This is a momentous year for Nina Wadia – not only has it been 25 years since she married her husband Raiomond Mirza, but it’s also 25 years since the start of Goodness Gracious Me, the BBC sketch show that kick-started her career.
Nina Wadia renews wedding vows:
With so much to celebrate, the couple decided to seal their love once more – this time, joined by their two children, daughter Tia, 19, and 16-year-old son Aidan. “It has been a really big year for us in a lot of ways, so we thought: ‘Let’s do something special,'” Nina, 54, tells HELLO! as she exclusively shares photos and memories of the memorable day, which took place on Croatia’s idyllic island of Losinj.
“The day was about celebrating our kids,” says the star. “When she was younger, Tia said the funniest thing which prompted all of this. When she was looking at our wedding photos, she said to me: ‘Mum, how come I didn’t get to come to the wedding day? I wanted to be there!'”
She was very excited when we decided to renew our vows – my son, not so much,” adds the actress, who is best known for playing Zainab Masood on EastEnders. “He’s a 16-year-old boy so he’s not got a romantic bone in his body! But he came around when we told him where we were going. We had a huge wedding first time around. This time, we wanted just the four of us.”
After tying the knot in Raiomond’s native Canada, this time the couple chose the “breathtakingly beautiful” Hotel Bellevue for their celebration.
Nina’s bridal dress details:
The family spent the morning getting ready – Aidan with his father and Tia with her mother, who wore an embellished Karen Millen dress with kimono-style sleeves, accessorised with earrings from Pinar Ozevlat. “For my wedding, I wore a simple white and gold sari, so I wanted to do things differently this time and incorporate more of my British side than my Indian side – it felt right,” says Nina.
Once at the tiny chapel in the hotel grounds, the bride walked up the aisle hand in hand with Tia, who was elegant in a blush pink slip dress from River Island. “It was an emotional moment,” says the proud mum. “She was taking care of me the whole day. Every few minutes, she would say: ‘You okay, Mum? You look really pretty, Mum.'” Raiomond was blown away watching his wife walk towards him for the second time. “I thought to myself: ‘If I were laying eyes on Nina for the first time ever, my first thought would still be: ‘I’m gonna marry you,'” says the producer and composer, who married Nina in 1998, a few months after they were introduced by Nina’s sister.
After the ceremony, celebrations continued into the night, when, after watching the sun set over the Adriatic Sea, the family indulged in a Michelin-starred dinner, paired with local Croatian wines, at the Restaurant Alfred Keller in the neighbouring Boutique Hotel Alhambra. “Raiomond and I talked and drank wine into the night – it was just lovely,” says Nina.
A stay at the five-star Hotel Bellevue, part of the Lo?inj Hotelsand Villas portfolio, starts from EUR275 per night. For further information, visit www.losinj-hotels.com
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