First dating sites, then Destiny’s assistant

Khushboo Chaudhary was stopping by a friend’s party in the East Village in March 2019 when she spotted Param Gupta, the man she had been chatting with on Hinge.

They first met at Coffee Meets Bagel in January 2019 and soon after at Hinge. After they met a second time, he reached out to her and they started chatting—if you can call it that, because it would take “a business day” for each of them to reply. In addition, they never had a chance to meet in person because at the time he was traveling a lot as a consultant for Deloitte.

They needed some good conversation at the party, so they planned brunch at Citizens of Gramercy for the following week.

“He loves brunch,” Mr. Gupta said. “He was very close to his house, so he said, ‘If I don’t like the guy, I can go back to my apartment very quickly.’

They soon realized they had a lot in common, including the fact that they both graduated from Delhi University in 2014 with a Bachelor of Commerce degree, although they attended different colleges under the umbrella institution.

They also found out that they are both traveling to South Africa in December 2013 via university. Ms. Chaudhary canceled at the last minute to attend her sister’s wedding. But Mr. Gupta went on the road and met his close friends there.

“Fate made us meet in New York” six years later, Ms. Chaudhary said.

They watched Bollywood movies together and spent time with their groups of friends, which “became a big group together over the last three years,” he said.

“It was only because of our shared upbringing that we really connected,” in addition to the two immigrating from Delhi to New York in 2016, Mr. Gupta said: Ms. Chaudhary earned a master’s degree in public relations and corporate communications from New York. University, and Mr. Gupta for his role at Deloitte.

Ms. Chaudhary, 29, is an Account Manager at Actual Agency. Mr. Gupta, also 29, graduated from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business with a degree in management. He is currently a vice president at JP Morgan.

They have taken more than 25 trips together since the outbreak began, including to Yellowstone National Park, Hawaii, Portugal and Paris.

On March 19, 2022, he proposed to her on her birthday in front of the Eiffel Tower. The trip to Paris was a surprise—he thought they were going to India to visit family and meet each other’s parents for the first time, but secretly, after securing his parents’ blessing, he planned stops in Paris and Amsterdam first.

On February 23, the couple married Shri Mahadev Shastri of the NDRI Shiv Temple in Karnal, India. The wedding was at Ms. Chaudhary’s childhood home in Karnal, two hours north of Delhi.

They had originally planned to marry in Dubai in January, but after booking the venue and sending out invitations to 300 guests, they decided to call off the wedding.

“I just didn’t feel right,” Ms. Chaudhary said. “When we thought about what we really wanted, we realized that we wanted an intimate relationship with our closest family and friends.” They decided to get married in India and Shri Mahadev Shastri recommended the date – which was just three weeks away.

The couple had a relatively small ceremony at an Indian wedding with 50 guests. There were also no various events that traditionally surround an Indian wedding, such as mehendi (henna evening) or sangeet (musical party). They decided to hold only the wedding ceremony, followed by two receptions – one in Karnal for Ms. Chaudary’s relatives and one in Delhi for Mr. Gupta’s relatives.

“We didn’t want a big affair for three or four days,” which is also typical of Indian weddings and what is planned in Dubai.

“The most brilliant thing was to do it in a backyard with the people we count on the most,” Mr Gupta said.