each other, Awaan and Natsuko danced their way to the celebrations, in that order.

More conversation and jokes followed, and then Tarun took the mic to invite some friends for a few toasts and dances. The quality of dancing by the global citizenry to Indian movie songs was top notch! We’ve rarely seen better. Moreover, the lack of a ‘stage’ meant that there was intimate, human connection between the dancers and the audience, and this added so much of warmth to the celebrations.

The finale of the evening was Natsuko and Awaan, dancing with Aania and Aasim, after which the dance floor was thrown open. Later that night, Awaan was thrown into the pool! Others joined in too. And after he got out of the pool, Awaan realised that one of his shoes is still inside, so he jumped back in to successfully retrieve it.

After he got out, his other shoe was thrown in, which stayed afloat - no one went in for that one!

The next morning began on a quiet note. Awaan and Natsuko’s parents helped them with final touches for their wedding attire. The vows were to take place at a beautiful villa overlooking the city of Florence.

Before making their way to the ceremony, Natsuko and Awaan met each other in a beautiful room full of art and big windows. They took a moment for the emotions to sink in, after which they went ahead to greet their families and get a massive family legacy photograph.

The vows were to happen under a beautiful tree, with Awaan’s aunt officiating the ceremony. Both cultures were beautifully mixed into this ceremony, with Urdu and Japanese poetry, the Japanese San-San-Kudo ceremony and thoughtful words by some family members from both sides.

It was the moment to exchange rings. We could feel the pleasant wind rustling through the trees, the flutter of bird wings and an occasional bird song. The Sun shone in from behind the leaves, as Natsuko and Awaan made their promises to each other, and then walked out dancing along a floral pathway as the wedding guests cheered.

Cocktail hour had begun, and it was time for aperitifs yet again, as old and new friendships continued to strengthen.

As the Sun set, the guests made their way to the reception dinner. With Nastuko and Awaan joining them shortly afterwards, the toasts began.

As the toasts ended, the guests were all in for a surprise. Natsuko and Awaan had handwritten a personalised note for EVERY SINGLE GUEST and placed it under their chairs for the reception dinner - it was among the most special things we’ve seen any bride and groom do for their family and friends.

What was coming next was a surprise. Natsuko and Awaan’s wedding cake was made right in front of them, with the chefs building layer upon layer on the spot. We can safely say that this the best wedding cake we’ve ever had, and to get a sense of the surprise and the excitement it caused, have a look at Natsuko’s adorable expressions as each layer of the cake was revealed. It was epic, there are simply no other words one can use to express what it was.

After the cake and champagne, there was another little surprise - a tiny slideshow for Natsuko and Awaan with photographs sourced from their childhoods. This was Aania’s idea which we had helped put together, and the delight on the faces of Natsuko and Awaan were more than worth all the effort that had gone into it.

After this, Natsuko and Awaan stepped into a beautiful first dance, full of both elegance and fun, with the high point of it being Awaan whirling Natsuko around as a part of a choreographed lift, after which the dance floor was thrown open, a live band took over, and then the party eventually moved indoors for the DJ to take things even higher!