Anniversary Wedding Shoot: Smriti + Jason

How absolutely impossible is this story? Boy meets girl in one country and makes her brief acquaintance. Boy leaves that country, while girl remains. Three years later, boy and girl happen to find each other again in a totally different country on a totally different continent working in the same place!!! What an unlikely story – yet, it is all true. This is the story of how Smriti met Jason, and the story of how they fell in love and decided to get married.

Smriti and Jason got married in Nassau, Bahamas in December 2010 amid pouring rain. Alas, the rain disrupted the perfect pictures they had planned for their outdoor wedding nuptials. Not to be outdone, they decided to contact photographer, Rabiah of Rabiah Khwaja Gohar Photography to create a romantic, fall post-wedding shoot in Roanoke, Virginia.

The Bride: Smriti Sharma
The Groom: Jason Payne
Their Occupations: Both are physicians.
Styled Shoot Date: 10.22.2011
Location of Shoot: Mill Mountain Park, Roanoke, Virginia

The Meeting …. “Jason and I met in Nassau Bahamas where he started his medical internship in 2004 and I was practicing as an ER physician. We spoke only on a few occasions and then he left to pursue further studies and I continued my practice. Two years later I moved to Roanoke Virginia to complete my training and a year later, Jason shows up. It was such a coincidence that we would meet each other again so far from home. Most of our colleagues were already married so Jason and I would hang out quite a bit. We started to look forward to each others company and started to develop a strong friendship. I had to leave Roanoke for a month and it was during that month we realized how much we missed one another. We knew from that time that we never wanted to be apart again and so our friendship then turned into romance. We dated for 2 years before we got engaged in October 2009.”

The Proposal …. ” Jason had planned a romantic lunch at the vineyard of Chateau Morrisette. He also had invited my cousin and her fiancé who drove all the way from New York for the weekend. Little did I know what his plans for that day were. Jason proposed over lunch in front of my family and I honestly can’t remember what he said because I was just so taken aback by the beautiful ring. Needless to say, I said…Yes. For my last surprise, he had booked and hired a photographer who captured our engagement photos on the day of our engagement. We were engaged for a little over a year before we got married in December 2010.”

The Wedding …. “We decided to tie the knot in Nassau, Bahamas since we first met there. Planning our wedding was a challenge since we were both abroad and had to rely on vendors that we were not too familiar with. I did however make a trip a few months before to meet up with everyone to discuss expectations and plans. I love the beach and I knew from the very beginning that I wanted an outdoor beach wedding. We wanted tropical colors and chose shades of corals, oranges and pinks. Everything was planned meticulously with great detail…but even the best laid plans sometimes fall through. It started to rain the morning of the wedding and we had to decide if we were going to move the wedding and everything else indoors or take the chance. I made the decision to leave the ceremony outdoors as I dreamt of a wedding overlooking the beach. The rain held up for a bit but started to pour as I finished walking the aisle. It continued to rain quite heavily on that day so we decided on a post wedding shoot at a later date.”

The Post-Wedding Shoot …. “Since autumn is my favorite season, and Virginia has beautiful scenery during the fall, we set a date in October for our styled shoot. We started off our shoot at the historic building of Hotel Roanoke and then went to Mill Mountain for the beautiful fall foliage. The color of my wedding dress had a golden hue so it blended perfectly with the beautiful colors of that day. The fact that we were familiar with our photographer, didn’t have the pressures of the wedding day and that it was just the two of us made our styled shoot very memorable and a great success. I would advise any bride and groom to take time out either before or after the wedding day and take some photos without all the pressures and people around The photos will speak for themselves.”

{You Make Loving You So Easy}

“It’s difficult to narrow it down to one thing as there are so many. The one and most important quality I love about her is how down-to-earth she is. “

“Jason is very calm…whenever there is a stressful situation, I can rely on him to be the voice of reason and make everything tranquil, peaceful and calm.”

Congratulations, Smriti and Jason! May you always find away to make the best of all of life’s circumstances – together!

VENDORS

Wedding and Post Wedding Photography: Rabiah Khwaja Gohar Photographer.
Bridal Gown: Demetrios Bridal
Groomswear: Banana Republic

View the entire gallery below:

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