'We hosted 50 people and a priest the day we moved in to our new house in Milton Keynes!'

First-time buyers Nikit and Sweta Patel had saved for a home a Bellway’s Greenleys Gardens development in Milton Keynes and decided they wanted a traditional house blessing ceremony on moving day.

This means a priest attends to purify the space, remove negative energies and invite positive energies, prosperity and good fortune."

Family members were invited to the ceremony – and 50 of them attemded,

“The priest led the prayers, followed by everyone joining in to sing them – it was a wonderful and joyful experience,” said Nikit, 31, a financial controller

“It was a lovely sunny day, so we had everyone outside in the garden sitting, eating, chatting with the children running about. It was an auspicious day and we knew we were going to be very happy in our new home.”

The couple had been renting a four-bedroom house in another part of Miton Keynes after getting married in June 2024.

“We had a big fat Indian wedding which lasted for about five days and used up most of our savings,” said Nikit. “We rented a house in Milton Keynes because Sweta, who is an A&E doctor, works at the city hospital and I work remotely so it made sense for us.”

“The plan was to give us time to save up a bit of money for a deposit for our own house and to get to see if Milton Keynes was a place where we wanted to settle. After about 6 months we decided we liked the city and started to look seriously for a house to buy.”

“We must have looked at about 15 different new-build houses but none of them were right for us. Then Sweta saw online that Bellway were to build a new development at Greenleys Gardens so we went along to the site.”

Nikit and Sweta are delighted with their new home and are now settling in after their busy moving day.

“Everyone who came loved the house as much as we do and we feel really blessed to be able to be living here in this wonderful house” said Sweta.