Wedding Diaries

These high school sweethearts had two mini baraats at their Indo-Guyanese wedding

Felica Zikria and Sachin Mahashabde brought fifteen years of shared history into a wedding weekend

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Nura Weddings

Felica Zikria and Sachin Mahashabde didn’t imagine their wedding as a single crescendo. After 15 years together, what felt right was creating time: for people to arrive, settle, celebrate across different moods and traditions without being rushed through them. The result was a three-day wedding in New Jersey shaped by Guyanese and Marathi customs, long friendships and a shared fondness for hosting with generosity.

Renault Winery became the centre of the weekend largely because it could hold everything in one place. The ceremony, lunch and evening reception could all happen without asking guests to relocate. Around that, they added two bookends: a sangeet in South Brunswick and a welcome party in Atlantic City.

Today, the couple live in New York City. Mahashabde works as an SRE engineer at a fast-growing fintech and Zikria as a marketing manager at Parfums Christian Dior. They met in sixth grade during a school play inspired by Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, then grew up through late-night AOL Instant Messenger chats and OoVoo video calls before becoming high school sweethearts.

In 2022, after they both received promotions, they decided to celebrate with a night out in the city. Mahashabde brought her to a private rooftop with the Empire State Building in view, where dozens of roses, a hidden photographer and an important question waited. Zikria said yes, immediately. Then came the second reveal: both families were waiting at a nearby restaurant, turning the night into an intimate engagement celebration with the people who matter most.

Planning took place over nearly two years with Xquisit Events, with a guest list of roughly 300 and multiple ceremonies to account for. If the weekend was built to feel immersive, the sangeet set the tempo high. They had their own mini baraats that made their way to each other, meeting in the middle as one joyful celebration. The ceremony itself was a blend of tradition and intimacy. One of the most meaningful moments, the couple shares, was the antarpat, a Maharashtrian tradition in which a decorative cloth separates the couple until the sacred mantras begin. When the antarpat lifted and their eyes met at the mandap, they described it as time stopping, the anticipation of the day collapsing into a fleeting but meaningful beat.

For the ceremony, Zikria wore a custom burnt orange bridal lehenga by Nazranaa, richly adorned with intricate gold and silver embellishments and beading throughout. Mahashabde complemented her in a white, delicately embellished sherwani from Kora. For the evening reception, Zikria changed into a custom white lace gown by Martina Liana, featuring layered beadwork and florals. A detachable high-volume overskirt brought drama for entrances and photographs, then gave her the freedom to move once the night properly began. Mahashabde wore a custom navy tuxedo with personal details that made it feel his: his initials and their wedding date were embroidered into the cuff along with custom R2-D2 cufflinks, a nod to his lifelong love of Star Wars.

Later in the night, flags representing Guyana and India appeared on the dance floor, referencing Carnival culture and shared pride. The floor filled quickly and stayed that way. Some of their favourite moments sat away from the guests. Zikria and Mahashabde read their vows privately on a rooftop at the venue, choosing to keep that exchange between themselves. After lunch, before the evening began, they took a short ride back to the hotel on the property in the same rickshaw used earlier, waving to friends and family as they passed.