A jaw-dropping Indian wedding brought glorious mayhem to the streets of New York City with traffic stopped by lavish celebrations.
The city that never sleeps saw part of its financial district brought to a standstill as hundreds of guests flocked to an extravagant wedding parade, known as a baraat. People could be seen dressed to the nines in sequined and colourful clobber.
The glittering guests caught the eye of social media users after TikTok creator DJ AJ posted a clip with the caption “We shut down Wall Street for a 400-person Baraat”.
Happy couple Varun Navani and his bride Amanda Soll were the lucky duo behind the plush ceremony that saw people in their finery watching them arrive at the historic Cipriani Wall Street building on May 24.
Mr Navani is the CEO of Rolai, an AI company, while Ms Soll is a director in legal compliance and risk management at credit giant Mastercard. Their identities were confirmed by their wedding page on The Knot, the New York Post reported.
In all, the pair had a four-day wedding party that began with a sangeet – a tradition from the Punjab region of India that involves a celebration before the wedding – at posh venue The Glasshouse. This was followed by the baraat and then a Jewish ceremony on May 25.
Finally, the romantic weekend ended with an after-party at Slate nightclub, with boogying carrying on until 4am the next day.
The Boston couple are reported to have shelled out at least a whopping £18,500 on their nuptials with some estimates rising to £49,000. They had to file around 28 permits for their day as NYC rules mean applications to shut down part of the city can cost big sums.
‘Large’ events cost the equivalent of around £18,000 and occur when “a commercial/promotional event or a charitable event that has an extensive impact on the surrounding community and vehicular and/or pedestrian traffic”. This “includes the full street closure of one block” and requires “significant set-up”.
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Baraats are colourful processions that are common at Indian weddings and were created as a display of joy for the groom, according to wedding planner Devika Narain who spoke to the magazine Brides.
She said: “The baraat (a term used to refer to the groom’s family and friends) would go and stay in the bride’s hometown for over two weeks, during which time the various rituals would take place, culminating in bringing back the bride to the groom’s house.”
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