The Bride and Groom Blended Their Indian Heritage With Local Traditions at This Oaxacan Wedding

Reported by Vogue.

A lockdown picnic at Echo Park Lake. A swan boat proposal four years later — complete with an accidental drift into the water lilies and, allegedly, a fish leaping from the lake at the exact right moment. Ajay Mehta and Poppy Thekdi's love story was already cinematic before they ever started planning a wedding. So when it came time to choose a venue, they didn't default to a ballroom or a vineyard. They went back to Oaxaca City, where they'd spent their first Valentine's Day together, and built a four-day celebration around everything they love: ancient ruins, mezcal, Mexican artisans, and the layered culture of their Indian heritage.

According to Vogue, the couple — both from Indian-origin families and self-described products of first- and second-generation American experience — wanted every event to feel like a genuine cultural exchange rather than a costume. They partnered with Mexico City-based wedding planner Lupita Tirado, collaborated with nonprofit Cosa Buena to source local Oaxacan textiles, pottery, and mezcal, and had their paper goods designer fly to Mexico early to source décor from local artisans. Their welcome dinner at Enrique Olvera's Criollo turned into a full sangeet — henna artists, piñatas, and a DJ spinning Indian classics until kids and grandparents alike were on the dance floor. Over 100 guests loaded into sprinter vans the next morning to tour Monte Albán. Nobody was just attending a wedding. They were on a trip.

The Clothes Did the Talking

Fashion was where the cultural blending got genuinely interesting. Poppy worked with stylist Keerit Kaur and moved fluidly between Indian craftsmanship and contemporary Western design throughout the weekend. She carried a Tigra Tigra bag — a brand that works with Indian weavers — to the opening party, wore a pearl blue skirt set with dupatta from Kynah (her "something blue") to the sangeet, and then scrapped her original plan for a traditional red sari when she saw the Vivienne Westwood Nova Cocotte gown in their L.A. store. She knew immediately. The corsetry, the matte fabric, the organic drape — it fit the Jardín Etnobotánico's stone-and-garden grandeur perfectly. She finished the look with pearl earrings from Ajay and her grandmother's engraved gold bangle, jasmine flowers woven into an updo. For the reception, she changed into an embellished crimson sari from Matsya, draped by her mother in classic Gujarati style. Then, for the final stretch of dancing: a custom mini by Portuguese brand Béhen, constructed from vintage Varanasi silk and finished with abhla mirror embroidery — a technique from her parents' home state of Gujarat — paired with mirrored stockings from Yoshita 1967.

Ajay matched the intentionality. His ceremony tuxedo looked conventional at a glance, but was built by Korean-American tailor High Society using imported Indian dupioni silk — the shimmer only revealed itself up close, which felt like the point. For earlier events, he wore Indian-embroidered separates from Kartik Research and a hand-painted vest from Anita Dongre with Bode trousers.

When fashion actually means something — when a grandmother's bangle, a regional embroidery technique, and a Vivienne Westwood corset can exist in the same ceremony without any of it feeling contradictory — that's not styling. That's identity.

Read the original at Vogue.