Rupe and Maurie

Dress:White of Dublin
Tux:Generation Tux
Officiant:Thomas Vitlo and Prakash Pandya
Flowers:Flowers on Orchard Lane

Every wedding, and culture, has its own unique traditions.

One of our favorite things about the Big Day section is finding local couples who’ve merged their traditions into one unique ceremony—after all, what else is a wedding, if not a union of two people and their families, forming to become a new one?

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We’ll settle for the photos, but we wish we could have been there to see Rupe’s “baraat,” a wedding procession where it is traditional for the groom to arrive to the wedding on a mare, accompanied by family members. The sight of his wide-smiling, high-fiving arrival to the Athletic Club of Columbus, surrounded by hundreds filling the adjacent downtown alley—all on horseback—is as memorable a wedding moment as you can find. The jubilant crowd was no doubt boosted by the fact that some were on Day Two of the wedding festivities. 

Cognizant of how monopolizing weddings can be on the couple of honor, Maurie and Rupe made sure to extend their weekend by having a casual Friday night visit with those closest to them—and those who had come from
farthest away. 

By the Saturday night, that energy had spilled over onto the dance floor, where everyone—from the babies in attendance to the band on stage—was getting down together.

Any standout stories from that day, or something that you’d do over every time if given the chance? We did not do a traditional first look, but did see each other during Rupe’s baraat. I watched him coming down the alley from one of the windows at the Athletic Club, and we got a glimpse of each other from a distance. I think it really helped calm both of our nerves, and the baraat was the one part of the day I wasn’t participating in, so I’m glad I got to watch
from afar!

Was there anything you did or had that made the big day easier?We had a very clear vision and schedule for the day. Jennifer Drew from StR Events was crucial in pulling it all together. We and everyone else involved with the wedding knew what to expect so we didn’t have any major surprised. Personally, I was deliberate about scheduling the weekend to make sure I got to spend time with my family and friends – almost all of whom live out of town. During planning, I just kept thinking it was crazy that all these people were coming into town especially for me and I would barely have a chance to see them during the wedding and reception itself. We had a welcome reception on Friday night with no agenda other than visiting with all of our family and friends. I did a private spin class the morning of the wedding with my mom, aunts, bridal party and some other girlfriends, and invited my college roommates to come visit the suite while we were getting ready. In addition to giving me a chance to spend some quality time with my closest friends and family, it also kept me too busy to get my nerves worked up before the wedding!

Anything else that made your day stand out?We created a blended ceremony that incorporated our favorite traditions from my Catholic background and Rupe’s Hindu background. My brother-in-law was our officiant, which made it super personal—he was more nervous than Rupe before the ceremony, but did such a great job! We really wanted to create a special atmosphere for our ceremony, and Flowers on Orchard Lane created a truly spectacular indoor garden that was better than I even imagined it would be. We wore the white dress and black tux on our wedding day, and traditional Indian outfits for our rehearsal. Our bridal party and families wore Indian outfits, too, and we had a henna artist at the rehearsal dinner. It was a really fun way to incorporate some Indian traditions in addition to the baraat and ceremony. We had a signature drink—the “Phoebetini”—named after our dog. It was a huge hit!

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