In a country like India, where a big fat wedding is not just a celebration of two families getting together but also a status symbol, some couples have been truly making a mark by shifting from the conventional style of wedding.

While a Delhi based couple broke all boundaries of compulsion of having a lavish wedding by initiating #sevaseshadi, this couple from Bhubaneswar in Odisha chose to emphasise on highlighting the plight of Indian handloom weavers.

We are both Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers, currently posted in New Delhi. We got married last year. We chose to emphasise Indian handlooms and weavers by selecting this as the theme of our wedding. We both hail from Bhubaneswar, and we both wanted to project to the world what an authentic Odia wedding is all about.

To that end, we started our social media campaign, #OurOdiaWedding to create a build for our wedding while educating our guests about a typical Odia wedding. We chose Odisha handlooms as an Indian wedding is a lot about what one wears. So, if we chose to highlight handlooms, then that would make people think, talk and buy a lot of Indian handlooms.

Hence, Odisha weaves and handlooms were the central figures of our endeavour. We later spread it out to include Indian handlooms from all corners of India, given our cosmopolitan guest list.

In a day and age, where running to the nearest Manyavar store or a boutique is the norm for most, we collected our fabric, sarees and other accessories from local craftsmen. We worked with local designers and created a custom made and signature wedding wear experience. To have a holistic experience for our guests, we chose to highlight local wedding traditions, paintings, and above all, cuisine, through our wedding.

We want to share this with the world, because the more we spread the word of our work, the more we highlight what we set out to achieve. That is, the need to encourage our Indian weavers and handlooms. Our textiles bear the DNA of our national heritage and tradition.