On the day of our wedding, we arrived separately at the venue - to a stunningly decorated wedding hall, complete with a large scroll outside with our names. The events of the wedding were streamed, we have clips from the stream here, and will have a full video later. The bride’s parents first welcomed Oliver with a formal entry procession (known as seemanpuja). Unlike western weddings, here the bride was brought by a maternal uncle instead of her father.

Haldi means turmeric, and the haldi ceremony involves family and friends applying turmeric to the bride and groom, to ward off evil spirits and diseases with its antiseptic properties. This ritual is believed to bring good luck, purify the couple, and create a joyful, auspicious start to their marital journey. Our haldi ceremony was the day prior to our wedding. More of TJ’s family arrived on the day of the haldi, and we completed other rituals with family.

Our wedding kicked off with our Mehndi celebration, two days prior to the wedding. A Mehndi celebration is a pre-wedding event where the bride and female guests have intricate henna designs applied to their hands and feet, symbolizing joy, beauty, and good luck. We also had delicious food and music for the gathering. TJ’s mehndi was beautifully intricate and needed six hours of patience and dedication from the mehndi team to complete.

It’s hard to believe we’re just a week away from the big day! We’re in Mumbai now, soaking in the excitement, running around for preparations and making sure everything comes together. It’s all feeling very real, we can’t wait to celebrate with everyone soon!

Very early on Sunday morning, Oliver arrived in Mumbai to a warm welcome from Tejashree and family.

TJ got an introduction to the Garraux friends and family, while celebrating the Christmas holiday in Indiana. A bunch of friends and family came over to visit, talk and eat at Oliver’s parents house. Oliver’s Mom Linda was excited to prepare for the Indian wedding with some Indian outfits with TJ.

TJ caught up with her friends who treated her with a nice brunch as a second bachelorette. This time she got crowned with a veil and got caught up on everybody’s tale.

Praniti, Harshiva, and Bhavesha threw TJ a wonderful bachelorette to celebrate a beautiful milestone in TJ’s life. Cheers to this new chapter with love, laughter, and joy.

We celebrated our engagement with our families in San Diego, in September 2024. We rented a house on the beautiful coastline near La Jolla, where we officially exchanged rings. Now we have moved on to wedding planning madness.