The night that Jasmine Kaleka and Todd von Ammon met, they were both on ill-fated dates. The mismatched pairs collided in New York City’s East Village, and they ended the night serendipitously as a quartet. Jasmine—who is currently completing her postdoctoral fellowship in clinical psychology at Yale University—and Todd—the director of Von Ammon Co., a contemporary art gallery in Washington, D.C.—found themselves drawn to each other and were eventually engrossed in conversation. Not long after, they fell in love.
When it came time for the proposal, Todd arranged for a chef and a soloist on cello to accompany him when he surprised Jasmine with dinner at home. After they had a meal made up of all of Jasmine’s favorite dishes, a car whisked them away to Pier 26, where they boarded a sailboat and Todd popped the question as they passed by the Statue of Liberty.
Their wedding was originally planned for mid-May at the Wheatleigh Hotel in Lenox, Massachusetts, but because of the pandemic, they postponed. They still managed to get legally married on May 10, 2020, exchanging vows and rings barefoot in the living room of their home in Washington, D.C.
Nearly a year later, Jasmine and Todd were finally able to commemorate their nuptials with family and a few close friends, all of whom were vaccinated. Todd’s family home in Napa Valley, which was designed by New York–based architect Robert A.M. Stern, served as the ideal setting for the wedding weekend as the couple’s two families shared their respective traditions—Punjabi Indian and German—over the course of two nights.
The wedding itself was planned by Todd’s mom, Sara Lemke-von Ammon, and kicked off on Friday evening with a night full of Indian traditions and food. Both Jasmine’s and Todd’s siblings contributed their own flourishes, from decor to booking live entertainment to organizing a hookah bar by the outdoor fireplace.
For the Indian wedding festivities, Jasmine and Todd wanted to incorporate the ceremonies and customs that resonated with them most over the years. This included the Milni ceremony and Shagun. “Milni is derived from a Sanskrit expression, which, when translated into English, means ‘coming together,’” explains Jasmine. “While this Punjabi tradition has evolved over the centuries, it has always represented the unification of two families.”
During the Milni ceremony, which was conducted by Todd and Jasmine’s friend Molly Tarlov, garlands of flowers were exchanged between the families of the bride and groom, symbolizing a joining together and the formation of a new singular family. “After not seeing family or friends for more than a year [due to the pandemic], this ceremony of coming together felt particularly meaningful and emotional,” says Jasmine. “Finally being able to commemorate our marriage with our family and friends bestowing their Shagun, or blessings, allowed us to feel the support of those we love most.”
It was important to Jasmine that her clothing choices reflected her Indian heritage throughout the wedding weekend. “Sabyasachi Couture was an intuitive decision for my Indian wedding lehenga, as the designs capture elements of Indian design that are most beautiful to me, such as the elegance of Indian miniatures and the ornateness of Rajasthani architecture,” the bride explains. “I chose to wear red because, after a year of such profound uncertainty, I felt drawn to the familiarity of tradition and the empowerment that can be derived from wearing such a bold color.”
For beauty, Jasmine went for a smoky eye on Friday night. Her hair was in loose curls adorned with a maang tikka on her forehead—a piece of jewelry that symbolizes the seat of the mystic “third eye” according to ancient Indian philosophy and mythology. She layered this piece with other Indian fine jewelry that her family had been both collecting and safeguarding for decades in anticipation of her wedding.
