When Manisha Seth was 17, her father asked her to accompany him to a family friend’s wedding during her summer break from boarding school in Melbourne. She was not happy about it. “I have three days left of my summer vacation and I don’t want to waste it,” Manisha said with a smile. But there was one small consolation: She was seated next to someone her own age — Christopher “Christ” Toe, the groom’s teenage son.
Manisha said they chatted for several hours that night, “about everything.” But he still didn’t ask for her phone number. At first, Manisha thought she must have misinterpreted the signals. But two days later, as she was about to fly to Melbourne, she got a random message: “He got my number through a friend of a friend of a friend of his,” she said. “I tried to come up with a smart reply, but nervousness got the better of me, so I gave up and called him. We talked until the plane took off, she never had to worry: “It was love at first sight,” Chris said.
Fifteen years later, Chris proposed to Manisha over dinner at her home in Singapore where he worked. He knew it was going to happen. “I suspected he might propose because he was so excited about dinner,” he said. Over the next four hours, Chris served Manisha an elaborate menu, each of the eight courses symbolizing a moment in her life. A song associated with their memories played as they ate and home movies played on a projector in the living room. “At the end of dinner, I played a video I had made using years of photos and videos and proposed on one knee,” Chris said.
The couple always knew they wanted to get married in the Maldives. In 2017, they visited the East African island nation on New Year’s Eve. There, they drunkenly promised on the beach that one day they would get married right here on the sand dunes in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Five years later, in April 2024, they finally did it.
Their wedding weekend, planned by Alison Bryan Destinations, included a welcome dinner on the beach at Patina Maldives on Thursday. On Friday, the couple gathered all their friends and family for a snorkeling trip on the boat, followed by a concert at the Surf Shack. Our friends gathered in secret to learn and perform sophisticated Indian dances over music. “Most of them had never seen a musical in their lives or heard any Indian music performed – it was very touching and I was so surprised!” said Manisha, who wore a blue sari designed by Rahul Mishra, embroidered with birds, constellations and jungle motifs and paired with Sophie Billie Brahe earrings.
The next day they got married at the tip of Petina Island, which is only accessible by boat. “I was a little nervous as I took the boat there, but most importantly, it was the most peaceful experience of my life. When the boat turned towards the island, time just stopped,” Manisha said. Her family, friends and Chris, who was wearing a Richard James Savile Row suit, were all waiting for her under an unexpected rainbow.
The bride wore a custom embroidered chikankari lehenga with ivory pearl details by Tarun Tahiliani. Manisha grew up outside of India and gained a new appreciation for her heritage during a visit to his studio in New Delhi. “Ultimately, the process of finding my wedding dress was a great joy for me. I learned so much about our culture and Indian craftsmanship. The number of artisans and thousands of hours required to create an Indian wedding dress is unparalleled in the world. She completed her look with a pearl and emerald necklace from Mehrasan and round polki (or uncut) emerald earrings.
She attended her ceremony under a canopy of flowers, following the Indian tradition of the phool ki chaadar. Typically, she would be carried by the bride’s brothers — however, Manisha was an only child. So Chris’ siblings stepped up. “I was really excited to see them all dressed up in Indian clothes, embracing my Indian culture, waiting for me to walk down the aisle to my brother. Right before we walked down the aisle, they told me to take a deep breath and said they’ve been waiting for me to be here,” she said.
The bride herself walked down the aisle as Peter Gabriel’s “Book of Love” played. After that, the groom said everything got a little blurry: “I just felt pure happiness. Everything was perfect, I was 100 percent present and enjoying every moment,” he said. “Manisha said the most touching thing about what I love most.” After the kiss, the two danced to Kanye West’s “Gold Digger.” “Does it taste bad — I’m not sure!” Manisha said. “But it was amazing. I could hear Chris laughing out loud behind me.”
Afterwards, the couple held a reception under the palm trees in Farimalina Village. The bride wore an ivory corset by Hermione de Paula, which she found and had custom made a month before her wedding. (“I know, it’s crazy,” Manisha said, praising her bridal stylist Annie Choi and “the best, most creative person.”) She then pulled her hair into a high ponytail half-ponytail. Manisha said, “The ’90s, it was so fun, I loved it!”
The string quartet played during dinner but didn’t stop until friends and family talked. Their live band started and then the dancing began and never stopped. “Despite a mild tropical storm, we had a party that went on until 4 a.m. and we all went to the pool,” Chris said.
Despite being together for over a decade, Manisha and Chris say their marriage is like a fresh start. “It feels like we are opening a new chapter in the book of life and I am so excited,” Manisha said.
