The Bride Wore an Ivory Pearl Lehenga to Wed on a Remote Ocean Sandbar in the Maldives
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When Manisha Seth was 17, her father made her go to a family friend’s wedding during her summer break from boarding school in Melbourne. She wasn’t happy about it. “I had three days of my summer holidays left and I didn’t want to waste it,” Manisha says, laughing. But there was one small consolation: she’d be seated next to someone else her age—the groom’s teenage son, Christopher Toh.
They spoke for hours that night “about everything and nothing,” Manisha says. Yet he didn’t ask for her number. At first, Manisha thought maybe she misread the signs. But as she went to board her flight to Melbourne two days later, she got a random text: “He had hunted my number down through a friend of a friend of a friend,” she says. “I tried desperately to come up with a crafty reply, but the nerves took over, so I gave up and called him instead. We spoke until my plane took off.” It turns out she never needed to worry: “It was love at first sight,” says Chris.
Fifteen years later, Chris proposed to Manisha over dinner at home in Singapore. She knew it was coming. “I had a sneaking suspicion he might propose because he was just so enthused about this dinner,” she says. Over the next four hours, Chris served Manisha an elaborate menu where each of the eight courses symbolized a moment in their life together. As they ate, a song they associated with a memory played and a home video streamed on a projector in their living room. “At the end of the dinner, I played a video I had put together from all our years together using all the photos and videos I had saved from the start, then got down on one knee and proposed,” says Chris.
The two always knew they wanted to get married in the Maldives. In 2017, they went to the East African island nation for New Year’s Eve. There, they made a drunk promise on the beach: One day, they’d get married just like this, stuck on a sandbank in the middle of the Indian Ocean. And seven years later, in April 2024, they did.
Their wedding weekend, planned by Alison Bryan Destinations, began on Thursday with a welcome dinner on the beach at Patina Maldives. On Friday, the couple gathered all their friends and family on a sailboat for a snorkel trip, followed by a sangeet at a surf shack. “Our friends came together in secret to learn and perform a full-blown Indian dance performance for the sangeet. Most of them had never attended a sangeet or performed anything Indian in their life. It was so touching and I was so surprised!” Manisha says. She wore a blue sari by Rahul Mishra, embroidered with birds, constellations, and jungle motifs, all paired with Sophie Bille Brahe earrings.
The next day, they wed on the tip of Patina Island, only reachable via boat. “On the boat ride there, I remember feeling a little nervous, but overwhelmingly, it was the calmest I had ever felt. When the boat turned the corner toward the island, it seemed time had stopped,” says Manisha. Family, friends, and Chris—in a suit from Richard James Savile Row—were all waiting for her under a serendipitous rainbow.
The bride wore a custom embroidered chikankari lehenga by Tarun Tahiliani with ivory pearl details. Manisha, who grew up outside India, discovered a newfound appreciation for her heritage during her trips to Tahiliani’s atelier in New Delhi. “The journey to find my wedding dress was very cathartic for me in the end. I learned so much about my culture and Indian craftsmanship. The amount of artisans and thousands of hours that goes into making an Indian wedding dress is something out of this world,” she says. She accessorized her look with a pearl and emerald choker as well as round polki (uncut) emerald earrings from Mehrasons.
She entered the ceremony under a canopy of flowers in accordance with the Indian tradition of phoolon ki chadar. Usually, it is carried by the bride’s brothers—however, Manisha is an only child. So Chris’s siblings stepped in. “It was really emotional for me to see them all decked out in Indian wear, embracing my Indian culture, waiting to walk me to the aisle to their brother. Just before we started walking, they told me to take a deep breath—and that they were here for me,” she says.
The bride walked down the aisle herself as “Book of Love” by Peter Gabriel played. After that, the groom says it all got a little fuzzy. “I don’t remember feeling anything but pure happiness. Everything was perfect and I was just 100% present, soaking in every second of it,” he says. “Manisha had the most touching vows, which I loved.” After they kissed, the two danced back down the aisle to “Gold Digger” by Kanye West. “In bad taste or not—I am not sure!” Manisha says. “But it was great. I could hear Chris laughing hysterically behind me.”
Afterward, the couple held their reception at the Fari Marina Village under a grove of palm trees. The bride changed into an ivory corset dress by Hermione de Paula that she had found and customized a month before the wedding. (“Crazy, I know,” says Manisha, crediting her bridal stylist, Anny Choi, as well as the “nicest, most creative human.”) Then she put her hair into a high half ponytail. “So ’90s, so freaking fun. I loved it!” Manisha says.
Throughout dinner, a string quartet played, only pausing as friends and family gave their speeches. The live band started, then the dancing kicked off and never stopped. “We had an after-party that went until 4 a.m.—despite a light tropical storm—and we all ended up in the pool to finish it off,” says Chris.
Despite being together for well over a decade, Manisha and Chris say their wedding felt like a new start. “It does feel like we are opening a new chapter in the book of life. I am so excited,” says Manisha.
Photo: Norman and Blake1/67The Maldives—little islands of magic in the ocean. The start to the most gorgeous wedding weekend.
Photo: Norman and Blake2/67The James Turrell “Modern Lighthouse” exhibit at Patina. Home to many Drake-esque videos.
