Married under a tree: a Bengaluru couple’s dream wedding

Illustrator and architect Namrata Toraskar says “everything came together under a tree,” describing her quite uncommon wedding to architect Varun Thautam. When the couple’s seek for a temple, on the outskirts of Bengaluru, to tie the knot didn’t yielding the specified outcomes, Namrata stumbled upon the honge tree (Indian beech) behind Varun’s home in Yelahanka.

“The tree became the centre around which everything took place. The scale of the wedding was decided by its foliage or shade — around 40 people could be accommodated around it,” she says.

An anthill under the tree, a beehive in it and singing birds added to the temper of the ceremony held on November 19. The wedding and every little thing associated was in tandem with the couple’s need to maintain the ceremony small and significant, whereas adhering to the COVID-19 restrictions.

“It [tree] has been there for more than 10 years… our terrace overlooks it. I never went there much, but when we stood under it, after the idea struck us, it felt right,” Varun says. He constructed the mandap in two days with assist from Namrata and her father. A finalist (in two classes) on the World Architecture Festival (2019), Varun, in his structure apply, creates sustainable development works. Although a skilled architect, he prefers to name himself a ‘mason’ or ‘mud builder’.

Varun getting the mandap prepared, with Namrata and her father  

When he began work on the mandap he was struck by the “sheer amount of activity” under the tree — prancing squirrels, sleeping canines, a buzzing beehive and ants. Ants had been a concern, “I was bitten when I was working on the ground, I wondered if we would have to get rid of them. But we decided against it and on the wedding day we had no problems,” he provides. The mandap was barely raised from floor stage.

A significant wedding

As he was engaged on the area, the in any other case missed tree reworked into a ‘place’, as extra individuals took refuge under its shade. “We are blessed to have been able to transform it into a place of meaning, an object of memory. It is very special to me, this symbolises who we are, the things we do and what we want to do,” Varun says.

The tree earlier than the wedding  

‘Building’ materials was “simple materials available in surplus,” he says. The seating was organized with eight benches across the tree. Food was served on fold-able tables. “We built what we were capable of in the time and with resources available,” Varun provides. Plan B, in case of rain, was inside his home.

Namrata calls the tree ‘an accidental discovery’. She noticed it when Varun’s mom was displaying her some crops. “Usually honge trees have drooping branches, because of which you can’t stand under one. This one didn’t have those. It got me thinking ‘why not have it here?’” she says. The thought resonated with Varun, “It was something very natural that fit into the life we believe in, not diluted by the fast-paced life we are forced to live.”

Although the choice was fast, planning and conception took a week’s time with inputs from the photographer. “I did illustrations, sketching and envisioned what it would be like. The photographer was involved so that we could reduce artificial lights for photos,” she says. Namrata is an architect and impartial researcher.

Their households got here round after some convincing. “It was very beautiful how our families have accepted our strange choices,” Varun says, including “There was no better place to take our vows!”