This Sikh and Buddhist Wedding Weekend Took Place Amid Pacific Northwest Evergreens
Indrajith Premachandra was introduced to Amrit Sidhu by his younger brother Nuwan. “We casually chatted on the phone for several months, and coincidently, we both moved to New York shortly thereafter,” Amrit says. “Since we were new to the city and away from our families and friends on the West Coast, we spent practically every weekend together.” They each describe the summer of 2015 as pure magic. “It was as if we were in a romantic movie about a couple joyously in love exploring the Big Apple,” Amrit, a doctor, says. “Our hours together cultivated an understanding and deep love which continues to serve as the foundation of our relationship.”
Paris has long been one of Indrajith’s favorite places in the world, and because of this, the City of Light was where he wanted to propose. The engagement took place in September 2019 during an intimate dinner at Pavillon Ledoyen. There, Indrajith presented Amrit with a sapphire engagement ring and asked her to be his wife.
Shortly thereafter, the two set a date and began planning their three-day wedding celebration for Labor Day weekend 2021. “We scouted several locations from Santa Barbara, California to Savannah, Georgia prior to ultimately hosting our wedding at Amrit’s childhood home in Washington state,” Indrajith, who works in risk management, says.
Three years prior, Amrit unexpectedly lost her beloved mother. “I felt that the best way to honor and include her would be to have the ceremony in the home where her feet touched the ground thousands of times,” Amrit explains. “Even though her physical presence was painfully missed, we felt so connected to her on a spiritual and metaphysical level during the events.” Having the wedding in Amrit’s backyard ultimately served as the foundation for the entire weekend since it served as the perfect stage to celebrate the bride’s mother’s memory as the couple took their first steps into a new future together.
But of course, even though the location was home, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the couple’s wedding planning process. Amrit and Indrajith quickly found themselves pivoting on practically everything due to vendor restrictions, staffing shortages, supply-chain issues, and the limited availability of goods and services. “Luckily, we had an amazing support system consisting of family and trusted vendors who helped us with every stage of the process and provided us with numerous solutions to circumvent problems and host a magical weekend with our loved ones,” Amrit says.
South Asian weddings are known to be large affairs, and limiting the guest list was a challenge for both families. “Given the circumstances, attendance at such events can feel especially fraught,” Amrit says. “Therefore, in an effort to keep our guests safe we made the difficult decision to hold smaller gatherings. We also put several other controls in place, including hosting all events outdoors and requiring that guests be fully vaccinated or present a negative COVID-19 test for each day they attended.”
“And, even though we’ve both woven ourselves into the fabric of America, we wanted to utilize this special day to symbolize that our stories began in lands far away,” Amrit says. “Celebrating our cultural and religious heritage therefore took center stage at all our events. We incorporated historical elements in all our outfits and jewelry that we hoped would serve as a portrait into our ancestral past.”
For the Sangeet on Friday, Amrit decided to celebrate modern Indian garments with a custom pistachio lehenga by Mayyur Girhotra, adorned with sequins and embellished with vibrant jewel-toned florals. She completed her outfit by wearing her mother’s Rani Haar, an antique gold wedding jewelry set from the Punjab state of India. The bride also wanted to wear something blue and opted for powder blue Givenchy heels.
