Despite how convincing the proposal film may have been - we did not meet as the result of a magical adventure spanning the country. Well... that may be slightly true! It all started when two wonderful women very close to us, had a conversation about an amazing young woman and a charming young man who would just be perfect for each other. Hearing about each other's interests - acting, mountain-biking, and skiing for Karup, baking, hiking, and snowboarding for Susheela, we were both very intrigued. So we both, figuratively, swiped right (said yes) and exchanged numbers. On April 14, 2021, a nervous Karup texted an eager Susheela. We hit it off immediately and it only got better and better with each passing day. It almost seemed too good to be true! With Karup in New York and Susheela in Virginia, the long-distance posed a bit of a challenge. So two months later, they decided to first meet in-person, in Philadelphia, PA and have a mini day-trip, mountain-biking. Karup secretly thought he could show-off and impress Susheela with his extreme biking skills, but little did he know Susheela backs down from no challenge and would have no problem keeping up the entire 26 miles through the woods (because she was totally trying to show off too)! Coming out of this adventure together, we took our relationship to the next level and became “official”. You know, like in junior high. And the rest is history.

About a year and a half into the relationship, we decided that Susheela would move to San Francisco to be closer to Karup (yes, he actually made the decision to move across the country in the middle of all this). With her big move being two weeks away, Susheela's eagerness was growing, in the hopes that Karup would finally be ready to get engaged after she took this major leap for him. But little did she know, he had already devised a grand plan. What Susheela thought would just be a day with the girls before she moved away, turned into a day neither of us will ever forget… the proposal! In one of the most elaborate and well-planned surprises, Karup acted in, wrote, directed, and produced a short film based on both of our passions - Harry Potter and Law & Order. With the help of his best friend, Karup built a vanishing cabinet (from Harry Potter) from scratch in NYC. He transported it all the way to Virginia and with the help of all of their friends, he was able to set it up inside the theater, jump out from it, and surprise Susheela to pop the question. And yes, Susheela was completely surprised! She didn’t even realize until after saying YES that the theater was filled with friends and family from all over the country! We feel truly blessed to have all of you, our loving and supportive friends and family, in our lives. And we can’t wait to celebrate with you all this December!

We know that traveling to India can be difficult, so we're excited to have a wedding reception in New York to celebrate locally with friends and family! But we will also have a livestream of the wedding in India if you're interested! The main part of the wedding ceremony (muhurtham) is scheduled to take place between 9:56am IST and 10:30am IST on Monday August 21, that's 12:26am EST to 1:00am EST on Monday August 21. The streaming will start at 8:30am IST (11pm EST Sunday night) while other parts of the ceremony are going on. Here is the link! https://www.youtube.com/live/s8PAQRP7nGs?si=ttXboBl1Mr2Rrbk7 Update: Here is a link to the recording of the livestream! https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=MH7_hqLvnoQ&feature=youtu.be