Saneesh Sukumaran describes a chic intercultural wedding for us in our real weddings feature..read on you are sure to be entertained:
Bride: Meghana Das Thakur (of Kannadiga and Bengali heritage)
Groom: Andrew Harris
Ceremony/wedding theme: Traditional Hindu Vedic
Venue: Taj West End Bangalore
Date: March 29th 2013
Here is Saneesh’s take on the ceremony:
“I am sure the bride and the groom had the most amount of fun at this wedding. It all kickstarted with Andrew choosing to come in a decorated auto rickshaw as “baarat”. This was a huge hit and needless to say everyone was highly surprised and entertained. Andrew’s baarat received a warm welcome.
We also had an amazing photoshoot at The TajWestend. The Mehendi pre wedding functions were held at Malleshwaram, Bangalore.”
Meghna : I have loved the sciences ever since my first biology class. I completed my Bachelors in Biology at Hollins University (a teeny tiny liberal arts school in Roanoke, Virginia) and then went on to Washington University in St Louis for my doctorate which is where I met Andrew. After getting my degree in Molecular Genetics I moved to California to be closer to mom and dad. My parents moved to California (from Delhi) to be closer to their one and only daughter 🙂 and so it only made sense for me to move westward to be closer to them. Andrew moved to California shortly after I did, which gave my parents the opportunity to get to know him. Now I am finishing up my postdoctoral work at Novartis where I continue doing cancer research.
Other than being a science geek I also love dancing (kathak and ballroom) and enjoy bike rides (on my new road bike.. yeeeah) and strenuous hikes in Tilden Park. Andrew has been patiently teaching me how to ski so we’ll see what happens there! Hopefully there will be a lot of travelling for Andrew and me and we are off to a good start with having a wedding in India and then in Idaho!
Andrew: I am the second youngest of 4 children in my family. I have resided in the Pacific North West for the bulk of my life, so the great outdoors has always been readily accessible and has played a major role in my life. This is probably why I enjoy hiking, running and biking on trails, skiing, camping and pretty much anything that has to do with being outside.
While studying at the College of Idaho, I found my calling in the areas of physics and math. Then, after my undergraduate degree, I went into the Peace Corps, where I served as a science teacher in West Africa for 2 years. It was during my time in West Africa that I realized I wanted to dedicate my life to helping society produce energy in a sustainable way. Once my term as a Peace Corps Volunteer ended, I prepared for graduate school in the field of Mechanical Engineering. Ultimately I settled on attending school in St. Louis where began working on my thesis in the field of energy efficiency in buildings. It was here that I was swept off my feet by the raincloud, otherwise known as Meghna.
Next thing I know I’m living in California and learning Hindi.
How they met:
The really short version of how Andrew and Meg met would be one word… Esa. Esa is a very close friend of Meg’s from grad school. She met Esa 6 years ago and they have been close ever since. If Meghana had been in India, an aunt or her grandmom would have looked for a potential husband for her and arranged a meeting with him. Lucky for Meg’s family, they had Esa who took it upon himself to find her a groom. (Not that she was asking for help!)…. Esa met Andrew and decided immediately that Andrew HAD to meet Meg. He was completely convinced that Andrew and Meghana were a match made in heaven. Says Meghana: ” It must have been written in the stars since coming from different continents we still had a so much in common that the first time we met, we spoke for 4 hours! And as Andrew likes to say “it’s been magic ever since!”
All images courtesy Saneesh Sukumaran Photography