Love Without Borders

By Rebecca Voigt•Published On: October 15, 2024•

A vibrant celebration joins two families’ unique cultural traditions together

By Angela Flynn | Photography by Kelsey Naab

Kristen and Naag Piduru were united in marriage on a warm summer day at Zingerman’s Cornman Farms in Dexter on June 24, 2023. In doing so, they also united each of their families from two vastly different cultures that were separated by nearly 8,000 miles.

Kristen was born and raised in Ann Arbor — where she also returned to live after college at Michigan State University — while Naag was born in Hyderabad, India. Naag attended graduate school at Michigan Technological University in the Upper Peninsula but eventually ended up in Ann Arbor, where the couple met in 2017 while playing in a recreational basketball league.

“I didn’t have anything to do on Tuesdays after work, and he also was looking for something fun to do because he was looking to meet people, and we happened to get put on the same team,” Kristen says. “The league had finished, and he asked me out and we met for coffee.”

Naag popped the big question on the fifth anniversary of that first coffee date. “It was just a sweet, ‘at home’ proposal,” Kristen says. “He told me that he loved me and wanted to take the next step with me.”

Once they began planning for the wedding, they quickly realized that they had several big decisions to make, especially with families from two different countries. Kristen’s family lives stateside while most of Naag’s family is in India.

“We decided that we wanted to have one wedding, versus doing something in America and doing something in India,” Kristen says. “We wanted to do something here and have it be representative of both of our backgrounds.”

Ensuring meaningful representation from each culture was critical, so to encompass the most important traditions, they turned to one another’s families. “From my culture, we chose what mattered the most to me and my family,” Kristen says. “In terms of pulling from his culture, some of the same thing, but also what mattered to his parents the most. It was more his family determining what was important and what’s commonly done.”

Ultimately, to fit in the most significant elements of each culture, Kristen and Naag decided on two ceremonies and a reception for Saturday, as well as a welcome dinner the Friday before the wedding that included more Indian traditions.

For the Friday celebrations, they spoke with the Hindu priest and gave him a timeframe, and he provided recommendations on the most important traditions to include that evening — some of which involved getting a bit messy.

“On Friday, we had a lot of rice throwing, and there’s turmeric and lots of colors and powders, so we quickly got a little dirty,” Kristen says. “After that ceremony we needed to change. We wanted something festive, and that’s when I changed from the sari to the red langa.”

For the Saturday celebration, the couple had two ceremonies in the afternoon followed by a reception that contained a full buffet with classic Indian and American fare. “It was really fun to see our families try food from the other side,” Kristen says. “It felt very accepting of both cultures.”

At the end of the day, Kristen and Naag had not only joined together in matrimony, but also joined their families’ unique cultural traditions. “My advice [for other couples] would be to not rush the process and really take the time to get to know what’s important to the other family,” Kristen says. “I feel like we took the time to learn the most important elements of each culture and how we could blend those together.”