Happily Ever After

From walking down the runway to helping couples walk down the aisle, Mehr Jesia has done it all. She chats with Charlene Flanagan about her exciting new venture in wedding planning

- Charlene Flanagan

The year was 1986. Mehr Jesia, the newly-crowned Femina Miss India, was staying with her friend Demet at a quaint guest house in a little fishing village in Turkey. The two were out on their room’s verandah having a conversation, when they became unintentional spectators to a beautiful wedding ceremony. “There were 10 guests—the parents of the bride and groom, a child from the bride’s previous marriage, two of the couple’s dogs, and three friends,” says Jesia. “The bride and groom sang their vows to each other, accompanied by a screechy fiddler. There was no photographer, no selfies taken, and no obligatory social media hashtags. It was intimate, and unforgettable.” There’s an undeniable gleam in her eye when she recalls that particular exchange of vows.

Over the years, Jesia got busy with work commitments and family, and that wedding became a faint memory, but it always brought a smile to her lips. So when she finally had a chance, she decided to convert that memory into a proposition for many more. “A wedding is one of the most important milestones in our lives. We picture our wedding as an extension of ourselves, an expression of our essence,” she says, explaining her recent foray into wedding planning. She elaborates that it’s an honour when a couple trusts her enough to help them turn their vision into reality, and with each wedding, she wants to ensure she captures who a couple really is.