Featured Wedding: Anjali Mangat and Josh McFarland
Two hearts, two cultures, two festive celebrations.
Coleen Armstrong
Her name comes from The Far Pavilions, a novel by M.M. Kaye in which a beautiful Hindu princess is caught in an 1870s web of intrigue within an arranged marriage. While her name is derived for the story, Anjali Mangat McFarland has a far happier story to tell.
She met her husband Josh in 2000 while both were attending Ohio State University. “It was pretty much love at first sight,” Anjali admits. Following graduation and Josh’s job internship which involved some travel, they weathered a long-distance romance for the next three years––until Josh proposed at Christmastime in 2006.
Planning a wedding that would blend two large families and two disparate cultures presented a fresh challenge. The solution was obvious––two separate celebrations, one Indian, the other all-American. A Mehndi (pre-wedding) ceremony took place on Thursday, May 22, 2008, at the Marriott Hotel in Deerfield Township, a sit-down dinner with traditional food, lively music and dancing, and vibrantly colored saris and other ethnic costumes.
On Saturday, May 24, the wedding and reception were held at the Indian Hill home of Anjali’s uncle and aunt, Dr. Devinder and Felicia Mangat. The couple had shopped around briefly for an ideal site, but soon decided they could hardly do better than the vast acreage which had once been a dairy farm, and now held a spacious, renovated French country home with a glass conservatory. “We decided it would be the most wonderful place to be married,” Anjali says.
But the location wasn’t the only unique element. The wedding was officiated by the pastor who had married Josh’s mother Cheri and stepfather John and was also a close friend. And the music was captivating, recalls wedding planner Alison Wenstrup of Aviva Events. Mohenjo Daro, an Indian/Middle Eastern band consisting of a tabla, flute and guitar player performed during the cocktail hour. A string quartet from UC’s College-Conservatory of Music played during the ceremony. And at the energetic and brilliantly hued reception, Soul Pocket Band kept everyone dancing all night long.
Also, with some 200 guests mingling outdoors, Josh and Anjali had the foresight to provide an added comfort: a VIP restroom trailer, courtesy of Rumpke, which turned out to be one of the evening’s greatest hits. It held doored stalls, tile flooring, a china sink, oak cabinets, gentle lighting, air-conditioning, even paneled walls.
Josh was a very hands-on groom from the start, says Wenstrup, happily involved in all planning stages, attending meetings with enthusiasm, and especially eager to embrace his bride’s heritage. But geography complicated matters somewhat. Decades earlier, Anjali’s grandparents had emigrated from India to Kenya, where both of her parents, Gurdev and Pari, were born. Both attended college in London, which is where they welcomed Anjali into the world. Her dad had five siblings, all of whom wound up scattered throughout the world. So people kept arriving from not only Kenya, but also England, Sweden, Holland and several of the United States.
Josh found that remembering everyone’s name was impossible. Finally he recalled what Anjali had told him––addressing adult relatives as “auntie” and “uncle” was an Indian gesture of love and respect. So that’s what he did. Another perfect solution. You might even call it a novel ending.
Click here for a gallery of images for the Mangat-McFarland wedding.
Creating the event
The following vendors were involved in staging the wedding:
Wedding Planner: Alison Wenstrup, Aviva Events
Photographer: Paul Dirk Ludwig Photographiques
Bridal gown: Monique Lhuillier from Bridal and Formal
Flowers: Courtenay Lambert Florals, Mridula Subramania and Zizi Kodedad
Wedding Cake: The BonBonerie
Invitations: Matthew Kelsey
Favors: Donations to ASPCA