Madhura and Corbett come from two different backgrounds and choose to hold two beautiful ceremonies to celebrate their joining at the wonderful green lawns of Monteverde at Oldstone in New York! The insanely beautiful first look photos of the bride and groom surrounded by the picturesque environment were in charge of the brilliant team of Zorz Studios, who also captured the cute pair exchanging wedding gifts before their big moment! The lovely Madhura looked as the perfect bride with her traditional Banarasi saree and was embellished by the extremely talented StyleBySmita who decorated the bride’s forehead with a dreamy chandan design. The first traditional ceremony took place overlooking the Hudson River while the Sitar music of Roger Lipson filled the air with a romantic vibe during the intricate rituals. To pay homage to his new culture, the handsome groom Corbett became a real Indian prince wearing a deep red Kurta and a cream color Dhoti that made him look superbly elegant. See how gorgeous these two look on their wedding day in our full gallery!
How did you meet your Groom and when did you know he was "the one"?
I first met my groom at summer camp (fondly known as "nerd camp") in Saratoga Springs, NY at the tender age of 13. Who knew that three weeks would change our lives forever?! It was on the grassy quads of Skidmore College that Corby first educated me on the intricacies of a forehand frisbee throw.
Six years passed, and I ran into Corby on the streets of London while studying abroad in our junior year of college. We visited museums together, held our pinkies up while sipping high tea at a swanky spot in Hyde Park, and a night at Picadilly Institute sent the romantic sparks flying when Corby spent over an hour helping me find my lost leather jacket.
A few weeks later, we both returned to New York separately and ran into each other randomly again at a Barbecue Festival in Madison Square Park. We continued our fling long distance from DC to New York for 2 years, and then finally decided to move across the country together to Santa Barbara, CA to work at a start up together. We've loved our California adventures of hiking, camping, and sailing the Pacific seas. Since then, we have sailed to the Channel Islands, climbed Half Dome in Yosemite, and hiked the tallest mountain in the contiguous US, Mount Whitney!
Fifteen years after we first met, and seven years after we started dating, we came back to our beloved East Coast to tie the knot!
Share the scoop on your Proposal Story!
Corby's original proposal idea on the top of dramatic Half Dome in Yosemite had a bit of a hiccup when I pieced the plan together from an unfortunate texting mishap. Instead, Corby surprised me in the middle of a private horseback ride through an estate in the scenic Santa Ynez wine country. Never one to be deterred from a good proposal though, Corby followed through with a second one the next month on Half Dome as originally planned.
Tell us how you went about planning your wedding, and your overall experience with the Venues, Hair & Makeup, Outfits, Decor Theme, and all of the other important details.
I planned the whole multi cultural and interfaith wedding event myself, with the help of my groom. Planning essentially two weddings across the country was no easy task- I had elaborate excel spreadsheets to keep me organized along with documents organizing all of the costs for all vendors, etc. I started with a budget calculator, and figured out what I could afford for each category of my wedding and also got aligned about what we would be willing to stretch our budgets for with my husband; live music was my priority, and my husband wanted a venue on the water as he is a sailor and we love living by the ocean. We then used a combination of online resources (Maharani Weddings, The Knot), to e-mail vendors and keep tabs of who would fit our needs and our pricing. The decor theme was sailing and nautical as my husband and I both love to sail (we had anchor bottle openers and anchor table numbers and driftwood to add the nautical touch), with an Indian twist (Red and gold as colors for the ceremony and royal blue and ivory for the reception to go with nautical theme).
How did you select your bridal lengha or wedding dress? Did you have a favorite color in mind?
Selected the bridal lehenga in Calcutta with the help of my parents and my aunt; we had limited time, and I chose to go traditional for the ceremony with crimson and gold, and change for the reception into a royal blue and gold which seemed regal. I also chose a white wedding dress for the Christian Ceremony in a boutique shop in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.
What was the most enjoyable part of the planning process, and why?
The most enjoyable part of wedding planning was practicing our first dance together, which was a blast! It was to Zoobi Doobi from the Hindi Movie 3 Idiots. All of the aunties loved that Corby fully embraced Indian culture and bollywood dance- all of our friends even joined in at the end with yellow umbrellas to add a dramatic touch to it!
This was the first dance (professional video is not out yet): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ST16BxnSNI
This was our excitable wedding entrance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arFmHHDXkHY
What did your guests particularly love about your Wedding?
Our first dance! It was entertaining, well choreographed and so much fun! Got the dance floor HYPED UP!
They also loved seeing both the Hindu and Christian cultures side by side in ceremonies that were back to back. There were a lot of similarities between the ceremonies and we had translations for the Hindu ceremony so everyone could understand what was going on. The juxtaposition of both religions and cultures was striking.
Was there a really special moment in your wedding that constantly replays in your mind?
Our first dance! We practiced for months and it all came together, full Bollywood style. My brothers carried me in on a palki to meet my husband and as I covered my eyes with the Betal leaves (bengali style), it was fun to play coy with him. He is much taller than me and I had to jump to place the garland on him the first time!
When we get back: The Christian ceremony and joyful reception details in our next post, don’t miss it!
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