Navika Kuchakulla and Ashwath Muruganand first met at Qahwah House, a Yemeni coffee shop in Brooklyn, after he spilt tea on her. Muruganand describes himself as reliably clumsy, and Kuchakulla found it endearing. What could have remained an awkward accident became a conversation neither of them wanted to end.
That first exchange gave them an early sense of how much their worlds overlapped, even when the details differed. Kuchakulla had grown up between Hyderabad and the United States, Muruganand between Chennai and the United States, and both had learnt to make a life in New York while carrying family histories from elsewhere. When Muruganand proposed later in the Hamptons, the setting was far simpler: the beach at Gurney’s, the ocean and the question that had been building since Brooklyn.
When they began planning their wedding in Mexico, the question was how to bring all of those worlds into the same weekend without turning the celebration into a checklist. Planned by Preeti Exclusive, with local planning by Bespoke Weddings Mexico, the celebrations took place at Live Aqua San Miguel de Allende. The city mattered to the couple because it already carried many histories in one place: terracotta streets, cantera stone, indigenous craft traditions, church spires, galleries and an art community that has long drawn people from elsewhere. Their wedding in Mexico placed South Indian rituals inside that landscape, with Tamil and Telugu ceremonies, a poolside haldi, a sangeet overlooking the Parroquia and a reception framed by emerald tablescapes and floor-to-ceiling drapery.
The first events kept that idea loose and joyful. The haldi began in the sun, with turmeric, marigold petals and the couple’s closest family and friends gathered around them. It ended with Kuchakulla and Muruganand in the pool, fully dressed, turmeric still on their faces and no one particularly worried about rescuing the clothes. Kuchakulla wore a customised, hand-embroidered sharara set by Mahima Mahajan with jewellery by The Vintage Snob and Mortantra, while Muruganand wore a pink kurta by Mokshaa, a luxury brand from his hometown.
By the sangeet, the weekend had moved from family ritual into public celebration. Kuchakulla chose Payal Keyal’s ombré lehenga, drawn to its embroidery, colour and movement. The event was held in the open air, overlooking the city, with the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel illuminated in the distance. Guests followed an all-white dress code, while the couple and their immediate families wore shades of blue, allowing the family unit to stand out against the crowd rather than placing the couple alone in the spotlight. Muruganand wore a blue sherwani by Mokshaa. Against the white-clad guests, the lit-up city and the Parroquia beyond them, the blue gave the evening its strongest colour cue.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: vogue.in
