Real Wedding: Manisha + Ali

May 23, 2013

Photography: Javon Longieliere Photography, An SAB Top 50 Vendor: Link Here

“Ali and Manisha weren’t exactly friends. Manisha was in Atlanta for a Kraft internship the summer before her Senior year of college in 2007. She was perfectly content being independent and single. This is when she met Ali. He tried with ice cream excuses and long lines at Wal-Mart to get her last Harry Potter book. But fate had something else in mind; it wasn’t time yet. It wasn’t until Manisha moved back home that they became friends. There was something about him; she could talk to him for hours on end! She was trippin’ and he was ready to catch me. Then on Valentine’s Day 2008 in Chapel Hill, NC, Manisha got flowers in the mail with a one-liner note, “It gets better; be ready by 5:30.” Was he really driving six hours just to ask her to be his Valentine? But Manisha thought he had class and it was a weekday. Doesn’t matter, he was coming. Surprised and filled with excitement, she got dressed and waited. The doorbell rang and behind the teddy bear and more roses, stood a guy with the cutest smile. Manisha’s roommate, Tanvi, had told him exactly what colors her dress would be, so he came in with a matching shirt and tie. They knew Manisha too well. Ali walked in and asked her to sit down. By then, her face was pink, her heart was racing, and she just could not stop smiling. Ali got down on one knee, pulled out a heart-shaped plastic box and opened it to reveal a ring pop! “Will you be my Valentine?” She said yes…yes to her first valentine ever and yes to all the special moments to come. At that moment he also gave me a bright red-colored valentines card. Their friend, Kanwal, and him had debated that brown girls don’t blush. But Kanwal insisted that Manisha does! So he got the card just to see if he could get me to blush brighter than the color of the card — Manisha definitely was! Over the next four years, Manisha graduated from UNC Chapel Hill and Ali from Georgia State University and both got their first jobs. Their wedding spanned four days last summer in Atlanta with over 500 guests from all over. Looks like their happily ever after was just the beginning.”