Married at First Sight 2023 has debuted its first-ever Indian bride, Sandy Jawanda, bringing a long-overdue dose of culture to the reality dating show.
In a refreshing change to the white-bread weddings we see year after year, the dental therapist instead chose to celebrate her special day by paying homage to her Indian roots.
We first caught a glimpse of Sandy in a trailer for the show’s tenth season, where she stunned in traditional wedding attire as she wed groom, Dan Hunjas.
“Marriage is extremely important in Indian culture,” she explained in the clip for MAFS 2023.
Married at First Sight 2023’s Sandy Jawanda opted for traditional Indian wedding attire
In stark contrast to the usual white wedding, the Melburnian instead donned traditional Indian wedding attire, called a lehenga.
According to Today’s Bride, unlike Western weddings, Indian brides will avoid wearing white as it symbolises mourning in Indian culture.
Rather, they opt for a sari that reflects their region of origin, with red being popular as it “represents happiness and good luck to the married couple”.
She also wore a traditional nose ring called a ‘nath’ as she walked down the aisle.
In Indian culture, brides wear a nath on the day of their wedding, with the piercing also seen as paying respect to Goddess Parvati.
It seems Sandy’s spirituality is important to her, as Daily Mail reported she was spotted proudly showing off a Khanda symbol back in August.
The Khanda is the symbol of the Sikh faith, similar to how a cross represents Christianity or how the Star of David symbolises Judaism.
A smidge of diversity on an Aussie reality show? We never thought we’d see the day!
What else do we know about Married at First Sight‘s Sandy Jawanda?
Sandy is the oldest of three sisters and has a background in nursing and paramedics.
Having worked in the dental industry since 2011, the MAFS newlywed owns Smiles of Plenty, a clinic that provides veneers, whitening, Invisalign and total smile makeovers. So we’re guessing she won’t need to pay a visit to the infamous Dr Dee?
According to Daily Mail, Sandy is also an animal lover with a passion for reducing our impact on the environment.
Friends have described her as “absolutely gorgeous inside and out”, and let’s hope MAFS editing keeps it that way!
Want even more goss? Listen to the So Dramatic! Daily podcast with Megan Pustetto below!
Know something that we don’t? Spill the tea here!
Get the tea first! Follow So Dramatic! on Instagram and tune in on Mondays to get your reality tea fix with the So Dramatic! podcast with Megan Pustetto.
