A WEDDING WITH SOLE
Fight for footwear part of the fun on couple’s big day
Passersby taking in the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald grounds on May 5 might have been surprised by the scene: a 41-person wedding party apparently engaged in a massive brawl.
“I got tackled by seven or eight bridesmaids,” says the groom, Kyle Pimm.
“It was a doggie pile at the Fairmont with 40 people on top of each other,” adds the bride, Neetu Pimm. “My bridesmaids were choke-holding groomsmen. And at the end of it, half the groomsmen lost their shoes. Kyle had no shoes for most of the day and the rest of the groomsmen went home with one shoe on.”
Not to worry — this was not a nightmare wedding scenario. The bride and groom explain it’s an Indian wedding tradition for bridesmaids to attempt to steal the groom’s shoes — after which he must buy them back.
“The girls and I planned, and we got the photographers in on it,” Neetu says. “We pretended we were going to do a group shot where they lift Kyle up. As soon as they lifted him up to take the photo, the girls ran in to steal his shoes, and the boys immediately realized what they were trying to do.”
Kyle and Neetu went to high school together. But they didn’t properly connect until many years later.
“We were around each other for 13 years but we just never, ever connected,” Neetu says.
That is, until a Jack and Jill party on a houseboat in 2015. At that point, they had mutual friends and had seen each other from time to time, but hadn’t really hung out.
“Then all of a sudden we’re on this houseboat and I just remember standing on the main floor of the houseboat thinking, ‘I’m so content with my life. I don’t need to be with anybody.’ And little did I know that the man I’m going to marry is two floors above me. We had a really nice chat with each other and I don’t know where it came from but I told my girlfriends, ‘You know what, guys? I would totally marry that guy.’”
The couple dated long-distance (she was living in Vancouver) for a year and a half before Neetu moved back to Edmonton in December, 2016. And just a couple of days before New Year’s that same year, Kyle proposed.
Neetu didn’t want a diamond, and luckily, Kyle’s dad is a gemologist. Father and son worked side by side for 20 hours to cut the 11.5-karat citrine.
The couple planned their wedding 18 months in advance — and they needed all of that time to get their many outfits (and their wedding party’s outfits) in order.
In August 2017, the couple went to India. Kyle met Neetu’s grandmother, and they shopped for all of the clothing they’d need. They did a lot of shopping in Punjab and
in Delhi. A lot.
They bought clothing for Kyle’s entire side of the family (15 outfits). They bought for the bride (five outfits). They bought for the groom (four outfits). They bought for the bridal party (40 outfits).
To get them back to Canada, Kyle and Neetu had three suitcases each, while Neetu’s mom, dad and aunt also had three suitcases each. And her cousin had four. That’s 64 outfits in 19 suitcases. Why such a large party? Kyle had 10 groomsmen he’d been friends with for 15-20 years. Neetu had one brother and eight male cousins who, per tradition, gave her away to the groom. And Neetu had 20 close friends (19 women and one man) who she wanted by her side. A lot of outfits, sure, but also a lot of fun. The week of celebrations included the Haldi ceremony, where turmeric paste is applied to the bride and groom’s bodies (“It’s supposed to make our skin glow for the wedding and rid us of all evil,” says Neetu); the “ladies party” (a 200-person fete that includes women and men); the wedding day; and the reception party Neetu the day after. (The bride and groom had coordinated ensembles for each.)
If both Neetu and Kyle were Indian, they would have done many of the week’s events separately. But because Kyle and his family are not, the couple opted to celebrate as one.
Says Neetu: “We thought, ‘If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do everything together.’ So it was amazing having Kyle’s family with my family every day.”
The reception was held at the Meridian Banquets & Conference Centre and the couple couldn’t have been happier with the decor.
“I had a huge vision for our reception — I wanted it to be an enchanted garden theme,” Neetu says. “And that’s exactly what it was. We had the ladies party there and then three days later we had our reception there. Nobody knew that it was the same venue.”
One week, hundreds of guests, and the largest wedding party even the bride and groom had ever seen. They wouldn’t have had it any other way.
“Prior to getting engaged, Neetu’s parents asked me if I would participate in an Indian wedding — and at the time I didn’t know what I was agreeing to,” Kyle says.
“But we learned as we went. And it turned into this crazy seven-day wedding that I absolutely loved.”