Meghna & Amit // The Lowlands

Sep 14

Meghna and Amit first met on the dating app Coffee Meets Bagel, Amit having initiated the conversation with the most Minnesotan ice breaker: “mittens or gloves?” The conversation flowed, with the soon-to-be couple learning that not only did they previously attend the same college, they also lived right down the street from each other! A first date was quickly arranged at Eat Street Social in Minneapolis, and they ended their night playing games at the Up-Down arcade bar. Amit was infatuated with Meghna right away and even wanted to go for a kiss at the end of the date, but Meghna ran away! The dates continued, many consisting of impromptu walks with long discussions around Lake of the Isles. They decided to make their relationship official one day after they had gone out with friends and then stayed up all night talking with each other–they were completely inseparable!

When making decisions for their weekend of wedding celebrations, Meghna and Amit knew it was important to them that the celebrations embraced tradition, but also incorporated more modern takes that represented them as a couple. The ceremony and pre-celebrations took the more traditional route, while the wedding venue and reception reflected Western celebrations. For the colorful Sangeet the night before their wedding, the bridesmaids and groomsmen were free to wear their favorite colors. The Sangeet decor was differentiated from the wedding day by incorporating boldly colored sarees as the backdrop to the sangeet performances, and vibrant florals were placed upon bright and highly contrasting linens. Henna artists were available for mehndi. Friends and family performed heartfelt dances and songs to entertain the couple and guests, and then everyone joined in the fun and danced for hours.

For the actual wedding day, the couple wanted to go more traditional. The couple began the celebration with a Baraat, another traditional ceremony to embrace Amit’s Punjabi culture. In this tradition, the groom arrives to the ceremony on a horse with his family and friends leading the way in dance. This is a callback to long ago when a groom would travel for days to the bride’s home by horseback. Amit’s sister fed the horse lentils, for good luck, and the rest of his family added threaded embellishments to the horse to match Amit. Meghna decided on a look that was a beautiful fusion of both her and Amit’s cultures. In Punjabi culture, where Amit’s family is from, brides typically wear a red/pink lehenga. Meghna chose to go with a deeper red lehenga with intricate gold embroidery. Because sarees are a wedding staple in Maharashtrian tradition, which is Meghna’s culture, she draped her lehenga like a saree. During the ceremony, Amit wore a groom’s sherwani in a beige color that complimented Meghna’s red lehenga. He also wore a safa, a traditional headpiece that completed the overall look. Prior to dinner, Meghna changed into a lovely purple lehenga and Amit into a dashing tuxedo.

To add a modern touch to their traditional day, guests were treated to tiered wedding cake, donuts, a photo booth, and top 40 hits as they partied the night away. Their two-day event was filled with symbolism, tradition, and color, but also Western touches to make their wedding their own.

View Meghna and Amit’s full gallery HERE