Anu and Siddharth

Met in college, fell in love at a fire drill and married in three-days festivities in Dayton, Ohio

Anu, a Biomedical Engineer and Siddharth, an Exercise Physiologist tied the knot in Dayton, Ohio, the city where they first met! Says Anu: “We met 5 years ago in college in Dayton, Ohio. We ran into each other at a fire drill in our apartment building, and then there was no looking back. Two years later, we had to move to different cities for our Masters, so we could meet during holidays only. Long phone calls, Skype and FaceTime helped us survive three long years. On 27th December 2011, he proposed to me at Sea World in Orlando, Florida. Our formal ring ceremony took place in New Delhi in June the following year.”

Anu writes about her wedding experience:

The Wedding-

We had a typical Punjabi wedding. The three-day celebration started with an intimate Mehndi ceremony at Wingate by Wyndham with our close family and friends. Along with the mehndi application, we had a traditional puja and a lot of singing, dholak and dancing after. The ‘Chuda’ ceremony took place the next evening, followed by the Sangeet and Cocktail party at Amar India Banquets, where we had quite a few surprise performances by family and friends. On the third day, our Wedding ceremony was held at the Hindu temple of Dayton, followed by a Lunch reception.

Mehndi and Sangeet-

For the Mehndi the venue was done up in marigolds. The Sangeet was Moroccan theme with colorful lanterns as centerpieces. For the wedding the whole decor was in ivory and red– red roses submerged under water with floating candles as the centerpiece.

Wedding Planning-

Our wedding planning went pretty smoothly thanks to our amazing families and friends! Though, the few challenges we faced when organizing our Indian wedding in United States was finding the right Mehndi and Make-up artists. I was lucky enough to find two Mehndi artists, but with great difficulty. Our Make-up artist also was great, but she didn’t know how to drape the dupatta or the Indian saree correctly, so we had to do that ourselves.

Wedding Shopping-

I wasn’t able to travel to India for my wedding shopping, so my mother and sister were very helpful in that regard and they shopped for everything I needed. I managed to finalize all my wedding outfits by staying in close touch with them through webcam and FaceTime, and thankfully they turned out great!

Mehndi-

A yellow lehenga with a green blouse and a contrasting purple dupatta purchased from Bhabijis Collection (Defence Colony, New Delhi) Sangeet- A baby-pink colored lehenga purchased from Heritage Handloom Emporium (South Extension, New Delhi) Wedding ceremony- A traditional red embroidered lehenga purchased from Ghunghat (Chandni Chowk, Delhi).

Advice for to-be-weds-

My advice for other bride and grooms is to enjoy the whole process of planning. Don’t fret over small things because on the day of the wedding you will be so excited to marry your love that you would pay no attention to details.. The things we remember the most from our wedding is looking at each other from time to time and the fun times we had dancing away!