Wild Hearts — Meera & Sahil's Jim Corbett Jungle Wedding
Who gets married in a jungle? Meera and Sahil do. Their Jim Corbett wedding mixed wildlife safaris, forest ceremonies, and a bonfire sangeet — and their guests declared it the most unique wedding they had ever attended.
The invitation read: "There is a strict dress code. No stilettos. No synthetic fabrics. Earth tones only." Most guests assumed it was an affectation. They arrived at the jungle resort and understood immediately that it was not. Jim Corbett as a Wedding Destination Jim Corbett is one of India's most distinctive settings for a destination wedding. The national park's forest resorts offer seclusion, extraordinary natural beauty, and an experience that no urban venue can replicate. For nature-loving couples who want their wedding to be an adventure as well as a celebration, there is nowhere quite like it. Meera is a wildlife biologist. Sahil runs a sustainable travel company. The venue — a forest resort with twelve cottages arranged around a central clearing — was a place they had visited together on their second anniversary. Booking it for their wedding felt, they say, inevitable. Three Days in the Forest Day one: morning wildlife safari for all 80 guests, followed by an afternoon of games on the lawn. Their catering team served a picnic lunch on the forest road — handmade rotis, jungle lentils, and a cold mango dessert — in the shadow of sal trees that were 80 years old. Day two: the Sangeet. The clearing was lit with kerosene lanterns (no electric light — the resort's own rule) and a local folk group from Kumaon played through the evening. Guests sat on dhurrie rugs around the central fire, cocktails in hand, watching the forest edge where deer occasionally appeared at the treeline. Day three: the wedding ceremony at dawn. The mandap was built entirely from materials found on the property — bamboo poles, dried wildflowers, stones from the riverbed — and dismantled afterward to leave no trace. The ceremony ended exactly as the sun cleared the canopy, flooding the clearing with warm light. The photographer's first processed image — Meera and Sahil standing in that shaft of morning sun, the forest behind them — made three photographers she knows question their own caree