Two Families Become United by Love

Quynh-Huong Van’s red-orange saree was chosen by her mother-in-law, and Vikram Nagarajan’s maternal aunts in India sent it to her as a gift. Photos: Collette Rochell Photography

Celebration, community and culture serve as this couple’s guiding lights.

Quynh-Huong Van and Vikram Nagarajan are self-professed introverts, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at their wedding photo gallery. “We surprised people by having such a big wedding,” Van says. “But in fact, if you actually know our values and how much we value being Vietnamese and Indian and our community, I think it actually makes a lot of sense.”

Vikram Nagarajan’s vintage-style áo tắc paid homage to his father-in-law’s hometown, Hue, Vietnam. Quynh-Huong Van’s blue khăn đống featured in both of her Friday outfits. “I think for a lot of us growing up, sometimes we forgo the khăn đống because we want to fit in a little bit more,” Van says. “I think, in some ways, me wearing it was actually a point of just a little bit of resistance, rebellion, of saying, ‘This beauty standard is also beautiful.’”

Over the course of July 5 and 6, Van, originally from Woodbury, and Nagarajan, from Plymouth, hosted 300 guests for a once-in-a-generation event that reunited family and friends from around the world. It was a large undertaking but one Van says she was ultimately thankful for. “I was more moved than I thought at the reception, realizing that everybody that I loved was in one place,” she says. “But also because we’re diasporic, a lot of our families haven’t been together in one place for 25, 30 years. It was more powerful than I thought.”

Quynh-Huong Van’s parents welcomed around 100 guests into their home for the tea ceremony, which was followed by a lively sangeet, a prewedding celebration with singing and dancing.

The celebrations kicked off with a Vietnamese tea ceremony—Lễ Vu Quy—at Van’s parents’ house in Woodbury. This more intimate affair was layered with meaning. Van’s colorful áo nhật bình is a garment style that dates back to the royal court of the Nguyễn dynasty. “My dad is from Hue, Vietnam, where the palace was,” Van says. “So in some ways, it was actually a throwback to my dad’s hometown.”

The Vu Quy—short for Lễ Vu Quy—sign welcomed guests to Quynh-Huong Van’s parents’ house for the tea ceremony.

After the tea ceremony, the couple was joined by an extended group of family and friends in the front yard for a lively sangeet that broadened the traditional dance aspect to include talents of all stripes, including martial arts and singing. Nagarajan surprised Van by singing Quỳnh Hương, which he had learned in secret with help from her mom. “It’s a popular Vietnamese song,” Nagarajan says. “And he did it all in Vietnamese, so that was very awesome,” Van says.

Vikram Nagarajan says the lion dancers were one of his favorite performances at the sangeet.

The evening concluded in the Van’s backyard with the couple and their closest friends practicing their group dance for the following day. “They really showed up,” Nagarajan says. “It took a lot of planning and a lot of choreography and a lot of practice.” Practice that had, before that night, been entirely virtual.

The following day, the couple hosted their Hindu wedding ceremony and reception at Minneapolis Event Centers. “It was actually kind of nice having a long, elaborate ceremony,” Van says. “As introverts, you don’t have to write your own intimate vows and say them out loud in front of people. You get to fold yourself into the rituals, and I found that really nice.”

Quynh-Huong Van and Vikram Nagarajan welcomed 300 guests to their Hindu wedding ceremony at Minneapolis Event Centers on July 6, 2025. Van’s wedding ring incorporates blue zircon, “… the oldest mineral on Earth and is naturally found in Vietnam and India,” Van says. Vikram Nagarajan’s wedding band is in matching rose gold.

One of the couple’s favorite parts was stealing away for a moment at the reception for couples’ photos and reflection. “I think we wanted a smaller wedding and then expanded it for our families,” Van says. “I realized that it was the right call, and I was really happy to offer the once-in-a-generation event for the family.”

At the reception, the seafoam green shade of Vikram Nagarajan’s kurta and Quynh-Huong Van’s palazzo pant set and draped dupatta was coordinated to match Van’s jade necklace, which originally belonged to her grandmother. “When my mom was a refugee, and she came from Vietnam and escaped, the only thing that she brought with her was her mother’s necklace,” Van says. “I just knew that I really wanted my reception outfit to [include] that necklace.”

Bridging the Gap

Quynh-Huong Van and Vikram Nagarajan enlisted the help of event planner Reena Maheshwari of Kahani Events & Design to help them plan their wedding ceremonies. “There were a lot of moving parts in terms of, ‘How do we honor both cultures on a very equitable level?’” Nagarajan says. “We really wanted someone who understood the very multicultural nature of the event.”

Maheshwari started Kahani Events & Design in 2019, but her experience with weddings dates back to her childhood. “My mom was the first henna artist in Minneapolis,” Maheshwari says. “Growing up, I had started doing henna with her for a lot of the Indian and South Asian weddings in Minnesota.”

Event planner Reena Maheshwari incorporated lotus and Queen of the Night flowers—which are Quynh-Huong Van’s namesake (quỳnh hương in Vietnamese)—into the design of her mehendi. The pattern was so intricate that the couple lost track of where Vikram Nagarajan’s name was woven into the design.

Her proximity to the wedding industry revealed a gap in the market for wedding planners who were versed in cultural nuances and had cultivated relationships with specialty vendors. For Van, having a planner with the necessary connections was extremely helpful. For the Hindu wedding ceremony, “I needed an Indian makeup artist and hair [stylist] and saree draper,” Van says. From the décor to the music, Maheshwari handled it all. “It was a one-stop shop,” Van says.

Maheshwari has plenty of personal experience with Indian weddings, but she applies the same level of care to both sides of the aisle. One of her first questions for couples is what is important for them from cultural and personal perspectives. “Having them describe what traditions that they might have grown up with or what traditions their families are expecting or just what their family expectations are overall all, all those different questions play into our conversation and getting to know what elements of their backgrounds they want to highlight,” Maheshwari says.

Vendors

• Catering: India Palace, indiapalacemn.com; Peking Garden, pekinggardenmn.com
• Desserts: Elite Catering, elitecateringandevents.com
• Event Planning, Mehndi and Rentals: Kahani Events & Design, kahanievents.com
• Florals: V.Florals, vflorals.com
• Hair and Makeup: makeupwithcna, makeupwithcna.com
• Jewelry: Brilliant Earth, brilliantearth.com
• Music: A-Quil, a-quil.com
• Photography: Colette Rochelle Photography, colette-rochelle.com
• Printing: Minted, minted.com
• Venue: Minneapolis Event Centers, eventsbyentourage.com
• Wedding Wear: Love Me Knots Bridal, Instagram: @lovemeknots_bridal; Esha Koul, eshakoul.in; Sari Palace, thesaripalace.com