Celebration of Love

Catherine and Rohit are getting married in India this November, but earlier this summer we celebrated their commitment in Durham at Duke Gardens. Fondly referred to as “Wedding Part 1”, this summer garden ceremony was their state-side celebration of love, shared with their closest family and friends.

Duke Gardens was the perfect location for these two. One of their very first dates was a stroll through the gardens, and it has always been a special place for them.

Vows, Rainbows, & Bollywood!

Catherine & Rohit wanted to mingle with their guests, who came from all over the country (and the world!) to celebrate with them. So Cocktail Hour was held inside Kirby Hall before the ceremony. It was a VERY hot August day, but a rainstorm cooled things off while everyone was indoors during cocktail hour. The ceremony was held on the patio with a beautiful view of the gardens, and after the ceremony the skies cleared to reveal a DOUBLE RAINBOW over the gardens!!

Their ceremony included a tree unity ceremony, watering a potted Japanese Maple together to represent the joining of their lives. They also chose to write their own vows, which were beautifully sincere with just the right amount of laughs.

The reception decor was a combination of lab glassware (Catherine & Rohit are both scientists, and they both finished up their PhDs at Duke University this year) and board games. The Hubster and I actually met Catherine & Rohit at a local board game night, and have enjoyed learning many new games together. In fact, the use of board games as centerpieces was one of the first wedding decisions that Catherine and Rohit made; they wanted to use games in place of table numbers because, in their words, “we can’t rank our friends!”.

After dinner guests were taught some basic Bollywood choreography and performed a Bollywood “music video” to London Thumakda, with help and instruction from DJ Rang and Aditi Sundaresan. And this non-traditional wedding wouldn’t have been complete without vetoing the cake and bringing in pie and ice cream instead!