MEET THE WEDDING PLANNER

Devika Narain is the girl who designed the Virushka wedding

India cricket captain Virat Kohli and actor Anushka Sharma’s much talked about wedding ceremony has a Lucknow connection. Devika Narain designed the wedding at Borgo Finocchieto in Buonconvento, a village in Italy’s Siena. Her husband Joseph Radhik is the designated photographer for the wedding. Devika Narain’s father Pradeep, said it was Devika’s wedding planning company — Devika Narain and Company that designed Kohli and Sharma’s wedding. “We’ve been keeping a secret for a couple of months now and all of it has come to life today, in a beautiful Tuscan village, where Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma official got married,” said a Facebook post on Devika’s company’s profile.

It read: “It’s finally all settling in, the cold is seeping back in and at this point I’m an odd mix of relief and immense excitement. We’ve been keeping a secret for a couple of months now and all of it has come to life today, in a beautiful Tuscan village, where Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma official got married. We’re overwhelmed to have been chosen to be a part of such a special day. It means a lot to us to have had their trust, not just in keeping all of this a secret but to create a setting for their big day! Congratulations and thank you! #virushka.”

KEEPING IT A SECRET

Devika’s family said she kept her assignment a secret. They found out about the wedding with the rest of the world on Monday evening, even though she made frequent trips to Italy. “In recent past Devika made frequent trips to Italy. But, she never disclosed it to us. Sometimes she said she was moving to Rome, sometimes to Paris. It was only on Monday evening, when she broke the news to her grandmother confirming that they designed the grand wedding that we came to know about it,” said Pradeep, a local promoter of SPIC MACAY, an organisation that promotes Indian culture, arts and music among the youth. Devika’s entry into the field of wedding planning industry was by chance, her father said. Her first aspiration was to be a journalist. “After completing her schooling from Loreto Convent Intermediate College, Lucknow in 2006, she went to Lady Shri Ram College and did English honours,” he said.

But she changed her mind and joined the country’s most prominent wedding planning company where she worked for three years before setting up her own business around four years back. ‘Devika Narain and Company was born on the dining table of a small rented apartment with simple goal of creating spaces that were personal and uniquely Indian’— reads the intro of Devika’s company on the website. She soon married Radhik, an award-winning photographer. Other than the Virushka wedding, Devika planned other celebrity marriages, including that of Indian cricketers Robin Venu Uthappa and Dinesh Karthik.

OTHER THAN THE VIRUSHKA WEDDING, DEVIKA PLANNED OTHER CELEBRITY MARRIAGES, INCLUDING THAT OF INDIAN CRICKETERS ROBIN VENU UTHAPPA, DINESH KARTHIK AND OTHERS

PHOTO: TWITTER/ANUSHKASHARMA The wedding took place on Monday in Tuscany, Italy