Traditional Indian Blowout

• By Rebecca Milzoff

Mayuri Amuluru & Kash Chandra

Guastavino’s, April 10, 2010

Mayuri Amuluru and Kash Chandra’s wedding was a massive, elaborately executed affair, but not the kind of nuptials they first set out to have. “Originally we wanted a destination wedding; we thought if we had to have this big, crazy Indian wedding, maybe we should just do it elsewhere,” says Mayuri, 30. But they ultimately ended up celebrating in New York alongside 300 family members and friends. (“This, by the way, was small for my mom, who wanted 700,” Mayuri adds.) Their wedding blended the families’ traditions—Kash, 32, is North Indian and Thai, while Mayuri is South Indian—with more Western leanings, like a first dance to Peter Gabriel’s cover of the Magnetic Fields’ “The Book of Love.” According to Bengali custom, family friends hooted to dispel negative energy when Mayuri entered the wedding at Guastavino’s. “There were many weird moments like that,” Mayuri laughs. “I fought my mom because I didn’t want the whole long Indian wedding, but I look back on it fondly now—it was nice.”