Pritika + Ryan by Sincerely, Sini - Together Journal

We knew we wanted to use natural scenery as much as possible.

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…

Pritika was born in New York and raised in India, while Ryan is from New Jersey. Pritika is instinctive, spontaneous, and highly opinionated. She works in Digital marketing across beauty and apparel clients. She loves spicy food, travelling and dancing. Ryan is the opposite of Pritika, who he is routine, disciplined and very pragmatic in his approach to things and life. He loves working out and was the NY state champion in power lifting
last year. He also enjoys travelling and trying new cuisines.

How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?

This is a funny story! We first met in 2015, when we both recently graduated college and moved to NYC. We thought we were cool and made it. We were very diﬀerent, also cocky personalities then. We met through a mutual friend at the most mainstream bar rooftop. Ryan was shy and introverted, and Pritika took that for him being stand oﬀ-ish and hence ignored him for the rest of the night. She even told her friend that he should not try to bring these two friend groups together going forward. Three years passed with no contact between Pritika and Ryan. Then, in 2018, Pritika was heading back to Bombay to her parent’s home for a gap year to study for her entrance exams for grad school when she decided to get back to the dating apps for the last few weeks in NYC. After a few swipes on Bumble, Ryan’s profile came up. Pritika thought she had seen him somewhere but could not connect the dots until she swiped right on him, and Ryan messaged her with a hint that they had met before. That’s when they decided to meet for a drink at a bar 2 blocks from each of their apartments since Pritika did not have high hopes from the date and wanted a low level of eﬀort. But little did she know, that night when they chatted at the bar, she knew that he was the one!

When did you first realise that this was someone you’d like to spend the rest of your life with?

The night we met at the bar in 2018 after coming across each other on the dating app was when Pritika knew that Ryan was the one! The conversation was so easy, and Ryan was so committed to his family, and that was a big driving force for Pritika to fall for him even more. He was chivalrous, handsome and had an old school charm to him that most men today lack. Unfortunately, though, after hanging out on a few dates, Pritika left for Bombay/Mumbai, India and Ryan was oﬀ to South Africa for a trip with his friend, so they decided to keep in touch and see where things go. 11 months into Pritika was in India when, there were so many unknowns in that phase of her life, from having quit her full-time job in NY to moving back with her parents in Mumbai, to applying to grad schools in Europe, the one thing that she had a very strong feeling that was meant to be was her and Ryan and so she came back to NY for 6 months in 2019 to pursue the relationship before she left for Germany for grad school. That’s when Ryan and Pritika started dating.

Tell us about the vision you had for the mood and style of your wedding. (theme, key styling elements, florals, colour palettes etc.).

We knew we wanted to use natural scenery as much as possible. For the welcome party, we had a colour theme for sunset hues for everyone’s attire. For the ceremony, we wanted everyone to wear white, cream and gold while Pritika and Ryan wore pink and then for the reception, we wanted people to dress up in a glitz and glam theme. The venue was beautiful and had some much variety to choose from, from outdoors to under a pavilion with wooden barrels and a cute barn that we wanted those elements to lead the décor. Pritika has always loved pink and also wearing pink the day she got proposed to, so she wanted to carry that forward in her wedding ceremony outfit especially since it was a day wedding during a warm aug weekend.

What styling and visual elements worked best for you? (could be things, the florals, particular hire products or your marquee etc., something the stylist created or simply just the scenic beauty of your location or the existing design of your venue).

We knew Owls Hoot Barn was the venue for us when we saw the trees on the lawns have a natural canopy shape with a wooden platform stage. That’s where we knew we would take our vows and have our ceremony. It worked out perfectly as the backdrop to those trees were beautiful bushes with natural yellow and purple wildflowers. The styling of the French wooden chairs set up in an orchestra fashion to face the ceremony place was amazing, and all our guests felt so included in our commitment to one another during the ceremony. The focus on minor details, such as a printed flow of the Hindu ceremony and its symbolism, along with a packet of flower petals and a wooden fan and mini umbrella on each chair, gave a very personalized touch to the ceremony.

What did you enjoy most about the planning process and do you have any tips for couples starting their wedding planning journey?

We enjoyed the food tasting, run of the show, and the attention to detail with personalized elements such as the printed ceremony handouts with their symbolism written out, flower petals, a photo booth for everyone to capture fun moments throughout the day with their multiple outfit changes, especially since it was a first time for a lot of the guests to be wearing Indian clothing for the Hindu ceremony was all very exciting and fun. A tip for couples starting their wedding planning journey would be to decide on a budget and know that, most likely, you are going to go over and then prioritize what is most important to you ie food, drinks, music and things that may be good to have but are not detrimental to the decision process and can do without. Making things more personalized for your guests can make weddings look more curated and “more expensive” while being more cost-eﬀective in reality.

Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, is there a story?

Yes, my ceremony outfit was a pink Seema Gujral lehenga. Growing up, like most girls, I loved pink. I never visualized myself as a bride growing up, but once Ryan came into my life, it’s funny how Pink came back in a big way with all the great memories. Not to sound too cheesy, but growing up, my favourite movie was a Hindi movie called Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (every South Asian will be able to relate since it has a cult following), and in that movie, the iconic character Pooh, aka Pooja, wore a chainmail pink top and I was obsessed! Many, many years later, in 2022, Ryan proposed to me as a surprise on our trip to London. I happened to be wearing a PINK chainmail top, and everyone said I looked like Pooh, so I knew that I needed to carry forward the pink into my ceremony outfit. It’s girly, clean and chic and something I can wear when I attend other people’s weddings as it is timeless.

What was one, or two elements that were most important to you both that you were happy to spend a little more on? (food, photography, florals, the venue, your outfits?).

We definitely aligned on spending more on photography, video and food. We knew that we would have these moments captured forever, and good food always makes everyone happy, so we prioritized that.

Did anything happen on your wedding day that you laugh about in hindsight (even if it was stressful at the time)?

Traditionally, in Indian families, Indian parents take care of all the planning and organizing of the wedding, but since Ryan and I were in charge of everything and wanted to make sure our parents enjoyed themselves, we were so busy entertaining people through multiple days leading to the big day to the point where the night before the welcome party, Pritika was whipping up a meal for 20 people in the main cottage on the property as friends and family were rolling in for the wedding celebrations that weekend. Everyone laughed and said that he was the most unlike bride and groom they had ever seen, who cooked and cleaned for their guests the night before the celebrations. We are just glad everyone enjoyed and got time to bond with both sides of the family. That genuinely is what we wanted and hoped for.