A Decade to Forever
Danika & Jas
Wedding Date: June 21, 2024
Location: Delta, BC
Guest Number: 350
Bride: Danika Gill
Groom: Jas Chauhan
They met young, on a soccer field, with no plan for anything beyond the game.
The girls’ varsity team had just finished practice and was heading over to watch the boys play a preseason match against UBC. Danika wasn’t thinking about dating. She wasn’t looking for anyone. She was just walking toward the field, until she saw him.
On the defensive line, with an enormous amount of unkempt hair, was Jas.
Her first thought: Who the hell is this guy and why is his hair so big?
It didn’t take long for that to shift to: He’s actually pretty good looking. And pretty good at soccer.
She turned to her friends and said it without thinking: “And that’s the guy I’m going to end up marrying.”
They hadn’t spoken. She didn’t know his name. But the words left her mouth before she could stop them.
Jas noticed her too.
“Who’s this pretty brown girl with red hair?” he remembers thinking.
The rest unfolded slowly and then all at once. Flirting before games, hours in study hall, long afternoons in the “fish bowl”, and hanging out on road trip drives to their games. They were in constant communication, orbiting closer with every passing week. By the time it turned into a relationship, it already felt inevitable.
They dated for ten years, always at their own pace. No rush. No pressure. “We took our time dating and attaining our personal and occupational goals before we decided that we were ready for marriage. And we did not conform to the opinions of others on how our relationship timeline should be or when we should be getting married,” Danika says. “We simply marched to the beat of our own drum and what we thought was best for us.”
Family came into the picture gradually, the way everything else had. Jas met Danika’s cousins and sister early, but her parents waited. “They were super protective and didn’t want me to rush into anything,” she says. “They knew who he was, but the formal meeting didn’t happen until I was confident in marriage.”
A decade in, what they love most is how naturally they meet in the middle. Where one is structured, the other is light. Where one is steady, the other softens the edges. Together, they make sense.
For Jas, it’s Danika’s softness. “Her kind soul,” he says. “Her ability to put a smile on my face despite the difficulties.”
For Danika, it’s the balance Jas brings. “His ability to be childish and light-hearted even in difficult situations,” she says. “He doesn’t take life too seriously, which is a great balance for someone who’s very Type A and likes to be in routine.”
When Jas decided it was time to propose, he went back to a dream Danika had shared with him years ago, one she never thought he’d remember.
They were in Italy, drifting between cities on a long-awaited trip, when they arrived on the Amalfi Coast. On their second day there, Jas told Danika they were heading out for a photoshoot before boarding a private boat. But Jas was nervous. The water had turned choppy and the boat rocked harder than expected, yet he stayed focused. At sunset, surrounded by a bouquet of deep red roses, he dropped to one knee.
This was a memory years in the making. Early in their relationship, Danika had mentioned, almost in passing, that this was her dream proposal. “I was astonished that he had remembered this years later,” she says. “Overall, it was a dream come true and I would not have wanted it any other way.”
They decided to keep it private. No engagement party. No rush to post. Just the two of them. “It was the best decision,” she says.
After the proposal, everything shifted from someday to soon.
Danika started wedding planning early. “I had booked my hair and makeup in 2022,” she says. “Shortly after, I started securing the rest of the vendors.” From that point on, they spent about a year and a half planning.
It wasn’t always easy. There were opinions, so many opinions, and a delicate balance to strike between respecting family expectations and protecting their own vision. “We had to try to accommodate our parents’ requests,” Danika says, “but we didn’t want to stray from what we wanted as a couple.”
So they drew lines early. They knew which things they were willing to compromise on, and which ones they weren’t.
Time was another challenge. With both of them working full time, planning often meant late nights and long weekends. But they refused to let the process overwhelm them. Instead, they focused on the parts that felt meaningful and let go of anything that didn’t.
For Danika, the best part of the entire process was curating the looks, not just for herself, but for Jas and their families too. “I meticulously planned every detail of my wedding and every outfit,” she says. “It was the part I enjoyed most.”
And maybe that’s what makes Jas’s answer so telling. When asked about his favourite moments from the wedding week, he doesn’t talk about a single event or speech or party. He talks about her. “Seeing her in different outfits every day,” he says, each one a reminder of how lucky he felt to be marrying her.
One of their favourite decisions was hosting a joint sangeet and jaggo. “We have mutual friends, so it made everything easier having everyone at one event,” Danika says. “We loved that we were able to enjoy our wedding together rather than separately. It made the most sense to us, it was our wedding.” And through it all, Danika never tried to be anything other than herself. “I was unapologetically me,” she says. “I ate, danced, drank and just did everything I normally do. I did what was true to my heart and thoroughly loved it.”
Looking back, their biggest piece of advice is simple: protect your peace and protect your joy. “Hire a wedding planner,” Danika says. “Our lives were so much easier once we made that decision. We didn’t feel like we had to rely on family or friends to execute tasks, and we never felt guilty about pulling them away from enjoying the events.”
More than anything, they want couples to stay rooted in what feels true to them. “Everyone will have their opinions,” she says, “but at the end of the day, this is your moment and your time. You only get one chance to live it out, so don’t look back with regrets. Do what your heart pleases and don’t think about others.”
And when the day finally comes, slow down. Be present. “It all goes by so fast,” Danika says. “You’ll wish you could go back and relive it.”
To Danika and Jas - proof that a decade of growing, learning, and loving can make marriage feel less like a beginning and more like coming home. Because for them, it was never about starting something new. It was about naming what had quietly been forever all along.
GALLERY
VENDORS
Photographer: Varsola Visuals
Videographer: Made in Heaven Weddings
HMUA: Aquarius Art
Mehndi Artist: Munira’s Mehndi
Attire: Seema Gujral Design + Sunny’s Bridal + Mahima Mahajan
Jewelry: RnR Jewellers
Event Planner: Always & Forever
Anand Karaj Venue: Bancy Farms
Jaggo Venue: Reflections Banquet Hall
Reception Venue: Grand Taj
Pre Wedding Event Decor: Moonlight Decor
Wedding Decor: Blushing Bees Decor
Reception Decor: Bella Events Decor
Florals: Botany and Bloom
Anand Karaj Venue: Bancy Farms
Reception Venue: Reflections Banquet Hall
DJ: Decibel Entertainment
Piano: Naman on Keys
Dance Coordinator: Dance with Chandni
Reception Screens: Innovative Rentals
Wedding Day Sounds: DJ Andy
Floor Wraps and Signage: West End + Concept
Limo: Crown Limoz
Catering: Dhaliwal Catering
Tents: Trident Tents + Vancouver Event Rentals
Coffee Cart: Timbertrain
Donuts: Little Ooties
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words by
tasveer