I don’t even know where to begin with today’s wedding. The mix of cultures. The colors. The double red lehengas. The pisco sours. Where does the awesome gorgeousness begin and end?!
Tricia and Stephanie had a fusion same sex wedding. One bride born was in America, but is of Dominican Republic and Peruvian descent. The other bride was born in Guyana, but lived in America most of her life. Their wedding reflected the many facets of their mixed heritage backgrounds.
You are absolutely going to need some chai to swoon over this lesbian fusion Hindu wedding. And grab a tissue box too.
Tell us about the wedding!
We had a Hindu ceremony and a traditional American reception. For the Hindu ceremony we had a Maticore ceremony on Friday night and our colors were fuchsia, yellow and blue with hints of gold. We catered the food and included both West Indian, Dominican and Peruvian food. For our favors we gave our guests bags filled with parsad, mithai and a henna cookie made by a fantastic henna baker in NYC. Two henna artists gave our guests whatever henna design they wanted as well.
We also had a dhol player get our guests into the party mood (for many it was the first time they saw a dhol!) We transformed our house for this ceremony and it was fantastic!
The next day we started the day getting glam ready for our Hindu ceremony. Both brides wore variations of red lenghas, while our bridal party wore royal blue and gold, with the moms in coral lenghas.
Our ceremony was held at the venue location at Floral Terrace in Floral Park, New York. Our wedding planner worked with vendors to bring this vision to life building everything on site. Our pandit worked with us to make the ceremony applicable to two brides and it was absolutely memorable. We really can’t say enough about how hard he worked to make this a beautiful experience.
The ceremony started with a Tassa band playing when the families met each other outside the ceremony room. Both brides were brought in separately with their own palanquins. Our decorator transformed the room into bright red and gold. We also had a Kirtan, troupe of musicians, singing and playing bhajans throughout the ceremony.
Right after our ceremony, we rushed to change our outfits into two variations of white wedding dresses. We made sure to have our make-up artist and hair stylist stay with us to change our morning looks to evening looks. Our bridal party also changed into sequined rose gold gowns for the women, royal blue tuxes for the men and the moms wore gold gowns.
The reception was incredible! We wanted it to be fun and exciting so we had a Tassa band and Bhangra dancers to entertain us and our resident drag queen to host parts of the reception and keep things lively. We had a 5 foot wedding cake topped with a custom topper of the two brides in their white reception dresses.
Our videographers played our same day edit and a video, which included childhood photos and photos throughout our relationship. Our photographer set up a photo booth and everyone took full advantage of it all.
The wedding favors included a small cake with our initials to take home, flip flops for anyone to change into who needed to take off their heels, to-go boxes for those who made it to the end of the night, cigars from Dominican Republic, small elephants with their table numbers and photo frames to take home their photo booth picture.
Our reception went until 1am and the dance floor was still packed! In order to accommodate our guests, we also included a mix of our cultures. Peruvian drinks (pisco) and some Peruvian food at the cocktail hour. We had 2 DJs, one that played Spanish music and the other that played West Indian music and they would switch back and forth.
There was a father-daughter dance and speeches from our siblings. Our bouquet toss included men and women with both brides tossing the bouquet, so two chances to grab one! After we met our guests, as is becoming a new tradition among West Indian brides, one of the brides changed into a third look to party more comfortably. In the end, it was a pretty memorable and FUN night!
Were any special wedding customs/clothing you had?
The Hindu ceremony was traditional and included all of the Hindu rites. The reception was also traditional and included most of what you would find at a traditional Western reception.
We had most of our Hindu outfits/jewelry/accessories for both ourselves and bridal party custom made. Our souvenir cake was custom made and our henna cookies. We had a custom cake topper (it was an image of both brides in their white wedding dress). The photo booth had our logo and our DJ projected our name on the dance floor.
What was the inspiration for your wedding?
We wanted to infuse traditional aspects of both our cultures into the entire experience. For that reason, we wore traditional outfits for the Hindu ceremony and traditional white wedding dresses for the reception. However, we also wanted to make sure we featured our individuality and you can certainly see both Stephanie and Tricia in various aspects of the wedding.
What was the hardest part about wedding planning?
Compromise!
Did you do any DIY (do it yourself) or special projects/things at the wedding?
We tried to customize most aspects of the wedding down to stickers on our to-go bags. We also decorated our tent for the maticore ourselves.
What was your favorite part of the wedding?
Stephanie’s favorite part was the music and dancing because we had two DJs, one playing West Indian music and the other playing Spanish music! Tricia’s favorite part was the drag queen (she was A-mazing!)
What advice do you have for future brides/grooms-to-be?
Enjoy your wedding day because the time flies by. Don’t let little problems upset you! We had a blast! Also, make sure you compromise, but do the things you really want to do for your wedding, because it’s YOUR wedding!
Anything else you would like to add?
Our families came together to celebrate a non-traditional wedding in a traditional way. What we mean by this is that there were 2 different cultures, 2 different languages represented, and families of 2 different religious backgrounds.
Aside from these differences, they had a unique commonality in celebrating 2 women getting married, which for many was their first LGBTQ wedding. We wanted to make sure that despite the firsts, for many, and the multiple differences, that our guests recognized parts of the wedding and felt there was something familiar about it. We’re really not that different, and the guests could enjoy the wedding and celebrate our union. We think we achieved that!
Thank you so much for sharing your wedding!
{Wedding Vendors}
Planning & Design: Platinum Celebrations Inc. // Photography: MaxPhoto NY // Drag Performer: Detoxx // Bhangra Dancers: Sonu // Bridal Fashions: Lotus Bazaar // Cinematography: Max Productions // DJ & Entertainment: DJ Echo – Team Magnum // Floral & Décor: City Line Florist // Floral & Décor: Jasmine’s Flower Shop // Floral & Decor (Reception Stage & Mandap): Elegant Floral Designs // Hair & Makeup (Hair Stylist): Josephine // Hair & Makeup (Bridal Makeup): Shaleira Smith // Hair & Makeup (Bridal Party Makeup): Leticia Khan // Sound: Xtreme Soundz Entertainment // Lighting: Xtreme Soundz Entertainment // Live Music: Tassa – BoodooSingh Tassa Group // Mehndi Artist: Henna by Yukti Grover // Pictures Outdoors: Old Westbury Gardens // Priest: Pandit Dipak Rambharose // Rentals (Tent & Staging): United Party Rentals Inc. // Venue: Floral Terrace