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For Indian software engineers V. Chinnadurai and S. Swetha, love obviously means something deeper than getting married in a traditional way.
The couple literally took the plunge to celebrate their love and spread awareness about ocean pollution on Monday, when they dived 18m off the coast of Neelankarai, near Chennai, to get married in a unique Hindu wedding ceremony.
The pair had oxygen tanks strapped to their backs and wore the traditional wedding finery - with the bride in a red sari and the groom in a veshti - despite the fact that they had practised diving only in wetsuits before.
"It was a traditional marriage ceremony, only it was underwater," Mr Chinnadurai told The Times of India. "We dived in at an auspicious time in the morning and exchanged garlands and tied the thaali before 7.30am according to the instructions from our priest.
"It took 45 minutes to complete the underwater rituals.
"Flowers were showered on us and then we did a few rounds underwater."
While Mr Chinnadurai has been scuba diving for 12 years, Ms Swetha took lessons in the month leading up to the wedding.
She said it was the groom's family who suggested an underwater wedding.
"After due training in a swimming pool and a few scuba diving sessions, I was confident enough and took the plunge (on Monday)," she told The Hindu.
"I saw fish swimming by. It was an experience of a lifetime."
Indo-Asian News Service
