Real Wedding: Bridget & Raj
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For Bridget Austin and Raj Denhoy, love has always seemed like an easy fit. She moved to New York City 20 years ago, and Raj came there from California 15 years later. A good friend introduced them, and as Bridget showed Raj around the city, they became fast friends. Over the course of several months, they grew closer and closer, and after a long stretch apart when both were out of town for work, Raj realized that he had fallen in love with his tour guide and friend. Luckily, the feeling was mutual.
After a few years together, during which their relationship went through good and bad times, Bridget and Raj knew they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. They celebrated a low-key, sweet and simple beachside marriage ceremony, but after becoming the happy parents of twins, they decided to do it again, pulling out all the stops with a celebration of their marriage and family.
For Bridget, there was no question about where the wedding would be. Although she’d lived in New York for two decades, the Green Mountain State is where she spent her childhood and was still the place she considered home. She was delighted to find Riverside Farm, in Pittsfield, just 20 minutes from her hometown of Rutland. With a lovely mountain overlooking its picturesque restored barns, the farm looked like the perfect place to celebrate their wedding and show off the beauty of Bridget’s beloved home to their friends.
The wedding rituals honored both the groom’s Sikh traditions and the bride’s Catholic ones. In a ritual cleansing and good-luck ceremony the night before the wedding, both the bride and groom were anointed with turmeric lotion, musicians performed traditional Sikh music, and at the end of the ceremony, guests showered the couple with pink, orange, and white flower petals.
On the wedding day, family members—some who’d traveled from as far away as London, Germany, and India—exchanged flower garlands in greeting and enjoyed chai tea and Indian sweets. Bridget and her bridesmaids had fun applying stick-on henna tattoos. “We didn’t have time for the real thing, which can take hours, but they looked real and were great fun,” Bridget says.
During the Catholic ceremony later that day, Bridget entered the church to the music of “Eternal Father,” the traditional Naval hymn, in honor of her late father, who had been a commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve. Her brother, who is studying in Rome to become a priest, wrote and read the Prayers of the Faithful for the ceremony.
The reception that followed had an Indian theme, with décor that blazed with hot shades of fuchsia, coral, cerise, tangerine, and magenta. Doorways were decked with swags of bright fabric, and tables were dressed with jewel-toned Indian tablecloths with intricate gold borders. Lanterns and hundreds of votives—even in the barn rafters—provided just the right illumination.
The food for the whole weekend, by Occasions Catering, was “amazing,” says Bridget—from the Friday-night barbecue, to the Mediterranean-themed Saturday luncheon, to the spicy and savory reception dinner, to the Sunday brunch complete with home-baked pastries and Peet’s coffee brought in from San Francisco (the groom’s favorite). Dear friends of the bride and groom made the delicious maple, chocolate truffle, and lemon cupcakes served at the reception.
The weekend was full of personally meaningful moments. At the conclusion of the Sikh ceremony, a huge clap of thunder echoed across the farm, and guests held their breath watching the gathering dark clouds. But miraculously, the clouds passed around the farm property and not a drop of rain fell the entire weekend. Bridget imagined that the spirit of her father was behind their good fortune with the weather, letting her know that he was checking in on things and signaling his approval. For Bridget and Raj, the weekend of celebration was the perfect way to share the joy of their happily-ever-after with the people they love most.
Photography by Jen Curtis