It’s been a while since we last celebrated something at yCrash, so we’re excited to record a cherished memory: our beloved Kousika’s bridal shower! Though this special day took place a couple of months back, I’m only now finding the time to capture it all here. I’ll do my best to relive the details from memory!
To start with a brief introduction about our bride, Kousika, who we fondly call as ‘Kousi’, is one of the most cheerful people on our team. She’s a polite, charming, and kind girl who joined our team about a year ago. She’s consistently proven herself as one of yCrash’s most valued team members.
The Call That Left Me Speechless
One morning, around June or July, I received a call from Kousi. Me and her, we always talk on the phone on a daily basis, for at least an hour (work-related, of course 😜). So I assumed that it was a regular conversation, and I answered the call. But when she addressed me very seriously, I was kind of shocked and worried. ‘Annya, I want to tell you something’, she said. I was even more nervous now. I asked her what was going on. Then with the same serious tone she said, ‘I’m getting married, Annya’.
The message obviously entered my ears, and passed through the ear drums and was on its way to my brain. But since my brain was busy being nervous, it took a minute to process the information. Lol. Then I realized what had happened and I wished her and asked her about the details. She kept bombarding me with information that put me into shock after shock. Then she said that they’ve finalized that she’d be getting married in September, but the date was yet to be confirmed.
Operation Find-the-Groom
After the call, my brain started planning the bridal shower. The first thing on the list was to get hold of her fiance. I learnt from her that she was marrying her college friend and the bride’s bestie Prithi is already a yCrash member. So my first call was to Prithi to collect some information about the groom, Praveenkumar. But I was not able to gather much information. You know me. I never give up on these. So I figured out other means to find this information. Luckily, the bride’s sister had previously tried to apply for a job in our organization. So I had her contact information. With that I was able to successfully retrieve the contact information of the groom. Success!
Secret Calls and Cake Designs
Once I collected the contact information, I did not call the groom right away. But since I had the bride’s sister, I reeled her in to help me out with the surprise. From her I gathered that Kousi’s favorite cake was Red Velvet. Now, I took the team’s help to pick out a cake design, through the usual voting system and ordered the cake. Then we also ordered a couple of decorative items for the bridal shower and made sure that those were sent to Kousi’s house before the big event.
During this planning there were a lot of sneak and peek every now and then. I had to call Nisha, bride’s sister, a couple of times related to the arrangements and when she was near Kousi, she would not attend the call or sneak out of the room just to take the call. These all added to the excitement of the plan. Finally, once we were all set with the plan, I made that call to the groom.
Will He Make the Big Surprise?
When I introduced myself as ‘Hello Praveen, am Annya.’, he said, ‘I know who you are. But I am on a call right now. Let me call you back.’ I was kind of a little thrown off when he said he knew who I was. Millions of questions in my mind, if he heard about me from Kousi. If yes, were they all good things… lol… As I was wondering, I got a call from the groom again, and he said that Nisha had informed him earlier that I would be calling him regarding the bridal shower. I was relieved and then I told him what we had planned.
It was the regular drill for us, morning status call turned into celebration, but it was new to the groom. He said the he may or may not be able to make it since he had client calls during those hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays (I hope I recall correctly. Apologies, if I am not 😅). So it was a fingers crossed situation with the groom. I had planned for him to attend the status call meeting and surprise Kousi with his presence.
Pulling Off the Ultimate Surprise (Even with a Last-Minute Twist)
Now that every detail was planned, all we had to do was set a date and surprise the bride. Due to the work commitments, and unknown schedule of the bride, we had to make some last minute changes to the date. Finally we decided that August 29th is the day and I sent out an email to the team. As always, there were hindrances. Kousi, the bride, decided to take time off from August 28th, the day before we planned the surprise. But we continued with the plan. We told her that we are planning a surprise for one of our other team members, and she had to be a part of it. Since it was a surprise party for this other member, she agreed to join the celebration. Little did she know that it was her day.
Lights, Camera, Surprise!
Everyone on the call pretended that we were waiting for this other team member to join so that we could begin the celebration, along with Kousika. Believe me, if it were you, you’d have never guessed that it was actually planned for Kousi too. We are that good. Lol. So at 9:15 AM, the groom joined the call, and we all turned on our videos, including Kousi. She was completely caught off guard, when she saw her fiance on our Zoom screen. She told us that she was actually trying to text him that she was on an office call and voila, there he was. The groom said, ‘Hi Kousi’, and, the bride was awestruck, was speechless for a couple of seconds.
Then we all did our part. We yelled ‘Surprise Kousi’ and while everyone was wishing and sharing wisdom with the couple, me and Nisha were coordinating on the phone. Turns out, Nisha added Ashifa to the surprise list. Ashifa is one of Prithi’s and Kousi’s friend too. Turns out Ashifa had planned to visit Kousi on that day and when Nisha told her what we had planned, she lended hand as well. In the other room, Ashifa and Nisha had set up the cake and aligned the greeting card and used the decorative items we sent.
This video has recorded the wishes that the team members shared:
Once the set up was done, we had Kousi go to the other room to cut the cake and we wished her again. Kousi’s mother also participated in the event and she made it more special. By end of that call, the couple invited the team to their wedding and bid adieu. So that was the end of that beautiful bridal shower.
A Heartfelt Thank You Note!
Kousi’s bridal shower wouldn’t have been possible without the collaboration of her family, loved ones, and our incredible team. A huge thank you to Nisha for helping me throughout the planning, and a special thank you to Ashifa—your presence added so much love to the day. A special shout out to Praveenkumar, the groom, for being such a sport and helping us bring the surprise to life. Without your support, we would never have pulled it off.
On that note, we look forward to sharing more moments like this in the future. Stay tuned for more stories, fun surprises, and milestones we’ll be celebrating together.
Thank you again to everyone for making Kousi’s day so memorable. Here’s to many more!
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