Real Columbus Wedding: Shivani Patel and Dheeraj Muddasani

Distance couldn’t thwart this couple’s love.

Abernathy Miller

Shivani Patel and Dheeraj Muddasani married on Sept. 5, 2021, at the Westin Great Southern Columbus.

Sept. 5, 2021 | Shivani Patel has been on dating apps before, so when she extended the distance setting on an Indian-specific dating app, she wasn’t expecting to meet her future husband. That all changed when she matched with Dheeraj Muddasani, a doctor in Louisville, Kentucky.

“I thought he’d never reach out—but then he did and asked to talk on the phone. That really impressed me,” says Shivani. “I immediately thought, ‘This guy is awesome.’”

“We had an instant connection,” adds Dheeraj. “We’d have eight-hour conversations, and it felt like no time had passed.”

Seven months after their first date at Pins Mechanical Co. and several trips between their cities, Dheeraj planned a proposal in Columbus. But the pandemic thwarted his best-laid plans.

“I hired a photographer, called her family, I had this huge production planned—and it all just fell apart,” he says, laughing. “It took a pandemic with no end in sight for me to propose at my apartment [in Louisville].”

Shivani was ecstatic, though very surprised. “We had both been working from home for weeks. He had to make up a reason for me to change out of my sweatpants,” she says.

The couple wanted their wedding to incorporate elements of traditional Indian weddings, with modern twists. They hired Columbus event planner Aisle & Co. to bring their big day to life.

“Indian weddings are a lot to take on. It was Natasha [Churches, owner of Aisle & Co.] who really stepped up and made it special,” says Shivani.

In addition to wanting a Hindu priest to perform the ceremony, it was important that Indian cuisine be served at the reception—a task they were grateful to have Aisle & Co. help with.

“Right before the wedding, our caterer fell through,” says Dheeraj. “We couldn’t believe Natasha found a replacement almost immediately.”

The couple wed at the Westin Great Southern Columbus as 200 guests looked on and enjoyed treats from Mardi Gras Homemade Ice Cream, which specializes in traditional Indian flavors.

“My mother said it reminded her of the flavors she had in her village in India,” says Shivani.

But the couple’s favorite part of the wedding was how easy their vendors made it for their families.

“Weddings can be very stressful—I didn’t want my mom to go through that,” says Shivani. “We could not have had such an amazing wedding weekend without each and every one of [our vendors].”