- Swati Chavda was in a car accident in 2009 that left her paralyzed from the waist down.
- Chavda worked to learn to walk with crutches over the past decade.
- At her wedding to Joshan Thaker in February, Chavda used crutches that matched her wedding ensemble to create a cohesive look.
- “It felt empowering to use something I once despised and was ashamed of in such a powerful way on the wedding day,” Chavda told Insider.
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Swati Chavda has been paralyzed from the waist down since 2009.
Chavda, 33, who is from London, was traveling in Australia during her gap year.
“I joined up with other groups of backpackers and was having the time of my life,” Chavda told Insider. “Things just couldn’t get any better. Then everything changed on the morning of April 18, 2009.”
“The driver lost control of the car on the beach only a few minutes into the journey, and the vehicle rolled over for some 150 to 200 meters,” Chavda said. “Two people passed away at the scene. I would like to say I was one of the luckier ones, but I suffered a debilitating spinal cord injury, which paralyzed me from the waist down.”
Chavda spent years recovering from the accident.
Chavda spent two months in a hospital in a Brisbane, and then four months in a specialized spinal hospital called Stoke Mandeville in the UK.
"I spent two years in a wheelchair before learning to walk again on crutches. Life as I knew it would never be the same again," she said.
In 2017, Chavda met Joshan Thaker through an Indian dating website.
Chavda said her relationship with Thaker started off slow, but after three weeks of messaging through WhatsApp, the two decided to meet in person.
"Our first date was at a lovely pub in Beaconsfield, a town not too far from his family home," Chavda said. "We ended up talking and staying there for around four hours. It was the perfect date in many ways. I felt as though I was speaking to someone I had known for years."
The couple got engaged in February 2019 while in Goa, India, for a wedding.
"Joshan told me we'd do a nice dinner for Valentine's Day," Chavda said. "I had no idea where we were going, but I followed his request to wear something nice, and glam myself up a bit."
Thaker had a romantic candlelit dinner set up on the beach, where he got down on one knee to propose to Chavda.
"It was the happiest moment of both of our lives," Chavda told Insider. "Exactly one year later, we got married in the very same spot."
Chavda knew crutches would be part of her wedding day look.
"Unfortunately, due to my injury, I couldn't go for the Jimmy Choo shoes I always wanted to wear," Chavda said. "So, a few months before the wedding, I got the idea of making the crutches my main accessory."
Chavda found pink crutches to coordinate with her wedding ensemble.
"It was the best decision I made," she said of the look. "So many people noticed what I had done and thought it was a pretty cool idea. I definitely think the crutches completed my entire outfit."
Chavda said the statement crutches were "empowering."
"It felt empowering to use something I once despised and was ashamed of in such a powerful way on the wedding day," Chavda said.
"I was standing tall and proud of it," she added.
Chavda and Thaker's wedding was emotional.
Chavda said having her brothers walk her into the mandap for the Hindu wedding ceremony was one of her favorite moments from the celebrations.
"That was a particularly powerful but also emotional moment for me," she said.
A sheet was held up to keep the couple from seeing each other as Chavda entered the mandap.
"Once it came down and I saw Joshan for the first time, my joy knew no bounds," she told Insider.
"Another highlight was seeing the pride in my parents' faces as they gave away their only daughter to a guy who they thought was perfect for her and absolutely adored," Chavda said.
"They had written a letter to me, which the priest read out to the whole audience," she added. "Everyone was speechless and very emotional."
"One of my goals before the wedding was to be able to do our first dance together without crutches," Chavda also told Insider.
Thaker held onto Chavda tightly during their first dance, allowing her to enjoy the moment without her crutches.
"Although I was holding onto Joshan quite tightly, I felt as though I was floating on clouds," Chavda said.
"It was an exceptionally liberating feeling, and I almost forgot I needed to use crutches in the first place," she added.
Chavda thinks the openness she and Thaker share in their relationship is what makes it so strong.
"Joshan and I believe in openness and honesty in everything we do," she told Insider. "There is nothing that is off-limits in terms of our communication, and that is why our bond is so strong and continues to grow."
She thinks telling him about her accident early on in their relationship helped their bond grow.
"I needed him to know everything about my injury and the difficulties I faced on a day-to-day basis," Chavda explained. "Lucky for me, he took everything so well and has shown nothing but unconditional love ever since."
"Rather than focus on the problems, he uses his incredible sense of humor and makes me laugh until my stomach churns," she said of her husband.
"That's one of the things I love about him most," she said.
"After my life-changing accident in 2009, I had lost all the hope in the world of achieving anything remotely worth talking about," Chavda told Insider.
"I had gone from having the world at my feet to suddenly having to rebuild from the ground up, starting with learning how to walk again," she said. "I was basically living the life of a 1-year-old baby at the age of 22."
"But once I learned the power of positivity and using a progressive mindset no matter what situation I was in, I became unstoppable," she said.
"You should follow your dreams and never give up, irrespective of the challenges you may face," she added. "You have no idea what you might find at the end of the road if you just keep going."
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