A New York Public Library Wedding Weekend Rooted in Tradition and the Energy of Manhattan

[section title=”The Planning”]

Key Highlights

[field title=”Wedding Colors”]

Welcome party: cream, moss and burgundy Sangeet: red, orange, peach, with pops of teal and green Wedding: cream, peach, persimmon, moss green, gold

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[field title=”Design / Vibe / Vision”]

New York City is where Ayesha and Ben are happiest and where they call home. The energy of the city feels inherently celebratory, vibrant, and deeply welcoming to the couple. It felt natural to anchor such an important part of their lives in a city that brings them such joy. Practically, it was also conducive to their global guest list (with a portion of their 220 guests traveling in from about a dozen countries). The weekend was filled with a range of celebrations: a Mendhi, welcome party, Baraat, Jai Maala, Saat Pheras ceremony, and Sangeet all transpired before the big day itself. Ayesha initially experienced the New York Public Library as a 5-year-old visiting from Mumbai. She was one of those girls who dreamed about her wedding when she was little, and remembers standing in front of the iconic venue in complete awe of its scale and history. Ayesha and Ben both wanted to get married in a place that felt timeless. Somewhere, they could return year after year. They took pride in choosing a venue that has welcomed multicultural celebrations and where many milestones have been hosted.

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[field title=”Proposal Story”]

Ayesha and Ben got engaged on April 4, 2024, at Wildflower Farms—a secluded Auberge resort in upstate New York. He had been planning the surprise for months, telling Ayesha only that they were going away for the weekend and refusing to share a single detail. What she didn’t know was that he had coordinated with the property’s owners to propose under a tree-lined canopy by the river with champagne waiting. The day before, a torrential rainstorm rolled in and washed out the original plan, forcing him to pivot at the last minute. With their help, he transformed a fireside cottage on the property to serve as the new setting and led his bride-to-be there under the guise of a simple romantic morning stroll. Inside, with the rain tapping against the windows and a fire crackling, Ben got down on one knee. “There is nothing like seeing your best friend in life kneel in that formal, intentional way and ask the biggest question you’ll ever hear,” Ayesha recalls. “I was so overwhelmed that I completely forgot to look at the ring—until I did, and nearly fainted.” The five-carat pear-shaped diamond with French-cut emeralds set into a platinum band is an ode to the women in Ayesha’s maternal line, all of whom wear pear-shaped rings. Over time, the pear has become a symbol in her family, even woven into the wedding day’s crest, so it was a deeply personal choice. The rest of the weekend was slow and joyful: feeding animals at the farm, indulgent farm-to-table meals, and, of course, lots of Champagne! That weekend, Ayesha and Ben gathered their immediate families for a celebratory dinner at the Bowery Hotel—a location that they (and many others) gathered at once more for the couple’s welcome party and Sangeet.

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[board_carousel title=”Getting Ready”]

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[board_carousel title=”Bridal Portraits”]

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[board_carousel title=”Flat Lays”]

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[board_carousel title=”First Look”]

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[section title=”The Fashion”]

[field title=”Wedding Gown”]

For the Welcome Party, it was all about setting the tone for the weekend with a visual conversation that married history and reinvention. Something old and something new. Sandra Mansour’s atelier allowed Ayesha to reimagine one of her “Quiet Fields” silhouettes in a custom ivory-gold palette, a subtle twist on the traditional bridal white. To ground the modernity of the dress, she paired it with Dior slingbacks from 2010. A Mendhi kickstarted the wedding weekend, with Ayesha donning saffron-hued Dolly J and her grandmother’s vintage jewels. A change into custom Sandra

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